Can't set simple system sound alerts

[Guest pdes]

All I want to do is set a sound alert when an e-mail arrives! If I go to Settings/Sounds I can see the option in the drop down and I can set the options. When I close the window the main "sounds" window appears and the rotating thingy shows that some processing is taking place BUT I cannot close the main "Sounds" window and when I return to the notifications page, the settings have vanished. What's really weird is that I completely changed my ROM today in order to cure this and a couple of other minor issues but the problem persists. Is there an application clash that could be causing this? If so, any ideas which?

TIA