haha, we're funny aren't we!
No, it wasn't... well, I don't think it was. Anyway, all modules load and no errors outside of the one dmesg above. Alsaconf runs just fine as well. I have noticed that the options I put in the /etc/modules.d/alsa file never get used. Even if I do an update-modules first.
I can modprobe snd-hda-intel model=3stack-dig and it shows up with the alsa-info.sh script. Put it in the options and restart alsasound and nothing. Go figure.
I am about to consider myself blessed that it actually worked for a year, give up, and through in a different sound card. I don't use the fancy 5.1 sound anyway and this is getting old. I love linux and will never use anything else, but I am sure I have a few extra gray hairs because of it.
PhilD