Phantom flash-drive repeatedly appearing on my Windows 7 system, how to remove?

Question

I have a phantom USB memory stick appearing and disappearing repeatedly on my Windows 7 HP laptop computer model 8730w. The computer keeps making a noise 'bah-dum', about once a second and in the 'Memory Stack' briefly (1/8 of a second) appears as F: drive before disappearing.

I've never put a memory stick on this machine since Windows 7 was recently installed. At first this did not happen after install, then it started.

This is causing havoc on my system. Menus that are opened get closed in sync with the beeping, making it hard to use menus if you are not quick enough.

How can I exorcise this phantom drive from my system and reclaim control of my computer?

Solution 1

OK! So I was incorrect in my post. It happens after a LONG day and a LONGER Night. Fresh eyes the next morning, AND Three Phantom Drives forced me to dig in and SOLVE this issue.

(The above was originally created as a PDF and hosted on a google docs site. I've downloaded the single-page PDF as an image and included it in this response.)

Solution 2

I just had this exact same problem. It is really very annoying to try and troubleshoot this while these windows keep popping up. If anyone has a way to turn these updates off it would be very helpful to anyone else having to deal with this.

I ended up sorting showing hidden devices and sorting by connection as suggested. I found several disconnected F:/ drives listed as a "Portable Device". I went ahead and deleted these.

After a reboot I haven't had the issue, but I will post back after a while to confirm that this fixed it for me.

Edit: It came back, it is a Micro SD slot causing the problem. Instead of deleting it (as suggested below) I just disabled the device. For now I get a sound every so often, but no popup. Will post back here if I find anything else.

Solution 3

Does it always flash in and out? That is, does it never stay long enough to examine the details?

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In any case, open a command-prompt and type the following.

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
devmgmt.msc

Next, in Device Manager, select View->Show hidden devices, expand the Disk drives branch, and note down the name of the phantom flash-drive.

Now select View->Devices by connection then click My Computer (or whatever name your root device has—pressing Home should also suffice) and press the * key on the numeric-keypad (or in your case, the laptop equivalent).

Then scroll down to your USB devices (it will likely be towards the bottom). Look for the device name that you noted. It should be a leaf-node connected to a USB mass storage device, which in turn is connected to a USB root hub.

Right-click the leaf-node (the one with the drive icon) and select Uninstall. Repeat for the mass-storage device it was connected to.

Optionally reboot (it’s recommended since then you’ll know if it was a software issue or a hardware issue).

Comments

[WilliamKF]

Yes always flashes in and out. The device manager keeps collapsing all and re-expanding as the device comes in and out, very annoying. Device name is 'Ricoh Memory Stick Disk Drive'. Because of the open close repeatedly, I can't find the item in the view devices mode.

[Synetech]

That’s why you have to open it with the above environment variable set and select show hidden devices so that you can view devices that are not currently connected to the system. That way you should be able to see it and uninstall it regardless of if the system thinks it’s there or not. Did you do both parts?

[WilliamKF]

I managed to find it listed under Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System -> PCI bus -> Inter(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 2448 -> Ricoh Memory Stick Controller -> Ricoh Memory Stick Disk Device. Once uninstalled, the flickering ceases! I also uninstalled the parent node, Ricoh Memory Stick Controller.

[WilliamKF]

Reboot and it first hung with "_" in upper left corner of black screen, tried again and it blue screened at login with DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL STOP 0xD1 CipcCdp.sys, tried again and I login fine, but the Ricoh device is back and beeping again, I uninstall it again and it gets errors and beeping only goes away this time when outer one is uninstalled (not the leaf).

[Synetech]

The only non-malware related page I can find that references that file is on Cisco’s site. Do you have Cisco IP Communicator (maybe as part of your Internet connection or VPN or something)? If not, then I would investigate why you have that driver installed on your system. Do you have other drive-type devices plugged into your laptop? Perhaps another device such as an MP3 player or external DVD drive or something has a flash-drive built into it.

[Synetech]

In any case, try disabling the driver/service. Open a command-prompt and try the command sc config CIPCCDP start= demand (you can also try using disabled instead of demand). If that complains about the service not existing, then search the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services key in the registry for the file cipccdp (you can leave off the .sys). The key under which it is found is the name of the service that you can use on the command-line above instead of CIPCCDP.

[Synetech]

Also, open Device Manager, again selecting show-hidden, then look for a Rioche related driver in Non-Plug and Play Drivers and uninstall (or for now, just disable) that.

[WilliamKF]

Yes, I have Cisco IP Communicator for VOIP phone calls installed.

[WilliamKF]

No other devices are plugged into laptop.

[WilliamKF]

Only one bluescreen implicated Cisco IP Communicator. The others give no executable. All give DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and stop at a very low address like 0x0D. The device automatically reinstalled itself while I had the computer up and I had to uninstall it again, during uninstall, got another bluescreen.

[WilliamKF]

There is no Ricoh driver under 'Devices by type' below Non-Plug and Play Drivers. But I do see under PCMCIA adapters one labeled Ricoh R/RL/5C476(II) or Compatible CardBus Controller and under Smart card readers I see RICOH SmartCard Reader.

[Synetech]

Check the specs for your laptop to see if it has a Ricoh device or if the term ‘Ricoh’ appears anywhere in the manual (you can probably find a PDF on the mfg’s website). Also, were/are there any other devices in the Hard drives branch? There should be one for your hard drive…

[WilliamKF]

Disk Drives has just one entry. (I do not find Hard Drives.) I find this driver info for my laptop (Ricoh Media Card Reader Driver): This package contains the Ricoh Media Card Reader Driver for the supported notebook/laptop models and operating systems. The Ricoh Media Card Reader driver provides support for the following media: Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card, MMC, SD, and SmartCard.

[Ethan]

It's been about a day now, and I haven't had any more issues. My guess is that the Ricoh drive the other person deleted wasn't the root cause of the issue, it might have just been something "attached" to it. Maybe someone with a bit more knowledge could shed some light?

[Ethan]

I spoke too soon! Moments after posting the above I started to get the F:/ drive popup again. Going back in and looking at the Disk Drives I noticed the O2Micro xDPicture SCSI Disk Device was causing my problems. I don't have anything plugged into that port, it is probably something that is either stuck in that port causing a short or something in the computer. Instead of deleting the device as suggested before, I just disabled the Disk Drive. Every so often I get a different sound, as if it is trying to connect, but no popup appears. I'll keep digging to see if I can get rid of the sound too.