Yellow Exclamation Point in Device Manager

My nephew had to replace his hard drive on his Dell 1505 and after reinstalling Windows XP he had several yellow exclamation points in the Device Manager.

I helped him download and install drivers for his video card, audio card, etc. but there is one I have no idea what it is everything else has been fixed.

In the Device Manager, under View, Show Hidden Drivers, there is a exclamation point next to "serial" under Non-plug and play drivers. I believe it said something to the effect of no driver after clicking on it.

What is this and is it necessary?

 

The easiest way to do this so you don't drive yourself crazy is to go here: Dell - Drivers and Downloads and enter your service tag.

You can find it in the BIOS on the first page or by flipping your laptop over and write down the service tag. This will kick back all the drivers that belong to your laptop including if it recommends a BIOS update.

 

Installing the following set of drivers usually takes care of everything for me:

Chipset
Video
Audio
Touchpad
Ethernet
Wifi
Bluetooth (If applicable)

I would also recommend Dell Quickset as that gives you the on-screen display for volume and brightness

 

Yes this is what I had been doing but I was more or less selectively installing what I thought needed installed instead of installing pretty much everything.

I just though someone must have an idea what the specific "Serial" issue was.

 

Try posting the hardware id + compatible id, pretty sure someone would figure it out with a bit of google

 

Are the exclamation points in Device Manager or under Hidden Devices or both?

As another poster mentioned why don't you list the features your laptop has so we can try and narrow down the drivers you will need.

 

OK here's your answer wrt to your serial device question. In layman's terms DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

You may see a device that is named "Serial" in Device Manager on a legacy-free computer that is running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003

You may see a device that is named "Serial" in Device Manager on a legacy-free computer that is running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003

On a legacy-free computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you may see a device that is named "Serial" in Device Manager. This device may appear with a yellow exclamation point. When the yellow exclamation point is present, the following text appears in Device Manager:
The device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Code 24)

This behavior occurs because the following registry subkey is added when Windows is installed:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_SERIAL
After this subkey is added, Windows tests to see if a serial port exists. If Windows does not detect a serial port, a device that is named "Serial" appears in Device Manager. If Windows or a user tries to start this device, the device appears with both a yellow exclamation mark and a Code 24 message (CM_PROB_DEVICE_NOT_THERE).

No action is required to resolve this behavior. The Code 24 message only provides information. It does not indicate that your computer has a problem.

 

Many thanks guys!