This problem didn't occur under redhat 7.0 on the same computer.  I
performed a clean 7.1 install (formatted dives). sndconfig correctly
identifies the sound card, but the sounds have alot of pops and static.
Everytime I load gnome there is a loud pop over the speakers. Real player
has the most trouble in realy player I have three options : 1) use native
sound driver, 2) use ESD, or 3) use OSS. If I choose either 1 or 3 I hear a
bunch of noise like the sound is being played at the wrong frequency.
option 2 works some times, often at a low volume and sometimes I can only
hear the bass but no highs. I'm not sure what information you will need so
I will try to include as much as may be relevent. This isn't a mission
critical problem, just anoying.

So far I have tried:
Enableing/disabeling soundblaster emulation in the system bios
adding "options sb support=1" to the modules.conf file
Telling gnome not to start up sound server

Here is my modules.conf:
alias eth0 tulip 
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc 
alias usb-controller usb-uhci 
alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx_audio
post-install sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null
2>&1 || :
pre-remove sound-slot-0 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null
2>&1 || :

Here is my old redhat 7.0 modules.conf:
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx
options sb support=1
alias eth0 tulip

esd.conf [unchanged from rh7.0]
auto_spawn=1
spawn_options=-terminate -nobeeps -as 2
spawn_wait_ms=100

lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133] (rev
03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133 AGP]
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South]
(rev 40)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. UHCI USB (rev 16)
00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. UHCI USB (rev 16)
00:07.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI]
(rev 40)
00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC97 Audio
Controller (rev 50)
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX (rev 20)
00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage II+ 215GTB
[Mach64 GTB] (rev 9a)

lsmod:
Module                  Size  Used by
ide-cd                 26848   0  (autoclean)
cdrom                  27232   0  (autoclean) [ide-cd]
via82cxxx_audio        17552   1  (autoclean)
ac97_codec              8800   0  (autoclean) [via82cxxx_audio]
soundcore               4464   2  (autoclean) [via82cxxx_audio]
autofs                 11264   1  (autoclean)
tulip                  38544   1  (autoclean)
usb-uhci               20720   0  (unused)
usbcore                49664   1  [usb-uhci]