newby sound question

[michael malver]

I'm a very confused linux newby, but hope someone can help.

When I look at my modules.conf file in the /etc directory, the only lines
for sound-related things I appear to see are for my ess1888 sound chips.  I
can't play mp3s on my machine, and if I run the program used to configure
sound, I can pick the irq, and interrupt, I can hear the sample sound, but
the program always claims irq5 is busy.
	I noticed upon startup that near the beginning of the boot proc4esss, the
statement
"loading sb sound module" is spoken, and the ess stuff is loaded much later.
I wondered if this is the same SB of sound blaster fame, and if so, does
anyone know why this is loading when I don't see a reference to it accept as
an alias in my modules.conf setup?
Is there a comment charactor I could use in linux to comment out the 1888
lines, and see what happens?
the reason I ask all this is that when I move my cursor arround in speakup,
I hear little blips of ascending pitch from my speakers as I run into new
lines.
also, how do I make alsasound not run automatically? I want to troubleshoot
sound before complicating things.  Once I get things working, how do I
restart alsasound automaticaly each time my pc starts?

Sorry for al the questions, but I really hope someone can help