diff --git a/tokio/src/runtime/driver.rs b/tokio/src/runtime/driver.rs
index 35bfe0262..b2acb7bc5 100644
--- a/tokio/src/runtime/driver.rs
+++ b/tokio/src/runtime/driver.rs
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ impl Handle {
         pub(crate) fn signal(&self) -> &crate::runtime::signal::Handle {
             self.signal
                 .as_ref()
-                .expect("there is no signal driver running, must be called from the context of Tokio runtime")
+                .expect("A Tokio 1.x context was found, but IO is disabled. Call `enable_io` on the runtime builder to enable IO.")
         }
     }