Graphicscardenginestarter.exe process belongs to a malevolent application that can accurately be identified as a coin miner virus. That malware type utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer pretty much nonfunctional as a result of high CPU utilization.
What is Graphicscardenginestarter.exe process?
Graphicscardenginestarter.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
As I have specified in the introduction, Graphicscardenginestarter.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file can be diverse, however, the effects are usually the same. Considering that coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all possible hardware capacity of your PC to run this operation. This malware doesn’t care about the fact that you may need to use your device for other activities – it will consistently take over 80% of your processor power.
Graphicscardenginestarter.exe – Very high CPU and GPU use
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as important as processor for system work, so Graphicscardenginestarter.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and utilize it all. It sometimes can cause sad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
Crypto mining term means the activity of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this action takes a lot of calculations, a high-end computer is required. Exactly, the GPU is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of GPUs to complete their task efficiently. Such computer systems are not usable for “normal” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Fraudsters who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ PCs instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.2
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Graphicscardenginestarter.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First, Graphicscardenginestarter.exe virus makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, because all processor power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your wants, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience exceptionally slow performance. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.
Graphicscardenginestarter.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Graphicscardenginestarter.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Operfmon.exe, Nvnodejslauncher.exe, Googleupdatecore.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Graphicscardenginestarter.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a solitary bad thing coin miners perform to your personal computer. Graphicscardenginestarter.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To complete all malicious functions successfully, it wrecks the protection mechanisms of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new notes – they are brought in by this coin miner to connect your system to a malicious mining network. All these changes shall be thrown back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your computer slow, performing at peak power for long times can trigger damage to your device as well as raise power costs. PC components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only when they are in a good shape.
Little and well-protected CPU cooling system is hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily cracked if touched while spinning, for example, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Graphicscardenginestarter.exe virus can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have very fast wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Graphicscardenginestarter.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
Coin miners are one of the most common malicious programs among “severe” malware. Adware sometimes serves as a carrier for Graphicscardenginestarter.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. However, the statistics show that around 30% of all viruses spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Graphicscardenginestarter.exe is right one of them.4
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
Another way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the unreliable website as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to make money. Hence, there is a huge lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for every installation. Prior to blaming these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software and new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Graphicscardenginestarter.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Eliminating such a virus involves making use of specific app. Effective anti-malware program must have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with usage even on weak computers. On top of that, it is recommended to have proactive security in your security tool – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender does not have these functions for various reasons. That’s why I’d advise you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that purpose. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect option that fits all of the specified qualities.5
Prior to the malware removal, it is important to boot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Graphicscardenginestarter.exe miner takes a lot of CPU power, it is needed to halt it before launching the security program. Otherwise, your scan will last for years, even though the GridinSoft program is pretty lightweight.
Booting the PC into Safe Mode with Networking
Press the Start button, then choose Power, and click on Reboot while holding the Shift key on the keyboard.
Windows will reboot into recovery mode. In that mode, choose Troubleshoot→ Startup Settings→ Safe Mode with Networking. Press the corresponding button on your keyboard to choose that option.
When your system is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, just like the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the computer without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.
Remove Graphicscardenginestarter.exe coin miner virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware
Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. You can use this anti-malware program for free during its 6-day trial period. In that term, all functions are available, and it takes no payments to remove malware from your system.
After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.
When the scan is finished, press the Clean Now button to remove all detected elements from your system. This procedure takes less than a minute.
Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.
Remove Graphicscardenginestarter.exe Virus ⛏️ Trojan Coin Miner
Name: Graphicscardenginestarter.exe
Description: The Graphicscardenginestarter.exe is a Trojan Coin Miner that uses the infected computer’s sources to mine electronic money without your authorization. This Graphicscardenginestarter.exe will create your CPU to go for very warm temperatures for prolonged periods of time, which could reduce the life of the CPU.
Operating System: Windows
Application Category: Trojan
User Review
( votes)References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
- Read more about various malware type on Cybersecurity Glossary.
- Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
