Stop Alsa Sound usermod --append --groups pulse,pulse-access atom 
/etc/init.d/alsasound stop
rc-update del alsasound boot

USE="pulseaudio"

Troubleshooting

Turn of the autospawn feature while troubleshotting.

cat .pulse/client.conf
autospawn = no

pluseaudio
pluseaudio -v
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1210405 https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-842731-start-0.html http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/fix-hda-intel-realtek-alc887-no-sound.html#disqus_thread http://superuser.com/questions/626606/how-to-make-alsa-pick-a-preferred-sound-device-automatically http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/linux-and-open-source/pulseaudio-an-achilles-heel-that-needs-repair/#.