Phantom USB drive noises

Question

Hi everyone, I'm not very tech-savvy, so I'm very sorry if this issue has a simple solution. I will do my best to explain the problem clearly and give details, and feel free to ask me for more information. Thank you in advance for all of your help -- I visited this forum a few weeks ago (the strange "system memory has been changed" issue on the Dell Inspiron 5577 systems), and you guys were really helpful and well spoken.

As you can probably gather, I'm using a Dell Inspiron 5577. I bought it three years ago and despite many issues, I love this laptop.

However... I have been experiencing constant, random, completely unpredictable connect/disconnect noises from one of my USB ports. I disconnected my mouse, turned off Bluetooth, and removed the SD card I had inserted, and the noises continue. So, it cannot be a faulty device that I'm plugging in -- this must be caused by something else.

Here is a screenshot of what appears when the phantom device connects.

This sound randomly appeared a while ago, and has slowly increased in intensity. Now it's constant -- I can only get it to stop by muting my laptop. At one point, it briefly stopped after I blew into one of the USB ports, but then a completely different USB port completely failed (I cannot connect anything there), and now the sound is back with a vengeance.

Is this a sign that my ports are failing? Any way to temporary stop the sounds until I can take my laptop in? I am a professional copywriter and digital artist, so I'm on my laptop all day. The phantom do-dittle-doo, dee-do-doo noises are driving me insane.

Thank you for your insight.

ieee488 · Answer

It does look like the laptop thinks that a USB device has been plugged in. Have done a Dell Diagnostics?  F12 at bootup.

VivienGrace · Answer

Okay, sorry, back again with more screenshots. Hopefully these can help diagnose the issue.

I went into my device manager, and this phantom device connecting and reconnecting keeps resetting the whole thing. Trying to click anything was a frustrating trial.

Whatever this thing is, it apparently has an issue and keeps triggering events. I have tried disabling it, deleting it, and checking for updates. Nothing works.

Sorry if this extra information isn't helpful. Thank you again.

VivienGrace · Answer

Thank you for your reply. I ran a quick Dell Diagnostics test, and nothing was detected. It asked me if I wanted to run a longer, 4-hour one, but I'm not sure I want to do that until I've tried some other solutions. Of course, the moment I booted my laptop up again, the phantom noise was back. It seems this ghost is set on vexing and haunting me.

ieee488 · Answer

Go to Details tab for that USB device. Select Hardware ID. Post what it says.   Which version of Windows 10 are you running? Is it 20H2? What about the BIOS? Is there a newer chipset driver?   .

VivienGrace · Answer

One last updated reply. Here is a list of some more "fixes" I've tried thus far.

Turned off fast startup
Uninstalled, tried to update, and reinstalled USB host controller
Disabled USB selective suspend setting

I got all of these from other websites discussing the same issue, but none have worked. I've rebooted a good handful of times and even updated my computer, but it seems this is persistent. This issue doesn't seem to be causing any other problems with my laptop or my USB mouse. So, for now, I'm just going to disable the Device Connect and Device Disconnect sounds.

I'll be reading any further replies, and I'll see if I can take my laptop in so I can get the USB ports checked. Thank you for reading through my thread. Hopefully a solution comes up.

VivienGrace · Answer

The hardware id is: USB\DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_FAILURE. I am running Windows 10 version 2004 and BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. 1.1.1, 8/16/2018. Is there a specific chipset driver I need to update? Sorry if that's a silly question.

ieee488 · Answer

There is a chipset driver from June 2020. https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/inspiron-15-5577-gaming-laptop/drivers

There is also a newer BIOS v1.1.3 . But as you know updating the BIOS is risky.

demultiplexor · Answer

On my Dell Precision 3520 it is caused by sheduled installing of DBUtilDrv2 Sevice according event viewer.
I think that uninstalling Dell support assist could help.

@dell - what is the reason of this is repetitive installation? Each day at same time, I get this sound and driver re-installation.

Inspiron

Phantom USB drive noises

Was this post helpful?