CM8738 - no sound

This subject is not new, ive seen it several times over the internet, but none of the threads came to any solution.
The problem with the soundcard CM8738 arises on some systems (most of them redhat).
The system detects the soundcard, it is well configured and ready to use. No errors, no warnings....but the sound just wont work!!
The modules cmpci and soundcore are correctly working, loading them manually with modprobe does not give any error.
The driver is the one provided by CMedia.... on some systems a cat /proc/pci gives this output(i'll post only the part concerning the soundcard):

Bus 1, device 10, function 0:
Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 16).
IRQ 5.
Master Capable. Latency=32. Min Gnt=2.Max Lat=24.
I/O at 0xc800 [0xc8ff].

lspci -v gives a very similar output with of course the same values.

/etc/modules.conf looks like this:

alias sound-slot-0 cmpci
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 || :

Not to mention that it is not a problem of the audio volume or with the mixer....

I hope please please please someone may HELP me, there are lots of people out there who "share" the same problem. And having my box without sound is terrible!! Can you imagine that? no sound! well please any ideas are welcome! And if someone knows what the problem is or has the same problem feel free to post

THX