(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