AMD Radeon driver bug causes continuous SSD writes and may reduce lifespan

Radeon graphics card users are reporting an issue that could compromise SSD lifespan. AMD has confirmed a bug in the Adrenalin drivers that causes the AMD External Events Client Module (atieclxx.exe) process to continuously write data to the system drive even when the computer is idle.

What is happening

The AMD External Events Utility service, responsible for display-related functions such as monitor detection and Radeon software hotkeys, is generating constant write activity. Reports indicate rates between 0.3 MB/s and 1.5 MB/s, with extreme cases reaching 5 MB/s.

In theory, a sustained rate of 5 MB/s would generate about 432 GB of writes per day. While these numbers do not necessarily translate into immediate physical NAND wear, accumulation over months can reduce the reported SSD health, especially on lower-capacity or lower-endurance drives.

One Reddit user claimed the issue consumed about 1% of SSD health per month for 16 months. Others reported tens of gigabytes written in just a few hours.

AMD confirmation and fix

AMD representatives acknowledged the problem in October. AMD_Matt confirmed the company was investigating. AMD_Vik explained that the bug appears to involve an interaction between the External Events Utility and Microsoft’s PCIe filter driver.

A fix has already been submitted and is expected in Adrenalin 26.11.1, scheduled for late November 2026. The current driver 26.10.2 does not include the fix.

How to check and workaround

To check if your system is affected:

  • Press Win + R, type resmon and open Resource Monitor.
  • Go to the Disk tab and look for continuous writes from the atieclxx.exe process.

Temporary workarounds reported include disabling the AMD External Events Utility service in services.msc (may affect Adrenalin hotkeys and functions) or turning off Resizable BAR in the BIOS (may impact performance in some games). Neither method works in 100% of cases.

The issue does not affect every Radeon system and appears limited to Windows. Linux users have not reported the same behavior.

Sources

This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed to ensure factual accuracy based on reliable primary and secondary sources.

Por Grok