You probably need the daily snapshots (with the alsa-driver-kmp-pae) to restore the functionality, … or simply revert back to the default alsa without the alsa-driver-kmp-pae
The solution(with daily snapshots) does not help me - I still don’t have any mic, even with arecord. In Skype echo, I still get the ugly noise. This is what I have done:
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio:/snapshot/openSUSE_11.1/ multimedia
zypper install alsa alsa-utils alsa-tools alsa-firmware alsa-oss alsa-plugins alsa-plugins-pulse libasound2
zypper rr multimedia
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/audio:/KMP/openSUSE_11.1_Update/ multimedia
zypper install alsa-driver-kmp-pae
zypper rr multimedia
After the reboot, this is my configuration:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=a57ba072a672ce6b0ea98f67d3e33d3d7bcabfda
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
options snd-hda-intel model=dell
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
rpm -qa | grep alsa
java-1_6_0-sun-alsa-1.6.0.u15-0.1.1
alsa-devel-1.0.21.git20090915-1.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.21.git20090901-2.3
alsa-tools-1.0.21.git20090901-1.3
alsa-docs-1.0.21-43.1
alsa-oss-1.0.17.git20080715-2.10
alsa-plugins-1.0.21.git20090901-2.3
alsa-1.0.21.git20090915-1.1
alsa-driver-kmp-pae-1.0.21.20090923_2.6.27.29_0.1-1.1
alsa-utils-1.0.21.git20090906-1.3
alsa-firmware-1.0.20.git20090507-3.1
rpm -qa | grep pulse
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.14-2.2.1
libxine1-pulse-1.1.15-23.3.3
pulseaudio-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-jack-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.14-2.2.1
vlc-aout-pulse-1.0.2-1.1
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.14-2.2.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.21.git20090901-2.3
libpulse0-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.14-2.2.1
libpulse-browse0-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-lang-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.14-2.2.1
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.14-2.2.1
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.14-2.2.1
rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.21.git20090915-1.1
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1820/testix.jpg
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8803/test1fy.jpg
Any Ideas? :sarcastic:
IMHO the logical thing to try is to roll back to the last configuration that worked.
I note this configuration worked for you previous: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=6410a396db9d382acb649a8f4bb11da602e45272
Try setting that up.
If that does not work, roll back to the alsa version that comes with your openSUSE-11.1. ie remove alsa-driver-kmp-pae and restore the other alsa applications to the version that is on your installation CD/DVD.
Also, please be certain you do not have ANY extra backup files (created by you) in the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory, as ALL files in that directory are automatically loaded.
I have just removed the alsa-driver-kmp-pae and “dell” option in /etc/modprobe.d/sound… and the mic now works with arecord. The Skype still has the same problem…
I am leaving everything at this point. Thanks for your support.
What you may wish to do is write a bug report on this, to ensure that future openSUSE versions do not have this problem. There is guidance for writing bug reports on openSUSE here: Submitting Bug Reports - openSUSE
Note in the bug report that the mic does not function with the snapshot (nor alsa user space) alsa-driver-kmp-pae version. I recommend the bug report be written against component “sound” in openSUSE-11.1
The bug has been reported 
After a two dozens of e-mails the porblem has been solved.
Here are the steps, if somebody else got stucked:
Platform: Dell Precision Work Station T3400 running a 32-bit openSUSE-11.1 with the latest SuSE-GmbH/Novell packaged 2.6.27.29-0.1-pae with Skype 2.1.0.47 :
The contents of /etc/modprobe.d/sound should be: (If there are options with hda-intel - remove them!)
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
-
sudo zypper remove pulseaudio
sudo zypper ar Index of /repositories/multimedia:/libs/openSUSE_11.1 multimedia
sudo zypper install alsa alsa-docs libasound2
sudo zypper install pulseaudio
sudo zypper rr multimedia
sudo zypper ar Index of /repositories/multimedia:/audio:/KMP/openSUSE_11.1_Update multimedia
sudo zypper install alsa-driver-kmp-pae
sudo zypper rr multimedia
Configure with gnome-sound-properties:
- Sound capture: Pulse Audio Sound Server
- Default mixer tracks Device: HDA intel(Alsa Mixer)
Adjust Microphone levels in kmix and make sure that Capture 1 - microphone. Capture 2 (mute)- set to Line-In
The mic jack is on the front-end of the case! 
Reboot and Enjoy!
Great ! Thankyou for providing your solution. Please also update the bug report you raised.
Interesting. In particular I found the re-installation (update) of the OBS “pulseaudio” (highlighted in bold red above) of interest! This is the first time I’ve seen that as a quoted solution.
Glad again to read this works better.
For last several days, from time to time the noises has appear again, but I remove them by just moving up and down the Digital Input leveler in KMIX (I left it in 0% position). It seems that by some reason - from time to time, it has been adjusted by itself.