AMD quietly kills SSDs: Radeon drivers write gigabytes of junk every day

AMD’s latest Radeon drivers may have brought back an old issue that quietly fills SSDs with unnecessary data. The issue involves a background Windows service that can continuously write data to the system drive, even when the PC is idle, potentially reducing drive’s lifespan over time.

The problem has been linked to the AMD External Events Utility and its client process, atieclxx.exe. The component handles display-related functions such as monitor detection, display hotkeys, and FreeSync. For some users, the service keeps writing to the system drive even when the computer is not being used.

Some reports put the write rate at around 1 MB/s, while others claim it can reach 5 MB/s. That might not sound like much, but at a constant 5 MB/s, the process could generate around 432 GB of writes in a single day. This is especially concerning for smaller SSDs with relatively low endurance ratings, although the actual impact on drive lifespan remains unclear.

The problem is not entirely new. Similar behavior was previously reported with AMD chipset drivers, but the latest reports point to the graphics driver stack instead. The issue has also been observed across multiple Radeon driver versions, including recent Adrenalin releases.

AMD has acknowledged the problem. According to a company representative on Reddit, it involves an interaction between the AMD External Events Utility and Microsoft’s PCIe filter driver. The company is investigating the issue, and a potential fix has reportedly been submitted for final validation and testing. AMD hopes to include it in an upcoming driver release, although no specific release date has been announced.

Until then, users have found a few possible workarounds. Disabling the AMD External Events Utility through Windows Services can stop the background writes, but it may also affect some Radeon software features, including Adrenalin hotkeys. Some users say FreeSync and Resizable BAR continued to work normally after disabling the service, although results may vary.

Another option is to disable Resizable BAR in the BIOS. AMD has reportedly suggested this as a workaround, but it can affect gaming performance. Some users have also tried replacing AMD PCI bus driver files with older versions, although modifying system files in this way carries additional risks.

Radeon owners who suspect they are affected can check disk activity using Task Manager or a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo and look for sustained writes from the AMD External Events Client Module (atieclxx.exe). For most users, however, waiting for AMD’s official fix is likely the safest option.