Well, if the install kernels don't find your hard disk no nics, that is not
a problem of installer userfriendliness or documentation/integrated help -
it is a plain bug (or two, in this case), IMHO.

Since I don't know anything about the hardware you quoted, I can't realy
say what to do to fix them. Getting kernel boot messages would be a good
thing - you could do that via serial console or by mounting a memory stick
(if your USB works on that machines) and copying /kern/msgbuf to the
stick.

Martin