On my Dell M6300, running Windows XP Pro 32,  I have in Device Manager, under Non-Plug and Play Drivers a device with a yellow exclamation mark. It reads "Serial".

 

In the device properties there is no information.

 

I have spent a whole day with Dell tech support, to no avail. We have done a very carefull fresh OS install with all drivers.

 

Dell tech says that it must be storage related and that my motherboard or hard disk could be faulty.

 

I did run the Intel Matrix storage application. The Intel AHCI controller is in Device Manager.

 

What could it be?

 

Now, after checking the Intel Matrix application, I read under Intel ICH8M SATA AHCI Controller:

 

hard Drives: Port 0: MCBQ..my hard disk, which is SSD

Unused Ports: Port 2: Unused. The information for this Port says: This item displays any Serial ATA ports in the system that do not have a hard drive attached.

 

Could it simply be that this Serial device will always have the exclamation mark because there is not a second hard disk attached to it?

 

Can I install two hard disk drives on this machine?

 

Thanks,

 

Antonio