Strange issue: Sound applet crash causes gconf to get messed up

[Rogue]

Hi All,

I am not sure how to file a bug for this issue, but I have consistently 
noticed the following... everytime I decide to play around with the 
sound applet by toggling a few things here and there, the applet crashes 
the moment I close it. Now this is still fine since bug-buddy comes up 
and I can submit the bug... But the biggest and most irritating 
side-effect is the "blank screen" / "no gnome-panels" issue ...

Eventually, I figured out that, I just need to delete the 
~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/sound directory ... now, I am wondering as to why 
is it that there is no validation or fail-safe in place, especially 
given how sensitive gconfd seems to be :-\

Anyways, I hope this helps others out....

later,
Rogue