Linux sound problems on Asus A7U laptop

I've had an Asus A7U for about a year now and could take no more of Vista 'Ultimate'. I waited on the service packs etc but still so sloooowww.
Decided over the last few months to try various flavours of linux, all worked blindingly quick with one underlying theme, no sound whatsoever!
I've tried various fixes but at last found the definitive method. Thanks to Stéphane Gaudreault at http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/08/31/upgrade-alsa-1-0-21-on-ubuntu-jaunty-9-04/ for his Alsa upgrade howto.
I'm currently running Mint 7
Follow these steps to hopefully get sound working on your Asus.
Upgrade Alsa
Open a terminal window and check what version of Alsa you have:
cat /proc/asound/version
Stop Alsa running:
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop
Run the following commands or create a shell script from this:
# install the necessary tools to compile along with the kernel headers
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext xmlto
sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-`uname -r` libncursesw5-dev
# download alsa-driver, alsa-lib and alsa-utils
cd ~
rm -rf ~/alsa*
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.21.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.21a.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.21.tar.bz2
sudo rm -rf /usr/src/alsa
sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa
cd /usr/src/alsa
sudo cp ~/alsa* .
# Unpack the 3 tar files
sudo tar xjf alsa-driver*
sudo tar xjf alsa-lib*
sudo tar xjf alsa-utils*
# We compile and install alsa-driver
cd alsa-driver*
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
# We compile and install alsa-lib
cd ../alsa-lib*
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
# add symbolic links
sudo ln -s libpanelw.so.5 /usr/lib/libpanelw.so
sudo ln -s libformw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so
sudo ln -s libmenuw.so.5 /usr/lib/libmenuw.so
sudo ln -s libncursesw.so.5 /lib/libncursesw.so
# We compile and install alsa-utils
cd ../alsa-utils*
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
# remove the 3 tar files
rm -f ~/alsa-driver*
rm -f ~/alsa-lib*
rm -f ~/alsa-utils*
echo Please reboot your computer


Once rebooted run the following to check you have upgraded OK:
cat /proc/asound/version
Finally run:
sudo alsaconf
Once this is done carry out the following:
Open a terminal window and enter the following command:
gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
Add the following line at the end of the alsa-base file and save the change:
options snd-hda-intel model=auto