Comment 20 for bug 933209

I also tried to hunt down the errant process (using the idea from http://askubuntu.com/questions/25622/my-sound-stopped-working-today-how-can-i-fix-it):

user@user-laptop:~/Desktop$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: 1075
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: 1075m
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop$ ps aux | grep 1075
106 1075 0.8 0.1 330812 5220 ? Sl 11:18 0:04 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog

so I didn't find any other process name there, and below is a snippet of what I think would be relevant from /var/log/syslog:

Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: ip-config -> activated (reason 'none') [70 100 0]
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> Policy set 'user (eth1)' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> Activation (wlan0) successful, device activated.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 5 of 5 (IPv4 Commit) complete.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop dbus[625]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' (using servicehelper)
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop dbus[625]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop avahi-daemon[652]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv6 with address fe80::c617:feff:fea4:a3dc.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop avahi-daemon[652]: New relevant interface wlan0.IPv6 for mDNS.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop avahi-daemon[652]: Registering new address record for fe80::c617:feff:fea4:a3dc on wlan0.*.
Apr 12 11:18:55 user-laptop ntpdate[1263]: adjust time server 91.189.94.4 offset -0.105939 sec
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop dbus[625]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit': timed out
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Warning: PolicyKit call failed: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop accounts-daemon[1153]: started daemon version 0.6.15
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop pulseaudio[1075]: [pulseaudio] server-lookup.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop pulseaudio[1075]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11