Step 4: Can you read data from the dsp device?
Try reading from the /dev/audio device using the dd command listed earlier in this document. The command should run without errors. If it doesn’t work, then chances are that the problem is an IRQ or DMA conflict or some kind of hardware incompatibility (the device is not supported by Linux or the driver is configured for a wrong device). A remote possibility is broken hardware. Try testing the sound card under DOS, if possible, to eliminate that as a possibility.