I think I may have found my problem but will have to let you know how it goes.
I was reading through some threads on Applications and came across a link to BVK or something. This guy is very knowledgeable and provides a list of services and what he thinks should be running, manual, or disabled. I am not a wizard with these services and I may have inadvertently shut some down that I need running at certain time.
For instance: Bootvis needs task scheduler (and Com+ I think) running to do it's optimization. That would explain why the optimize part I tried yesterday wouldn't finish. D'oh!!
As for installing the sound drivers (and Via 4in1) I had Applications Management and CRyptographic Services set to manual and so the drivers were not instaled. I went home at lunch and try a couple of things and almost got my sound card working again. I say almost because I did the 5.1 test and all but the right-front speaker worked properly. I will have to check my connections and maybe try a different PCI slot.
Anyhow, I'll let you guys know how things go after I work on it tonight.