ok, i finally had some time to get back to this and run that command you told me about, oldcpu. when i ran the command before i had sound, i got nothing whatsoever. after deleting and reconfiguring sound, i got the following data returned when i ran the command:

dan@linux-9ibc:~> lsmod | grep snd
snd_pcm_oss 62400 0
snd_mixer_oss 21248 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq 68320 0
snd_seq_device 9772 1 snd_seq
snd_powermac 51008 0
snd_pcm 100644 2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_powermac
snd_timer 28068 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 74516 7 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,s nd_powermac,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc 12456 1 snd_pcm
soundcore 8868 1 snd
dan@linux-9ibc:~>

the question now is, what does that tell me? obviously something isn't loading, is there a way to get it to do that?

also i can't play a dvd and am having 3d problems, but those are for another thread and after the sound is working i guess. one step at a time, eh?

thank you very much for the time and effort you all have spent to help me. i really want to use linux and i believe openSuse to be the best package for me, but i just need some experience.

thanks again,
dan