grayed Device manager entries (especially Generic Volume)

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I am looking for some help and information.

----

I selected Show Hidden Devices in Device Manager and saw very many
grayed out entries.

In particular I have about 100 (one hundred) entries under Storage
Volumes each of which say Generic Volume !!

Presumably these entries for Generic Volume were created each time I
showed a new partition to XP, moved a partition, and so on.

(1) Can I now safely remove all the grayed out Generic Volume
entries?

(2) Can I also remove grayed out entries for things like Display
Adapters, Printers, etc?

(3) If I leave the grayed out entries in Device Manager then will
there be a slowdown in general performance, boot time, shutdown time,
or whatever?

Thank you for any info.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Grayed out entries are generally of two types. First a device that
exists in the current hardware profile, but isn't currently powered
on or plugged in. Second are "Phantoms", these can be duplicates
or devices that are no longer physically in the Hardware profile.
You can safely remove entries from all but the System Devices &
Sound categories. Those will have entries grayed out, but should
remain in the profile.
Non Plug-&-Play may have some items that are grayed out. This
is due to Safe Mode booting which loads some generic drivers.
After a Safe Mode boot, you may have Serial or Parallel drivers
that aren't used in your normal profile. Safe Mode will start those
drivers regardless of BIOS setup of those peripherals.
Phantoms shouldn't affect performance. Many times they are the
result of plugging USB devices into different USB Channels (ports).
This is how you can end up with multiple instances of Cameras &
Scanners, etc...


"Zarbol Tsar" <zarbol@tsar.net> wrote in message
news:95999BDC2A89B51D7E@130.133.1.4...
>I am looking for some help and information.
>
> ----
>
> I selected Show Hidden Devices in Device Manager and saw very many
> grayed out entries.
>
> In particular I have about 100 (one hundred) entries under Storage
> Volumes each of which say Generic Volume !!
>
> Presumably these entries for Generic Volume were created each time I
> showed a new partition to XP, moved a partition, and so on.
>
> (1) Can I now safely remove all the grayed out Generic Volume
> entries?
>
> (2) Can I also remove grayed out entries for things like Display
> Adapters, Printers, etc?
>
> (3) If I leave the grayed out entries in Device Manager then will
> there be a slowdown in general performance, boot time, shutdown time,
> or whatever?
>
> Thank you for any info.