yellow explanation point on Direct Parallel device

[inetbogey]

Hi Guys,
first i just want to say hi to everyone as i am a newbee in the forums.
i found this site when i did a google search on a problem with an older computer i have. as i looked over the site i knew that i had to join up with you guys.
hope i can make some contributions to "our forum".
i have posted this problem in another forum, but as yet have not received an answer.
the problem is:
when i go into device manager i see under "Network adapters"
a device listed as "Direct parallel" and it has a yellow explanation point in front of it.
i looked at it with a small program called "siw.exe" and shows a status = problem
i am unable to disable, un install or update the driver. not in normal mode or safe mode.
in safe mode the yellow explanation point is no-longer there.
i don't know what it's for. i don't do computer to computer stuff.
i do use usb and fire wire equipment.
the box is:
PIII white box/ 512Meg of Ram / windows XP Pro SP3
i noticed this problem when my optical drives stopped working.
(not all of a sudden. i just had not used them in a long time.)
they also had the yellow in front of them. i did find a fix for them on the Microsoft knowledge base site. i "hacked" the reg and they are functioning properly.
thanks.
inetbogey.

[inetbogey]

Hi Guys,
just wanted to add i updated the via chip drivers but not the bios.
thanks.
inetbogey

[kaninelupus]

No need for a 3rd party app to explore devices, just use the Device Manager from the control panel.

Now the Direct parallel service is for direct PC-to-PC connections (as opposed to connecting over home network), via the old LPT1 port. It's old tech, and am not even sure if it was ever support in XP for that very reason. The yellow triangle as seen in the device manager simply means the device either lack a functioning driver, or that the device is malfunctioning.

Now unless you actually need this device, would simply advise uninstalling, also via the device manager.