ESS 1868 sound card problem.

Hi. I'm new to this group. I've been on linux-newbie for a couple months trying to set up my first linux box. I also convinced my girlfriend that Linux would eliminate her blue-screen problem and am now setting hers up.

She's a pianist and needs sound capability on her HP 4440 (Red Hat 6.1). I installed an old ESS Audiodrive 1868F in her HP and am trying to get it working. I d-loaded ALSA last night and followed all the directions in the HOWTO but still nothing. I tried sndconfig this morning and went ok until it tried to open /dev/audio, states error trying to open, no other info, kinda vague. I rm'd it and re-created another /dev/audio (not sure if it would work), still nothing.

Is there anyone thart can help me here?

TIA,

John