Windows 10: Windows Hardware Remove Wave Device Disconnect: Solution

I'm posting this because I could not find any direct solutions that were specific to my issue. The following is my issue and troubleshooting course of action:The last several mornings when booting up, I've been welcomed with the occasional Windows Hardware Remove.wav. A quick copilot query recommended I install the Process Monitor app to troubleshoot. A quick Youtube tutorial on the app. After running the app, I was provided the following log information from Process Monitor:19:40.8Explorer.EXE6764CreateFileC:\Windows\Media\Windows Hardware Remove.wavSUCCESSDesired Access: Generic Read, Di

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Windows Hardware Remove Wave (Device Disconnect): Solution

I'm posting this because I could not find any direct solutions that were specific to my issue. The following is my issue and troubleshooting course of action:

The last several mornings when booting up, I've been welcomed with the occasional Windows Hardware Remove.wav. A quick copilot query recommended I install the Process Monitor app to troubleshoot. A quick Youtube tutorial on the app. After running the app, I was provided the following log information from Process Monitor:

[table][tr][td]19:40.8[/td][td]Explorer.EXE[/td][td]6764[/td][td]CreateFile[/td][td]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Hardware Remove.wav[/td][td]SUCCESS[/td][td]Desired Access: Generic Read, Disposition: Open, Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File, Attributes: N, ShareMode: Read, Write, AllocationSize: n/a, OpenResult: Opened[/td][/tr][tr][td]19:40.8[/td][td]Explorer.EXE[/td][td]6764[/td][td]QueryStandardInformationFile[/td][td]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Hardware Remove.wav[/td][td]SUCCESS[/td][td]AllocationSize: 106,496, EndOfFile: 105,876, NumberOfLinks: 2, DeletePending: False, Directory: False[/td][/tr][tr][td]19:40.8[/td][td]Explorer.EXE[/td][td]6764[/td][td]QueryBasicInformationFile[/td][td]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Hardware Remove.wav[/td][td]SUCCESS[/td][td]CreationTime: 12/7/2019 3:08:07 AM, LastAccessTime: 1/27/2024 11:18:20 AM, LastWriteTime: 12/7/2019 3:08:07 AM, ChangeTime: 9/13/2023 4:55:00 PM, FileAttributes: A[/td][/tr][tr][td]19:40.8[/td][td]Explorer.EXE[/td][td]6764[/td][td]CloseFile[/td][td]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Hardware Remove.wav[/td][td]SUCCESS[/td][td][/td][/tr][/table]

The above process and associated research took me about 45+ minutes. Still no clear solution. Just lots of information I didn't understand.

SOLUTION:

I closed all my open apps, excluding Edge and Process Monitor. I then waited to see if the alert still occurred. It did in my case.

I then began to unplug one USB item from my PC at a time. After unplugging, I'd wait to see if the alert sound triggered.

In my case, after unplugging my docking station, the alert discontinued.

In this case, it was a hardware issue. This would be my recommended first step if you're getting unknow audible alerts that can't easily be associated with an event or app on your PC. If this does not resolve your issue, time to install Process Monitor and proceed down that rabbit hole.

Best of Luck

 

Can't remove disconnected (ghost) network device

Thanks for the suggestion, but it can't remove the NIC:




It's the only Intel I219-V that shows up in the device list of the DeviceCleaner program (it shows only non-present devices as I understand). Otherwise, the tool works - I found a ghost replica of the integrated GPU (Intel HD 530) and could remove it. Only the NIC gives this error message on removal, which is probably the reason I can't remove it the normal way through the device manager.

 

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