Rogue computername.exe process

onefish · 28 Oct 2014

G'day, hoping that someone here can help me work out how to permanently fix this issue. Yesterday my computer revved up and stayed that way. I looked and the CPU usage through the task manager and it was sitting at about 51% but I didn't have any programs open.

I then narrowed down the process that is causing the issue and it is computername.exe (my actual computer name). I tried to locate the actual file but it appears not to exist (yes I am set to view hidden files). When I terminate the process via the task manager my CPU usage drops down to 2%. Problem is that whenever I restart my computer the process revs up again until I kill it manually.

I can't think of anything that I did to cause this to occur. Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix it (hopefully without a full factory reset!).

Cheers!

Ztruker · 28 Oct 2014

From Task Manager, right click on the file and select Open file location. That should show you where it is running form.

onefish · 28 Oct 2014

Thanks Rich, I did that as soon as I noticed the rogue process but there is no file in the specified location, it is empty. Also did a full search of the C drive (I don't have partitions) and there is no file found with the name. It's got me stumped.

Cheers

onefish · 29 Oct 2014

I think that I might have resolved the problem (might have stuffed something up too). In msconfig I found a registry key for the problem process. The key was HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and the entry was to a file called goth.exe in the location that the task manager said that the computername.exe file was located. Of course goth.exe doesn't exist either, not in the folder or anywhere else on my C drive. I deleted the registry key and rebooted and the rogue process has not restarted itself. Hopefully the registry key wasn't important :)

Layback Bear · 29 Oct 2014

I would be worried. From what I found goth.exe comes from a game that came from Russia.

onefish · 29 Oct 2014

Well, unless I am missing something, there's not too much point getting too worried as I can't locate the file goth.exe anywhere on my computer. I've never downloaded any games to that effect either (I'm not a gamer). I suppose it could have installed in the background with some other software or something but I can't find it now. Is it possible that it's on my PC somewhere but can't be found by windows explorer search?

Cheers

Layback Bear · 29 Oct 2014

onefish said:

I think that I might have resolved the problem (might have stuffed something up too). In msconfig I found a registry key for the problem process. The key was HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and the entry was to a file called goth.exe in the location that the task manager said that the computername.exe file was located. Of course goth.exe doesn't exist either, not in the folder or anywhere else on my C drive. I deleted the registry key and rebooted and the rogue process has not restarted itself. Hopefully the registry key wasn't important :)

It was in there at one time according to this post of yours. Now you can't find it and that is good.
Now because it was loaded in your system at one time without your knowledge what else sneaked in your system along with it. Many infections don't do much but leave the backdoor to your computer open so other infection can enter.

If it was my computer I would run several scan with various security programs.