Question : I need help getting sound/HDAUDIO drivers to work with new motherboard

I assembled a new system based on Intel 945GCNL mobo with Core2Duo 2.5GHz, 2GB. HDD is SATA, image cloned from another XP system that I own (P4 2.8 / 2GB / Asus mobo). Once assembled I loaded drivers from the Intel CD. All loaded properly except audio. First problem: Dev Mgr showed "?" on HDAUDIO (Audio Device on HD Audio Bus) device; resolved by uninstalling a bluetooth audio driver. Now Dev Mgr looks ok but still no sound. System will not allow me to Uninstall or Disable the HDAUDIO device. I've tried the Update Driver wizard multiple times, automatic and manual mode, always ends with "Cannot Install ....".

I've applied all patches from Windows Update and downloaded the latest drivers from Intel. No joy. What's next?

Answer : I need help getting sound/HDAUDIO drivers to work with new motherboard

I resolved it on my own (finally). Starting with a cloned driver from a different mobo, a number of drivers were in-place. The Intel video driver installed easily and was not disturbed by the presence of ATI Radeon drivers. The Intel sound driver didn't install over the SiS/Analog Devices driver.

Steps:

1. Download the latest drivers from Intel and expand into directories 
2. Add/Remove any drivers/helper apps leftover from prior mobo 
3. Device Manager: disable any devices that are disabled in the system BIOS (serial, parallel, etc) 
4. Uninstall all drivers related to the old mobo chipset (SiS LAN, Audio, RAID, AGP)
    
5. Disable the Audio Device on HD Audio Bus sound device (uninstall failed, the device was listed despite no driver installed)
    
6. Uninstall the Microsoft UAA driver for High Definition Audio system device
    
7. For every audio device listed under Sound, video and game controllers: 
1. Right-click Properties 
2. Properties tab 
3. Remove every driver file 
8. Restart system 
9. Use New Hardware Found wizard, choose drivers from known locations (directories in step 1) 

I hadn't done all of that previously because step (6) warned me that the device might be required to run the system. If I ignored the warning, I would have saved myself roughly 8 hours of failed installs, and searching the web for answers.