Recently, my computer became extremely slow, and the fan was running wildly. I realized I had been mined on. Sharing my troubleshooting experience during this period, hoping it can help others facing the same problem.

In fact, the symptoms of being infected with mining malware are quite obvious. First, the computer's speed drops sharply, and opening a browser takes half a day. When I checked Task Manager, CPU usage skyrocketed to over 70%, but I couldn't find which process was consuming resources. The graphics card also started running wildly, with the fan noise becoming unbearable, and I could feel abnormal heat from the case. There was also unusual network traffic consumption—despite not downloading anything, the traffic kept running.

Mining malware comes in two types. One is a file directly installed on the computer that automatically runs at startup. The other is more covert—embedded in certain websites as scripts. When you visit that page, mining begins, and stopping the page halts the process. Antivirus software is basically powerless against the second type because it’s not a real file.

My removal steps were as follows. First, I ran a full system scan with antivirus software, then used CCleaner to clean junk files. But that wasn’t enough, because some malware adds itself to trusted lists, making it invisible to antivirus. So I manually checked the registry and scheduled tasks. Press Win+R, type regedit to open the registry, then use Ctrl+F to search for suspicious process names. Names that look like gibberish are usually suspicious. After deleting all suspicious entries, I rebooted.

Another common hiding spot is Windows Task Scheduler. Press Win+R, type taskschd.msc to open it, and look for strange automatic tasks in the Task Scheduler Library. Pay special attention to those triggered at startup, or with actions that download or run certain programs. Disable or delete these suspicious tasks, then check if CPU load has returned to normal.

If these methods don’t work, you might need more powerful tools. I later installed Dr.Web for deep scanning, which finally removed some deeply hidden malware. Before cleaning, it’s best to back up your system just in case.

To prevent being mined again, I now regularly update my antivirus database, avoid running programs as administrator, and scan files before downloading. I disable JavaScript and ads in browser settings, and in Chrome, I enable the mining detection feature. I also set a strong password on my router and disable remote access. Most importantly, avoid visiting suspicious websites without SSL certificates—those HTTP pages are really risky.

Honestly, being mined on is quite annoying, and it makes the computer’s experience very poor. But as long as you troubleshoot carefully, you can clean these things out. Now my computer is back to normal speed. Sharing this with everyone in hopes it can help.