AMD Confirms Excessive SSD Writes in Radeon Drivers, Fix Coming with Adrenalin 26.11.1

AMD has confirmed that current versions of the Radeon drivers, Adrenalin 26.10.1 and Adrenalin 26.10.2, have an issue causing excessive SSD writing. This problem results in the SSD writing tens of gigabytes of data unnecessarily. The culprit appears to be AMD’s External Event Client module, which runs under the name atieclxx.exe on Windows systems. This module causes some users’ system drives to be constantly busy writing. Reports indicate that the write rate ranges from 0.3 MB/s to 1.5 MB/s, with one Reddit user reporting sustained activity at 5 MB/s. The process is part of AMD’s External Events Utility, which handles tasks like detecting monitors and responding to Radeon software keyboard shortcuts. Unfortunately, it entered an infinite loop of writing data.

While this may not seem like much, it’s important to remember that systems can run for long periods of time and writes can accumulate over time, potentially leading to wear and tear on the SSD. The lifespan of an SSD largely depends on its ability to support constant random writes, and forcing random writes to an SSD will undoubtedly shorten its lifecycle. This is particularly concerning given the high cost of NAND Flash, as users use expensive SSDs that could suffer unnecessary wear and tear. In response, AMD plans to release an update to its Adrenalin drivers with version 26.11.1, which will resolve this issue.

For users needing a temporary workaround, there is an option to disable the AMD External Events Utility or disable the Resizable Bar. However, choosing the first option may cause display issues, while the second option may cause additional performance issues. Either way, it’s best to wait for an official driver update before making a decision.