If you are getting sound from that card using the cat, then I'm not sure you need the isa stuff as the card is working and the kernel is sending sound to it.
Ken pointed to alsa site, where it is said that without an isa-pnp module the cards won't get properly configured. http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-howto/x1298.htm I suspect the problem is, as mentioned previously, artsd is getting in
the way. Your sound apps may be efaulting to alsa output with artsd running and that causes a conflict.
artsd running prevents other applications to use alsa, but kaffeine and noatun are kde stuffs, so they should play without alsa and artsd running. (eg. xine can play audio tracks using artsd) So, please try the above and report back.
A
raffaele
