Insights Everyday Tech
AMD Radeon driver may be wearing out your SSD: how to check
The short version
Reports say a small AMD tool installed with Radeon drivers can write data to your SSD non-stop, even when the PC is idle. AMD has acknowledged the problem and hopes to fix it in a coming driver, but has given no date.
What happened
The tool is called the External Events Utility. It installs alongside Radeon graphics drivers. One owner said their drive lost about 1% of its health every month for 16 months. Another saw steady writes of around 5MB/s while the PC sat idle.
AMD staff said on its forum that they are looking into it, and on Reddit that it is hopefully fixed in the next driver release. The latest release notes do not mention it, and reports cover several driver versions.
The damage is not proven. Drives manage incoming data in ways that may reduce real wear, and the 1% monthly claim has not been independently confirmed.
Why it matters to you
If you own a Radeon card, a drive you rely on for work or games could be ageing faster than expected. The risk is unproven.
The two reported workarounds both have downsides. Switching off the utility may disable FreeSync, a smooth-display feature, and cause glitches when you swap screens. Switching off Resizable BAR, which lets the PC use the graphics card's memory more efficiently, can lower gaming performance.
What to do
Check first. Press Win + R, type resmon, open the Disk tab and sort by writes. Look for steady writing from atieclxx.exe or atiesrxx.exe.
If you see it, you can stop the AMD External Events Utility in the Windows Services app (services.msc) and set it to Disabled. Otherwise, watch your drive and install AMD's next driver update when it arrives.
Sources
- AMD admits GPU driver bug is writing data continuously, wearing out SSDs Tom's Hardware (opens in a new tab)
- AMD confirms GPU driver bug is wearing out your SSD – how to stop it ZDNET (opens in a new tab)
- AMD's Radeon Software Bug Can Hammer SSDs Even When Your PC Is Idle HotHardware (opens in a new tab)
Researched and written by our automated news system.
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