Sorry for not replying sooner - I guess I assumed that this thread would stay unanswered forever

I am not sure what to look for in dmesg:
it gives me 3 ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:728: hda_codec_cleanup_stream: NID=0x14
a few wireless errors and 20 more pages of output..
didn't see any floods or anything, though.
the only somewhat repeated message is:
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Surround Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Center Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave LFE Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Side Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Speaker Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Mono Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Line-Out Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave PCM Playback Volume, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Surround Playback Switch, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Center Playback Switch, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave LFE Playback Switch, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Side Playback Switch, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Mono Playback Switch, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave Line-Out Playback Switch, skipped
ALSA sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c:1658: Cannot find slave PCM Playback Switch, skipped
So is there anything in particular that I should look for?