Sound problems on Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex

I've been running the Intrepid Ibex Beta for about a month now, and I must say it is surprisingly unstable and troublesome. At least for a beta. Now, when it is slowly approaching the release date of 8.10, it is starting to reach a certain level of stability and usability.

Something that was a bit more annoying than losing wifi - since I have an extra network cable close to the couch - is actually the loss of all sound. Except a crackling sound every now and then when trying to play a file (no matter if it is video or music). I have an Intel card, but I don't know if it only happens on those cards.

I did however find a small fix for it, I just needed to restart alsa, and force it to reload the modules. Why this had to be done, I don't know, but 2 seconds later the sound was back. Crisp and crystal clear.

The key?

alsa force-reload

This fixes the issue for good, also after a reboot.