Part two: same computer I had disabled onboard sound, modem, etc in CMOS to get XP setup to complete (XP Home, sp2 included on CD)
After OS install, turned devices back on in CMOS setup. Next reboot, XP remained silent about seeing any new hardware. Tried Add New Hardware. Tried many things in CMOS and in the OS and using drivers I could find at Cmedia, ecsusa.com, EliteGroups TW site, Drivers Guide etc etc for the 8738.
Absolutely no success despite using every trick from right clicking inf's or cat's to install, to using the Add Hardware "have disk" options, to running the Setup that came with it. The drivers hadn't been updated since sometime in 2003 and I had this definite "maybe incompatible with spN" feeling.
Studying the machine from head to toe, couldn't find any designation beyond BKS630 for the model. I tried BIOS and drivers for the oldest undesignated BKS630 but the BIOS wouldn't take due to being the wrong model. AWD FLASH told me it was a BKS630C
By studying the BIOS id line at startup, I finally noticed an E at the end of the line. After downloading drivers for the BKS630E (7.2) - still no sound.
I then flashed the BIOS with BKS630E (7.2) BIOS and it took! Yes, this was the correct model. Badda bing - XP woke up and said "Found New Hardware" for both sound and modem.
Elite's website threw me one more curve - the modem driver came up page not found for the download for all three countries you can download from: USA, TW and China.
I have frequently had success guessing other directories and finding the file there - webmasters do make mistakes sometimes - or as I did in this case, switch from http:// download to ftp:// and see if I can browse their anonymous FTP site and locate the desired file. Viola!
XP wasn't smart enough on its own to find and install the driver automatically - but when I chose to have it install a driver that I specify, it finally gave up the ghost, after only a few more parental warnings that I was going to hell if I used a driver Microsoft hasn't certified.
Ta-da! The glorious tones of damn-thing-works.
What all us problem-solution geeks live for.