DFI PA61 Motherboard
Via Apollo Pro133 chipset (693A/596B)

In Device manager, under hard drive controllers, there is the standard list of 3 items:

- Primary IDE controller
- Secondary IDE controller
- Chipset-specific IDE controller

Exclamation mark is beside the Primary IDE controller. Secondary is fine (no !) and the last device (Via Busmaster PCI IDE controller) is also fine.

Error message for Primary controller says this:

Device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed (code 10).

I've downloaded and ran the most recent version of the 4-in-one driver package from Via Arena, and I've manually tried to update the driver by pointing it to the Via directory where everything was unpacked, but it keeps saying that it's already using the "best" driver (native MS driver, circa 1999).

No conflicts showing in the resource list.

System seems to work fine, boots into win-98 and no hard drive issues. But I'd like to make the yellow (!) go away.

Any ideas?

Yes. Update manualy, but don't have it search, check "specify the location, and ask for a list, selecting the newer driver from the list. Ignore the message saying it already has the best driver. But, please, do backup before you start. If your newest driver doesn't work well, try Via Hyperion v. 456 instead (available from ViaArena). Good luck!

What a PITA.

I managed to get the (!) removed from the primary IDE controller, but it came back when I enabled DMA on the hard drive connected to the primary channel. I think I caused the (!) in the first place by enabling DMA.

I think this explains the situation:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/w...r.mspx?mfr=true

When the (!) is present, Win-98 is operating the hard drive in DOS compatibility mode.

The hard drive is a Quantum Fireball (I think a 30 gb drive, circa 2001 or 2002).

I guess I'll have to leave it as non-DMA.

Bonus question:

When in safe mode, if I remove the Generic hard drive (type 47 in my case), the hard drive is gone from the Device manager when I restart in normal mode. But I can't add a hard drive in Add-remove hardware in control panel. How do you exactly add the hard drive back again? Why is there no "hard drive" in the device list in the "add new hardware" catagory list?

(I made the hard drive come back by restarting the computer with the hard drive attached to the secondary master channel)

Do try Via Hyperion v. 456... Your chipset probably will work better with it than with the latest version.

The computer will soon be out of my hands, so I'm leaving it as-is (with DMA not activated).

Thanks for the help/advice.

Ehh... uninstall the drivers, reboot, and use 4in1 v443...