My PC was Slow as Molasses: The Culprit? Orphaned `grep` Processes After a Shell Timeout.
Description and use
<p>Hey there, oji_ai_dev here.</p> <p>Working on AI agents and bots as a side hustle often brings a different flavor of technical challenge compared to my day job. This time, my development PC suddenly ground to a halt, and I spent several hours debugging the issue.</p> <p>Long story short, the culprit wasn't Windows Defender (though it <em>looked</em> like it) but rather a bunch of "orphaned <code>grep</code> processes" hiding behind it.</p> <h3> The Symptom: PC Stuck at 100% CPU Usage </h3> <p>One evening, as I was setting up my dev environment and coding, my PC's fans suddenly started roari
Problem
<p>Hey there, oji_ai_dev here.</p> <p>Working on AI agents and bots as a side hustle often brings a different flavor of technical challenge compared to my day job. This time, my development PC suddenly ground to a halt, and I spent several hours debugging the issue.</p> <p>Long story short, the culprit wasn't Windows Defender (though it <em>looked</em> like it) but rather a bunch of "orphaned <code>grep</code> processes" hiding behind it.</p> <h3> The Symptom: PC Stuck at 100% CPU Usage </h3> <p>One evening, as I was setting up my dev environment and coding, my PC's fans suddenly started roari
Outcome
<p>Hey there, oji_ai_dev here.</p> <p>Working on AI agents and bots as a side hustle often brings a different flavor of technical challenge compared to my day job. This time, my development PC suddenly ground to a halt, and I spent several hours debugging the issue.</p> <p>Long story short, the culprit wasn't Windows Defender (though it <em>looked</em> like it) but rather a bunch of "orphaned <code>grep</code> processes" hiding behind it.</p> <h3> The Symptom: PC Stuck at 100% CPU Usage </h3> <p>One evening, as I was setting up my dev environment and coding, my PC's fans suddenly started roari
Evidence
My PC was Slow as Molasses: The Culprit? Orphaned grep Processes After a Shell Timeout.
- Record date: 2026-09-21T00:45:28.390Z