Alsa PCM fails to start

[BillLeeLee]

Okay, so I decided to install XMMS again on my machine, and while listening to music, I got this message spit out on the terminal.

ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:549:(snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_START failed: Broken pipe

** WARNING **: alsa_free(): snd_pcm_start() failed: Broken pipe

For a quick fix, I tried to reinstall alsalibs and alsautils to see if that'd help clear the problem.

Well, nope, it didn't. Anyone know what these messages really mean? XMMS still plays my music and my CDs, and I didn't compile it with OSS, ESD, or Arts support, so I'm pretty sure it's still using Alsa, but I have no clue how to get rid of these messages.

Relevant info:
Gentoo Linux
2.6.7 kernel - alsa is built into kernel along with emu10k1 for my Audigy 2
Creative Labs Audigy 2

Explanations, help appreciated as always. Thanks.

edit: and now I'm wondering, how am I getting sound if this fails to start...