Can't Turn Off What Isn't There

[kkorotev]

Over the last week or so I have been trying out external USB Blu-ray drives from different manufacturers. After a time they stopped working. None of them worked. Uninstall. Install. Load drivers...nothing. Then I noticed a drive listed under portable devices (device manager) that really didn't exist. I eventually deleted it with diskpart; list volume; select volume;delete. That worked ONCE. The phantom has returned and no matter WHAT I do, it reappears at each re-boot. I Can Not Delete What Isn't There.

 

[Neemobeer]

Can you post which build if will 10 you're on and a screen shot of the disk

 

[kkorotev]

Version 1903. OS Build 18362.418

 

[Neemobeer]

Do you have phone or music player plugged into the computer?

 

[kkorotev]

No. I think it is residue from one of no longer attached external players. I think there something significant in that I can "Disable" and or "Uninstall",
but it always reloads...like something's looking for it?

 

[Neemobeer]

No only devices that are plugged in or virtual and online will register in device manager.

Right click the device in device manager > properties > details and paste or screenshot the hardware ids

 

[kkorotev]

Sorry. Snipping tool wouldn't capture the drop down boxes. Had to take photos.
Here are the options. Hardware IDS?

 

[Neemobeer]

Grab the device instance path that should work

 

[Neemobeer]

Does your computer have memory card readers? The readers can produce these "ghost" devices as well. They're associated with the card slots

 

[kkorotev]

SWD\WPDBUSENUM\_??_USBSTOR#DISK&VEN_GENERIC&PROD_STORAGE_DEVICE&REV_1532#000000001532&0#{53F56307-B6BF-11D0-94F2-00A0C91EFB8B}

No card readers

 

[Neemobeer]

WPDBUSENUM is the portable device enumerator, so any number of things use it such as Windows Media player and the image import wizard. You can just disable the service and the device will go away.

Start > Run > services.msc

Stop "Portable Device Enumerator Service" and right click properties and disable it.

 

[Neemobeer]

If you need it back set the start type to "Manual Triggered"

 

[kkorotev]

Sure sounded good. It is now disabled, but the drive remains in (See screenshot above of MY PC)
BUT
is not listed in device manager and my current external DVD-Blu Ray will not work.

I really appreciate you sticking with me on this, Neemobeer

 

[Neemobeer]

Re-enable the service, reboot. If it's still there try unplugging the blu-ray and see if it goes away

 

[kkorotev]

Mis-read your instructions. Kept the service disabled, unplugged the external, rebooted. Phantom is there (MY PC).
Plugged in the external. Both are there. External doesn't work.
Will try exactly what you said this time...,
Stand by

 

[kkorotev]

Re-enabled. Re-boot. Phantom returns to Device Manger and MY PC.
External is consistently showing its plugged or unplugged status, but won't work as long as the phantom appears ANYWHERE

 

[Neemobeer]

Probably need to know more about your system to determine what is using the portable emulator service and creating that device.

 

[kkorotev]

Tell me what you need?

 

[Neemobeer]

Full hardware specs would be good. Everything installed. Hardware you could dump with a tool like speccy and software you can pull from powershell with the command Get-Package | select * | Out-File $env:userprofile\Desktop\Installs.txt

*UPDATE* scratch that look for this file and upload it. Zip it if it's too big
C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log

 

[kkorotev]

(One day and many attempts later):

Fixed it. It's hardware thing.
Unplug USB connection to external player.
Disable phantom drive in device manager.
Disable portable enumerator service.
DISABLE GENERIC USB STORAGE DEVICE in device manager.
Reboot.
All gone. Nothing there.
Re-connect external player...it finds itself but phantom drive does not.

I'll run like this for a while then see if I can reverse ANY of the disabled things.

Like all things Win10...bang it around a few times and if you're right it will correct itself.
Thanks for all the help!
Kevin