Pceve.exe Virus (Coin Miner Trojan) Removal

Pceve.exe process comes from a malevolent application that can correctly be recognized as a coin miner virus. That malware form utilizes your PC components to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unfunctional because of high CPU utilization.

What is Pceve.exe process?

Pceve.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Pceve.exe Windows Process

Pceve.exe – Extremely high CPU/GPU usage

Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also use GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as crucial as processor for system work, so Pceve.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often may result in bad results.

Shortly about cryptocurrency mining

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

  • Microsoft Defender is stopped;
  • CPU and GPU is loaded at 80-90% exactly after the system start
  • Cooling fans are running at high speed and create a lot of noise
  • A single process in Task Manager consumes all CPU and GPU power
  • How dangerous is the Pceve.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, Pceve.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, because all CPU power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating profits on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely experience incredibly sluggish efficiency. Pages can open for years, any type of logins will likely take about a minute – just a nightmare for a person who does a job online.

    Pceve.exe Technical Summary.

    File Name Pceve.exe
    Type Trojan Coin Miner
    Detection Name Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner
    Distribution Method Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc.
    Similar behavior Proquota.exe, Raptor.exe, 11.exe
    Removal Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Pceve.exe removal.

    “Visible” harm is not a solitary bad activity coin miners perform to your system. Pceve.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious functions properly, it wrecks the protection components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be gone back to the initial state in the process of PC recovery.

    Hardware effects of coin miner activity

    Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as increase electricity bills. Hardware elements are designed to easily get along with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.

    Small and covered CPU cooling system is not very easy to crack. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for instance, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Pceve.exe miner can easily lead to graphic card failure3. Graphic cards are also prone to have very fast wearing when utilized for cryptocurrency mining. It is surely an undesirable situation when the performance of your video card decreases on 20-30% only after several weeks of being used in such a way.

    How did I get Pceve.exe coin miner virus?

    Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
    Unwanted banners adware

    The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet

    An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy site as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for every setup. Before blaming these people for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much bigger figure for antivirus software and new parts for your PC.

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

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

    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.

    Boot into Windows Safe Mode

    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.

    windows safe mode boot option with command prompt

    When your system is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, along with the majority of non-critical Windows components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU usage of the coin miner.

    References

    1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
    2. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.

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    About the author

    Robert Bailey

    Security engineer focused on malware behavior, removal workflows, and Windows hardening. Robert reviews threat articles for practical accuracy, checking detection names, symptoms, and cleanup steps before publication.

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