Strangely enough, the machine I don't see this problem was updated to kernel 2.6.24-17 and the one I hit this issue (using snd-hda-intel), doesn't get 2.6.24-17, just stopped at 2.6.24-16.
Strangely enough, the machine I don't see this problem was updated to kernel 2.6.24-17 and the one I hit this issue (using snd-hda-intel), doesn't get 2.6.24-17, just stopped at 2.6.24-16.