modprobe -r snd-emu10k1* found nothing. I deleted /etc/modprobe.d/sound but trying to reconfigure the soundcard via YaST gave me the same error as mentioned above ... module snd-emu10k1 cannot be loaded.
I think you would enjoy and benefit greatly from 'man modprobe' and 'man depmod' to understand better the dynamic loading and unloading of modules in Linux. The "- r" flag was meant to unload the snd-emu10k1* modules that, in theory, were still loaded and preventing YaST from configuring the card. That was just a guess on my part and it's moot, anyway, since it appears the modules aren't loading at boot now.
I ran: modprobe snd-emu10k1 depmod -A The proper modules seemed to get loaded, but I still get a same error when configuring the sound card.
In any event, it appears your problem is a known hardware/module specific bug. I don't have that hardware so I can't really help you with it. The good news is you are in extremely excellent and competent hands with Anders paying attention (grovel grovel!) :-)
So, I guess there's nothing left for me to do until I hear back from Anders? -- Marshall Lake -- mlake@mlake.net -- http://mlake.net