Posted on 
Feb 01, 2009 06:55 am are you on windows? I'll assume you are
open control panel, then open 'system'. Probably under there, will be a 'hardware' tab. Then click on device manager.
In the device manager list, will be sound devices. Your soundcard should be listed under that. My laptop is sigma-tel, for instance.
Buffer setting is a little more involved. I don't think I have buffer settings, by default, but if you install audio drivers, like asio or wdm, you should be able to adjust buffers in their control panel.
This part is more difficult to explain, because most are different from each other.