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Codex Issues / #38698

[Windows][26.810.50856] Intermittent severe system-wide stutter; restarting Codex restores responsiveness

Open 💬 4 comments Opened Aug 15, 2026 by gzjggg
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.810.50856

What platform is your computer?

Windows x64

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex / ChatGPT desktop app occasionally causes severe system-wide stuttering on Windows.

When the issue occurs, the slowdown is not limited to the Codex window: general Windows interaction becomes noticeably laggy and the machine feels severely unresponsive.

Fully closing the Codex desktop app and launching it again immediately restores normal system responsiveness.

The exact trigger is currently unknown. I have not yet identified a deterministic sequence of actions that reproduces it, so I do not want to speculate about the root cause.

This may be related to the system-wide stutter / high-CPU regressions reported for the earlier 26.810.4967.0 build, such as #38547 and #38554, but this report is specifically for build 26.810.50856 and I cannot confirm that the underlying cause is the same.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

No reliable reproduction steps yet.

Observed pattern:

  1. Launch Codex Desktop on Windows and use it normally.
  2. At some point, severe system-wide stuttering may begin.
  3. Fully exit the Codex / ChatGPT desktop app.
  4. Start the app again.
  5. System responsiveness returns to normal.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should remain responsive during extended use and should not degrade the responsiveness of the rest of Windows.

Users should not need to periodically restart the app to restore normal system performance.

Additional information

  • The issue is intermittent.
  • The reproduction condition is currently unknown.
  • Restarting the desktop app is a reliable temporary workaround once the slowdown occurs.

View original on GitHub ↗

4 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 13 days ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

  • #38554
  • #38659
  • #38551
  • #38583

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nos1609 · 13 days ago

same on linux in vscode...

masa-trace · 13 days ago

Independent reproduction on Windows 11 with the same Codex Desktop build, 26.810.50856.

Environment

  • Codex Desktop: 26.810.50856
  • Release date shown in About dialog: 2026/08/15
  • Windows 11 Pro x64
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-12700 (20 logical processors)
  • ChatGPT Plus

Symptoms

After updating to this build, Codex has repeatedly caused severe system-wide input lag.

When the problem occurs:

  • Mouse movement across Windows becomes clearly stuttery / sluggish.
  • The slowdown is not limited to the Codex window.
  • Codex continues consuming roughly 6–7% total CPU even when no active task is running.
  • Once the problem begins, the CPU usage remains at roughly the same level instead of returning to the normal idle baseline.
  • Fully exiting Codex restores normal system responsiveness.
  • Restarting Codex can temporarily restore normal behavior, but the issue can return later.

This behavior was not observed before the August 15 update.

Usage vs. idle time

In one affected session:

  • Codex process lifetime: approximately 1 hour 23 minutes
  • Actual Codex working time: approximately 17 minutes 50 seconds
  • Time with no active Codex work: approximately 1 hour 5 minutes 10 seconds
  • Active-work ratio: approximately 21.5%

Despite Codex being inactive for most of the session, the elevated CPU usage and system-wide mouse lag continued after the issue had started.

The issue has reproduced multiple times on August 15.

Additional observation

Immediately after launching the newly updated build, the entire system became noticeably sluggish. I exited Codex, rebooted Windows, and the system was still temporarily sluggish immediately after reboot, but returned to normal after being left idle for a short period.

The main reproducible boundary remains:

Codex affected state → system-wide mouse/input lag
Fully exit Codex → responsiveness returns

This appears consistent with the other reports for 26.810.50856, although I have not independently confirmed whether the underlying cause is the same hashing / reconciliation loop described in #38547.

olinkluzz1v · 12 days ago

https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/38716#issuecomment-5302760473