CPU usage high until I open task manager!!!!!

[supermagg]

I own a Zephyrus G14 with Ryzen 7 4800HS and I bought it like 6 months ago, sometimes(ocassionally) when it heats up in silent mode I open Armoury crate to check cpu usage and it's 30-40% constant....BUT WHEN I OPEN TASK MANAGER IT DROPS DOWN IN AN INSTANT TO 4-5%!

why does this happen.....unnecessary heating even in silent mode.

I also can't figure out what services use that extra CPU as it doesn't show in Task manager.

PLS HELP ME MANNNNNNn! 

[shoutingsteve]

Yup.  happened to me once.  You have some sort of mal ware or whatever that closes as soon as you look at it.  I had a problem exactly like that (although with mine I had to hover over the process for it to close.  I solved it by using a different task manager and then deleting the troublesome exe file.

 

I used "process explorer" to find it.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

[Akolyte]

14 minutes ago, supermagg said:

I own a Zephyrus G14 with Ryzen 7 4800HS and I bought it like 6 months ago, sometimes(ocassionally) when it heats up in silent mode I open Armoury crate to check cpu usage and it's 30-40% constant....BUT WHEN I OPEN TASK MANAGER IT DROPS DOWN IN AN INSTANT TO 4-5%!

why does this happen.....unnecessary heating even in silent mode.

I also can't figure out what services use that extra CPU as it doesn't show in Task manager.

PLS HELP ME MANNNNNNn! 

I know some stealth miners do this as a way to try and avoid detection. 

 

While it might just be a bit of a paranoia, I'd run an antivirus scan. 

 

I'd highly recommend signing up for a Trial of Hitman Pro, which is just an on-demand scanner you can uninstall after your scan - but it uses multiple antivirus engines to scan, and generally has a really high level of respect in the security community.  

 

Just run a scan with that, and see if it finds anything.   Following that, if nothing is detected - let's explore other troubleshooting options.  

[Akolyte]

3 minutes ago, shoutingsteve said:

Yup.  happened to me once.  You have some sort of mal ware or whatever that closes as soon as you look at it.  I had a problem exactly like that (although with mine I had to hover over the process for it to close.  I solved it by using a different task manager and then deleting the troublesome exe file.

 

I used "process explorer" to find it.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Agree with this, Process Explorer is a good option - some malware might detect this too, as it's a pretty popular tool. 

 

You can choose an option in Process Explorer to have every executable's hash checked against Virus Total.  This means you'll get a list of how many AV's detect the process as malicious.  So, even if the malware does go back into hiding, as long as the process is running, you should be able to find it.