How to tell if I'm running a bitcoin mining program?

georgeoforce

Honorable
Sep 22, 2012
1
0
10,510
Hi. Recently my gpu (Asus GTX 760) has been running extremely hot for no reason, and crashing when I play games sometimes. Now of course this could be a technical fault and I'm not ruling that out, but how possible is it that I'm running a bitcoin mining program in the background? And if so, how would I go about sorting that out? Any help would be appriciated, thanks.
George.
 

Skylyne

Estimable
Sep 7, 2014
405
0
5,010
Well, bitcoin miners are typically easy to spot when the computer is supposed to be idle. When your computer is idling, your temps should go down, as well as cpu/gpu usage. If they don't, that's the easy way to spot something. It won't tell you anything specific, but that's the most basic way.

Definitely worth checking your coolers too, though... that's a common cause of this stuff. Troubleshoot hardware (coolers, clean/reapply heatsink/cooling gels, clean dust filters, etc.) if the computer is old, and then work your way forward. If you still have heat issues, then you're definitely going to want to look into software.