Sound died after an upgrade

[Lowell Gilbert]

David LeCount <snailboy1 at yahoo.com> writes:

> I was upgrading something in my ports tree (I can't
> remember what now) when this problem arised. Any time
> I try to play anything with audio, the player will
> just freeze. It's not locked up, because I can stop
> it. In XMMS for instance, I just hit the stop button.
> But while it's playing, the time doesn't change, the
> spectrum analyzer doesn't dance, there's no sound from
> the speakers, etc. I unloaded and reloaded the kernel
> module, but no luck. I have updated my ports tree and
> recompiled everything except for a few programs that
> have nothing to do with sound. I've also done the same
> with my kernel and world. I can't pinpoint the problem
> at all. I'm tired of using my laptop for sound, so if
> anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it. 

I'd guess there's more than one thing going on, so try to
eliminate some variables.  In particular, use a command-line
utility to generate audio.  Also, watch for log messages,
and for changes in the output of /dev/sndstat.