AMD confirms Radeon driver utility writes to SSDs while PC sits idle
Users report possible SSD wear from the External Events Utility, but the scale of the damage remains unconfirmed until AMD ships a fix.
AMD has acknowledged that its External Events Utility, which installs with Radeon drivers, appears to write data to the system drive continuously even when a PC is idle, with one user reporting roughly 5MB/s of sustained writes. Reported SSD health losses of about 1% per month have not been independently confirmed, and it is unclear how much of this activity reaches the NAND flash once controller caching and wear-leveling are taken into account. The problem shows up across several Adrenalin versions, and AMD's October 30 release notes for Adrenalin 26.20.2 do not mention it. Users have two workarounds: disabling the AMD EEU service, or disabling Resizable BAR, though the latter can reduce gaming performance. AMD says a fix is planned for a future driver without a confirmed release date.
Why it matters
For owners of Radeon systems, the bug means background disk writes can continue even when the machine is doing nothing, and the drive wear that might follow is not yet measured. Until a fixed driver arrives, the practical choice is between disabling the AMD EEU service and turning off Resizable BAR, which one user says stops the activity but may cost some gaming performance. The lack of a release date and of any mention in the latest release notes leaves users with a workaround rather than a clear answer.
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