How to remove CPU Miner & GPU Miner Trojans

CPU and GPU Miners are Trojans that use your computer's resources without your knowledge to mine cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Bitcoin, DarkCoin, and others. While a person using a miner to mine a cryptocurrency is entirely legitimate, if a Trojan does it without a person's knowledge then it is considered malicious activity.

When a miner mines for coins they can either use the computer's graphics card, GPU mining, or the computer's processor, or CPU mining. In my experience, trojanized miners more commonly use CPU mining as every infected computer has a CPU that can be used to mine coins. On the other hand, not all computers have a compatible graphics card that can be used for GPU mining.

As miners use a computer's CPU and GPU constantly when mining for coins, it leads to increased electrical usage and prolonged periods of high heat. This type of usage can quickly damage a computer's CPU and graphics card and cause them to fail earlier than normal. Furthermore, the high electrical usage will increase electrical bills for computers that have a miner constantly being used. Due to this it is very important to remove unwanted miners as quickly as possible if they are detected.

You can see an example of a miner using almost all of the capacity of a CPU in the image below.

How can you tell if a CPU or GPU Miner is Installed?

Unfortunately, cryptocurrency miners are not very easy to spot as they provide no indication that a program is running. In many cases there are no screens displayed, no uninstall entries in the Uninstall Programs control panel, and no prompts that the program is running.

Therefore, the only way to really tell if a miner is installed is by symptoms that may be exhibited on the computer. Below is a list of symptoms that may indicate that a miner is installed. It should be noted that some of the symptoms below could be caused by other types of malware and even faulty software.

Processes using large amounts of the CPU processor. For example, in the images above you can see miners using more than 90% of the CPU's processing power.
Unkown processes running in Task Manager.
Computer begins to act sluggish or unresponsive.
Windows are slow to open or tasks take a while to respond to your requests.
When you type, the text takes longer to appear on the screen.
Games become unusable, wont start, or stutter.

How are GPU and CPU Miners installed on a Computer?

Miners are installed through a variety of methods. One method is through Trojans that download and install the miner on a computer. Another method is through the use of adware bundles that come with free software you download from the Internet. This is why it's very important to make sure you scan any program that you download using VirusTotal or your security software in order to make sure it's safe to execute.

As you can see, Miner Trojans are designed to steals your computer's resources and your electricity and profit from it. In order to make a computer operate normally again and protect the computer's hardware, you can use the guide below to check for Miner Trojans for free.

Your computer should now be free of the CPU Miner & GPU Miner Trojans program. If your current security solution allowed this program on your computer, you may want to consider purchasing the full-featured version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

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