I found this helpful,
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789578

I'm running Lucid on Asus EEE 900 and have had sound (& sound hardware) vanish a
couple of times accompanied (sic) by bigger icons and problems shutting down.

I have a EEE900 running Lucid without problems. My sound has never been an
issue, nor has any hardware "disappeared". I have run several distros and
all versions of Ubuntu since 8.10 without an issue. You must be doing
something that is causing these issues.