So I may have gotten an unwanted crypto miner

Ceph92

Limp Gawd
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Sep 17, 2019
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My foray into crypto may have had an unwanted consequence. I'm seeing high levels of GPU load when not running any miner. I'm asking you guys because of your knowledge of miners, but also of GPU behavior.

This is a laptop and I'm only ever using the HD530 integrated video. The Radeon R360 / W5130 (?) is never used. I tried using two miners on that: nicehash quick miner and Phoenix miner (the latest, verified with hash). NH rejected the 2gb card, but phoenix miner did work and I ran it for 24 hours.

When the miner isn't running and the machine is completely idle:
  • Task manager and the radeon app show zero activity on radeon
  • GPU-z reports 100% activity on the radeon
  • Lots of heat coming out, fan noise etc.
  • GPU much higher temp than CPU (they are connected with heat pipe)
The radeon speed/util% cuts in half when I engage windows' power saver mode.

Malwarebytes and Avast have detected nothing besides the miner files that already annoyed them. I updated radeon drivers - no effect.
 

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Did you pirate any softwares lately? It's either that or where you downloaded phoenixminer or NHQM.

Also it would be helpful if you posted a screenshot of the processes running in task manager and startup list.
 
Did you pirate any softwares lately? It's either that or where you downloaded phoenixminer or NHQM.

Also it would be helpful if you posted a screenshot of the processes running in task manager and startup list.
No, no warez. The downloads were from official links, and also verified.

I'll get a screenshot. That machine is getting backed up atm
 
Another thing -- something keeps bumping windows into high performance mode, out of balanced or "power saver"
 
Did you pirate any softwares lately? It's either that or where you downloaded phoenixminer or NHQM.

Also it would be helpful if you posted a screenshot of the processes running in task manager and startup list.

So..... I installed fresh win10 on a fresh disk and see it's doing the same thing as before. It seems to pulse to a clock speed and util% determined by power profile (in this case, unplugging the laptop).

Also a pic of startup list.
 

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Starting to think it's a driver/compatibility issue with your old card and Windows 10 + the power profiles.
 
windows 10 is using it to render desktop stuff?! if you have your touchpad taskbar icon in visual mode, it uses the gpu. samsung crap could be using it.
all of this redrawing will use the gpu.
1644536428344.png
 
In the Task Manager, what do you see in the GPU section? Click that and see what is using the GPU,
Mine is mining with Nicehash but doesn't report it since it's just using the GPU's Ram I guess, but just wondering if anything shows up on yours.
Task-Manager.jpg
 
Task manager reports almost nothing for GPU1. It shows no process using it. It thinks utilization is zero.

I'll get a picture of that tomorrow...
It won't show up. My 3060 doesn't show up in task manager when i'm mining eth. However, power usage - Very high, is accurate. Whatever you're doing in firefox, i would stop.
 
Did you try disabling the Macrium Reflect and OneDrive in Startup? Also, what is that iCue? Maybe don't run that. Also, your Firefox and MS Edge are taking up criminal amounts of RAM, close all the tabs.
Okay, so iCue is the RGB bullshit software from Corsair. Disable/uninstall it:

https://forum.corsair.com/forums/topic/151841-why-is-icue-using-so-much-system-resources/

After doing the above, reboot and see how the system behaves, and report back to us.
 
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Did you try disabling the Macrium Reflect and OneDrive in Startup? Also, what is that iCue? Maybe don't run that. Also, your Firefox and MS Edge are taking up criminal amounts of RAM, close all the tabs.
Okay, so iCue is the RGB bullshit software from Corsair. Disable/uninstall it:

https://forum.corsair.com/forums/topic/151841-why-is-icue-using-so-much-system-resources/

After doing the above, reboot and see how the system behaves, and report back to us.
You are probably looking at my Task Manager image. I am not having any issues. iCue is the RGB software that I am using to control my AIO, fans, the lighting, and my Nexus screen.
IMG_0835.JPEG
 
In the Task Manager, what do you see in the GPU section? Click that and see what is using the GPU,
Mine is mining with Nicehash but doesn't report it since it's just using the GPU's Ram I guess, but just wondering if anything shows up on yours.

Ok here's that pic you all wanted. This is my fresh win10 install in high performance mode but with nothing running (applications).

The speed/utilization pulses are more sparse today and aren't going as high. The gap in pulses is from when GPU-z was looking at the HD530, which shows erratic utilization as you'd expect. Is it possible that GPU-z is triggering this by polling the M360?
 

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It won't show up. My 3060 doesn't show up in task manager when i'm mining eth. However, power usage - Very high, is accurate. Whatever you're doing in firefox, i would stop.
You're looking at Zepher's screenshot, not mine. I had everything closed when I took mine.
 
just redrawing the program window could be using the gpu.
But it's only using the HD530 for that, not the M360. Nothing is mapped to the M360 and no processes are using it task manager.. For the HD530, GPU-z shows that behavior as you would expect, occasional peaks, not these cyclic pulses.
 
I would guess poor software/firmware in the laptop vs. an "unwanted crypto miner."
 
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