Notepad %100 cpu usage

Viruses and worms
1

Hi,
When I launch notepad, by itself or from clicking on a .txt file, Notepad will use %100 of my cpu.
Is this a virus ?

2

Why not find out yourself if your system is infected or not?
We can’t see your system, nor are we mindreaders.
With just the info you provided, there is nothing we can say about it.

Click on the link in my signature and follow the instructions in the malware removal section to make sure your system is clean.

3

I’ve ran Avast and it doens’t pick anything up, I tried lauching notepad then avast so its scans whats in memory, but didn’t find anything. I just thought there might be a notepad virus out there that may have been discovered. I’ll check you link.

cheers

4

I checked out your link,
I ran Avast and spybot, nothing comes up.
i might replace notepad with another one and see what happens.

5

I understand your concern as notepad has been a target for infection and most people think notepad an innocuous/safe program.

You could also check the offending/suspect file at: Jotti - Multi engine on-line virus scanner and see if any other scanners here detect it as a virus.

Do you have a firewall? if so you could check and see if notepad was trying to gain access.

6

Thanks David,
I’ll check Jotti out.
I’ve a hardware firewall, so I’ll have look there too.

thanks

7

If the hardware firewall doesn’t have outbound protection, you may need to back that up with a software firewall.

8

Hi David,
I replaced the Notepad.exe with another one and the same thing happens, so I don’t think it will help if I test it with other scanners. Maybe its not a virus, I’ll do some more searching.

thanks