8800GTX/Win7; GPU Load at 95+%, no idea why

[PatrickV2]

Hi there,

I have a Q6600/Win7-64/8GB machine with an 8800GTX card. The last weeks/months I noticed games were running less smoothly, and was investigating all kinds of causes.

Recently ran GPU-Z, but it shows something rather strange: the GPU card, when just the Win7 desktop is shown, is at 95+% GPU Load, 0-2% Memory Controller load and 0% Video Engine Load. Temps rise to about 84 deg C when the card is doing this.

As I write this, I am scanning for viruses/etc (could it be a BitCoin minder or something similar?), no results yet.

Do people have any idea how I can further investigate this? I noticed this first yesterday-evening, and then promptly got the 331.82 update presented. Right after that was installed, GPU Load dropped for the whole evening (and games were running fine again). However, when booting the machine this evening, it has reverted back to the old behaviour.

Am open to any hints on how to diagnose this; thermal paste/connection looks to be ok, since the temp stabilizes at 84 deg C under 100% GPU Load, so I have the feeling something (new driver, malware, ...?) is generating the high GPU Load.

Regards, Patrick.

[Pizzadude]

If you have not already done so I would go for a clean install of the GPU drivers and if this does not solve the problem go to http://www.trendmicro.co.uk/products/free-tools-and-services/index.html and download "Hijack This".

This tool will produce a report of apps and services currently running on your rig and with a bit of googling you can usually figure whats running and why.

Another possibility is the card starting to fail or perhaps needs reseating on the motherboard.

[PatrickV2]

If you have not already done so I would go for a clean install of the GPU drivers and if this does not solve the problem go to http://www.trendmicro.co.uk/products/free-tools-and-services/index.html and download "Hijack This".

This tool will produce a report of apps and services currently running on your rig and with a bit of googling you can usually figure whats running and why.

Another possibility is the card starting to fail or perhaps needs reseating on the motherboard.

Thanks, going to do that, but after some additional Googling/checking around, the primary culprit is probably a BitCoin minder called 'TimeServer.exe' which I somehow picked up. Working on removing that, will then do some more checks of the system.

Thanks for the info,

Regards, Patrick.

[PatrickV2]

Update: It was indeed a bitcoin miner I had somehow been 'infected' with. Removed it, and the associated service.

Have been closely monitoring the system since then, but it hasn't returned. Card is working fine again, and games are running ok again too.

Be careful out there!

Regards, Patrick.

[Pizzadude]

Make sure you delete any restore points that windows may have made that would be infected or any backups you have made. 

Merry Christmas.

Chris.

Update: It was indeed a bitcoin miner I had somehow been 'infected' with. Removed it, and the associated service.

Have been closely monitoring the system since then, but it hasn't returned. Card is working fine again, and games are running ok again too.

Be careful out there!

Regards, Patrick.