Ubuntu can't find sound card

[Fern Marques]

Hi,
New to this, sorry if I am not doing this right.

Just installed Ubuntu.  Tried in two desktops, all fine.  In three
laptops (two DELL, one HP), Ubuntu claims can't find sound card.

However, lspci|grep audio in the Terminal returns the name of my sound
card all right.  It tells me:

0000:01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200
[MagicMedia 256AV Audio] (rev 20)

I tried many possible variations with "sudo modprobe and-xxxxxxx", where
xxxxxxx is the name of my sound card, but none worked.

Of course I have searched the net all I could, saw a number of
"solutions", none worked.

When I install XP in the same systems it doesn't have any problems
finding the audio card.

When I look at the system Device Manager, the card is listed there, too.

But the "multimedia" applications say "can't connect to sound server, or
something to that effect.

Do you fellows have any idea where I should go to get some info on how
to troubleshoot this?

Please note I am no hacker, just a Windows user trying to convince
myself that Linux is worth the effort.

Thanks!

Fern