Ok, so to much may have been changed at one time.
But, once the system was back up and running wth the new BIOS, I also applied nVidia's 8800GTX driver 97.92

there is now NO MORE cracking/popping in sound while SLI is enabled. also, 3D Mark 05 performance seems to have been hammered out a little bit. Still only getting 20,000 with a C2D OC to 3.2

But i'm happy. System is BACK up, SLI is working without crap sound, I'm free to just USE my machine again.

BTW: BIOS CHIPS are $20 from Asus.
Google helpdesk.asus