Hellminer.exe Virus ⛏️ (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Hellminer.exe process is related to a harmful program that can accurately be identified as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin¹. It makes your system pretty much unfunctional due to high CPU usage.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

When we talk about the intrusion of unfamiliar programs into your computer’s work, the proverb “Forewarned is forearmed” describes the situation as accurately as possible. Gridinsoft Anti-Malware is exactly the tool that is always useful to have in your armory: fast, efficient, up-to-date. It is appropriate to use it as an emergency help at the slightest suspicion of infection.

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What is Hellminer.exe process?

Hellminer.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus

As I have actually pointed out in the previous paragraph, Hellminer.exe is a coin miner virus. The names of the .exe file can be different, but the consequences are almost always the identical. Since coin miners focus on cryptocurrency mining, they use all available hardware power of your PC to conduct this procedure. This malware does not care about the fact that you probably want to make use of your device for other tasks – it will constantly consume over 80% of your CPU power.

Hellminer.exe – Very high CPU and GPU usage

Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually used on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Hellminer.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often can result in sad effects.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency mining term means the action of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a integral element of any project based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a very powerful PC is required. Exactly, the video card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptomining farms usually consist of dozens of graphic cards to complete their task efficiently. Such systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or browsing the Web. Crooks who gain money via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

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How dangerous is the Hellminer.exe miner?

Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system

First of all, Hellminer.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience exceptionally sluggish efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.

Hellminer.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” harm is not a single unpleasant thing coin miners do to your computer. Hellminer.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malicious operations correctly, it ruins the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as increase electricity costs. Hardware elements 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 fan is hard to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily cracked if affected while working, for instance, by the user much before the malware injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the very high load caused by Hellminer.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure². GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when used for crypto mining. It is surely an unwanted case when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being used in such a way.

How did I get Hellminer.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 widespread malevolent programs among “serious” malware. Adware sometimes acts as a carrier for Hellminer.exe malware infiltration: it demonstrates you the banners, which have a link to malware downloading. Yes, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics say that about 30% of all malware spread with the malicious banners are coin miners – and Hellminer.exe is just with them.

The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

An additional way you could get this thing on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy site as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to earn money. Hence, there is a very big lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked application and receive a coin for each installation. Prior to criticizing these people for hacking and malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid paying for the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus program as well as new parts for your PC.

How to remove the Hellminer.exe miner from my PC?

The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software

Getting rid of such a virus requires the use of specific tool. Appropriate antivirus must have high performance at scanning and also be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization also on weak computers. On top of that, it is better to have on-run security in your security solution – to stop the virus even before it starts. Microsoft Defender lacks these features for various reasons. That’s why I’d recommend you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that goal. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is a perfect choice that fits each of the specified characteristics.³

Prior to the virus removal, it is important to reboot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Hellminer.exe miner consumes a lot of processor 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 computer is in Safe Mode, all third-party software, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

Remove Hellminer.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.

1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
2. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
3. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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