Thanks for your help. That suggests the kernel or the card itself. If alsa cannot play, then pulseaudio is not the culprit. I am reassigning to the kernel, lets see if the kernel maintainers can think of something else. I suggest attaching the alsa-info.sh output[1], as it is usually helpful.
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo) Script output: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=95682589ed95550bedd44d1bd9aca7e95ae03930 (http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=95682589ed95550bedd44d1bd9aca7e95ae03930)
