Phantom CD-ROM drive appears

[Avoura]

The PC in question belongs to a friend who was having a few problems, and I am trying to sort them out. One of the problems is a phantom CD-ROM drive that appears in the list of drives. It started with a DVD writer and DVD-ROM drive physically installed in the PC, and 3 DVD drives listed in Windows Explorer (and in the Device Manager). I uninstalled the phantom DVD drive from Device Manager and rebooted the PC.

The physical DVD-ROM drive that really exists did seem to be faulty (tray would not open most of the time) so I physically disconnected it inside the PC, leaving only 1 physical DVD drive (the DVD writer) attached.

When I rebooted Windows it still wants to install another DVD/CD drive, which it thinks is a SCSI drive. I clicked on STOP installation when prompted, but it still installed it as a CD-ROM drive. The drive does not physically exist. The PC has no SCSI interface that I can see. I have looked inside all the PC (earlier I opened it and cleaned out the dust).

I have used software before that created a virtual CD drive in Windows to use with CD images stored on the hard disk, to save having to put the CD into the PC each time I needed to run the software from it (e.g. a game).

But on this PC there does not seem to be any virtual CD drive software.

It has Windows XP Home SP2 installed. I also installedd Linux into another partition on the PC and it does not show a the phantom drive at all, so it must be a problem with Windows.

My question is, how do I find out what is causing this phantom drive to be installed and how do I permanently remove it? And, could this be a cause of other problems with Windows (including the PC rebooting itself for no reason)? (I did a tes of the RAM earlier and it found no faults after 3 passes).

 

[ski]

See if removing the uninstalled drives from Device Mgr. in Safe mode works.

WRT the restarting problem:

-Everything not completely seated on the motherboard, or a loose connection.

-Overheating
If the system temp gets over 40 deg. C, then make sure the computer's fans are running, the vents are open, the computer is not located in an enclosed space or near a heat source, and there is no internal dust build up.
If those are ok, then remove the computer's cover, and run an external fan. If this fixes things, then install additional case fans. Recommended locations are lower front and upper rear of the case.
If the CPU gets over 60 deg. C, then make sure the thermal compound has not oozed out from between the CPU die and the heat sink. If that's ok, then replace the compound with Arctic Silver.
If no luck, then install a higher capacity heat sink fan.
If still no luck, then replace the heatsink with a more efficient unit.

-Overtaxed or bad power supply
Either test it, or swap it out with a different(preferably higher wattage) unit.
Also, always use a reliable brand, like Antec or Enermax. Off name cheap brands(even high powered units) can have one voltage leg that's insufficient to handle the load.

-Bad video card.
Make sure it's fully seated, it's fan is running, its heatsink is securely mounted, and there's no dust built up on the fan and the heatsink.
If those are ok, then swap it out with a known good card.

-Bad MB.
Check for bulging, leaking, or ruptured capacitors.
If they look ok, then swap it out with a known good MB.

-IRQ conflict with a network card.
If no problems show up for the NIC in Device Manager, then remove it from DM, shut down, remove the card from the MB, and restart.

-Viruses and spyware.
Run Ad-aware, Spybot, and Hijack This for removing spyware.

 

[Avoura]

I examined all the hardware carefully. I think that one of the RAM modules was not in fully, now it is and no more random rebooting. Also, I installed Spyware Doctor and it found 428 pieces of spyware. But what suprised me as well was that the computer was using nearly 100% CPU power and 1.72 GB virtual memory, when doing nothing. After rebooting (for the first time after removing the 428 spyware infections) those dropped considerably. I am surprised that the other spyware programs I used did not pick up 428 infections that only Spyware Doctor found.

 

[MonkeyX]

What burning software are you using? Alcohol 120% has virtual drive ablilites built into it. It also shows this drive as being a SCSI Device. As for removing it, any time I uninstalled Alcohol 120% it went away. Not sure if nero or roxio have same ability. I think the nero scout may have done something similar. I haven't used nero in a very long while so I may likely be wrong about that.

Monkey