AMD confirms a driver bug that keeps writing to your SSD — even while your PC idles
Some Radeon graphics cards are quietly writing to their owners’ SSDs around the clock — and AMD has confirmed the bug. The culprit is the AMD External Events Utility, a background service installed with Adrenalin drivers, whose atieclxx.exe process keeps writing to the system drive even while the PC sits idle. Reported write rates mostly fall between 0.3 and 1.5 MB/s, with one user reporting about 5 MB/s. An AMD representative said on 21 October that the company is investigating and aims to fix it in a future driver; the cause is an interaction with Microsoft’s PCIe filter driver, and the fix is expected in Adrenalin 26.11.1 later this month, with no exact date. The latest driver, 26.10.2 from 30 October, does not include it. One widely shared claim — 1 percent of SSD health lost per month — comes from a single user and has not been independently confirmed.
Sources: Ubergizmo — Is AMD Adrenalin Wearing Out Your SSD? How to Check and Stop the Constant Writes, 9 Nov · Gadget Review — Your AMD Graphics Driver Could Be Killing Your SSD While Your PC Sits Idle, 9 Nov