That sounds like the proper procedure. Maybe its the sound card?

Take the A2ZS out and enable onboard sound - see how it boots up and runs. Your system health looks okay.

You could also try the A2ZS in another slot or try a complete driver uninstall/reinstall (might want to do this first if anything).

The only thing that I can think of would possibly be an IRQ conflict but I thought IRQ conflicts were only things we read about in history books - never heard of them in everyday situations.