Help - Massive idle activity spikes (Radeon 6870)

[TheSagetEffect]

Yesterday evening, my GPU went into a state of high activity (80%+), quickly spiking the temperature up to 80 degrees. There were no intensive programs running (most intensive program was my browser). It stayed in this state, so I got worried. I ran a quick virus scan and found one worm entitled 'Win32/Ainslot.A', which I scrapped. I also ran a full registry repair. The problem persisted, so I finally reinstalled the latest Catalyst drivers, which seemed to fix the problem.

This morning, however, I have noticed that the graphics card is having activity spikes every so often, where it will go up to 99% activity and bring the temperature up accordingly. This seems to only occur when I leave my desk for a period of time, and stops as soon as I begin using the computer again.

What's going on?


EDIT: Forgot to mention, overclocking is disabled in the Catalyst control panel.

[Loopzz]

Yesterday evening, my GPU went into a state of high activity (80%+), quickly spiking the temperature up to 80 degrees. There were no intensive programs running (most intensive program was my browser). It stayed in this state, so I got worried. I ran a quick virus scan and found one worm entitled 'Win32/Ainslot.A', which I scrapped. I also ran a full registry repair. The problem persisted, so I finally reinstalled the latest Catalyst drivers, which seemed to fix the problem.

This morning, however, I have noticed that the graphics card is having activity spikes every so often, where it will go up to 99% activity and bring the temperature up accordingly. This seems to only occur when I leave my desk for a period of time, and stops as soon as I begin using the computer again.

What's going on?


EDIT: Forgot to mention, overclocking is disabled in the Catalyst control panel.

You might try Malwarebytes in safe mode. http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=107218

[TheSagetEffect]

As far as I know, malware wouldn't cause an issue like this. But, of course, I will run all scans I can think of.

[RnR-LtP]

resource overload....

"Adware programs often create unwanted effects on a system, such as annoying popup ads and the general degradation in either network connection or system performance."

Scan scan and scan again!! It is in everything these days...

[TheSagetEffect]

True. Currently running a full virus scan. Once that's done, I'll boot it up in safe mode and run Malwarebytes, that will also let me see if the problem persists in safe mode.

Worst case scenario, I'll have to run a system restore. I've done that before and they tend to work.

[djiezes]

Apart from the obvious such as malware, might I suggest something you might have overlooked?

A screensaver (that taxes your GPU)?
Or something like Boinc? (think seti@home)?

These kind of applications can sometimes put your gpu or cpu under full load. So check whether there's a screensaver active or whether you have BOINC installed (or something alike).

For further trouble shooting: install SysInternals and use its Process Explorer as task manager, you'll be able to find the culprit I think.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653
(there's other useful software in the sysinternals suite that can help you)