Realtek AC97 : snd_driver has to be loaded manually

[Fred]

Hello all,
I've just installed FreeBSD Release 5.3, got most stuff under control
except for a few problem with my soundcard.

I have an ASROCK K7S41GX motherboard and it has a Realtek AC97 onboard
 soundcard. Following the instructions in the excellent Handbook,I use
kldload to load the snd_driver module (other modules wont work)  and
it works like a charm , XMMS, noatun etc can playback audio just fine
EXCEPT that if I exit X and start KDE then I will get a weird noise
out of my speaker, very high pitched and wont stop unless I reboot
(though -sometimes- unloading  then loading snd_driver works) 

The same problem will surface if I use loader.conf to automatically
load the module instead of using kldload. I will get the same bizzare
noise at bootup.

What did I do wrong here ? I really would rather have the module load
automagically instead of logging in as root and load it manually. Any
help would be welcome.

PS
I am a newbie to the BSD world ^_^