AMD Driver Bug is Eating Your SSD

Summary

The video investigates reports that an AMD graphics-driver bug is rapidly wearing out SSDs. The creator says the bug is real but argues that headlines—particularly claims of roughly 1% SSD health loss per month for 16 months—may overstate how much data the bug actually writes to a drive.

What the bug does

• The affected component is AMD’s External Event Utility, included with Radeon Software: Adrenalin Edition.
• The creator’s analysis suggests the bug began with driver version 26.5.1; the preceding version, 26.3.1, reportedly did not have it.
• In the affected version, the utility tries to install files associated with an AMD PCI root-bus filter driver, but the files it expects are missing.
• The installation attempt fails and retries about once per second, repeatedly copying the utility executable—roughly 662 KB to 1 MB—to a local application-data folder.
• This may explain reported write rates of approximately 0.5–1.5 MB per second. If writes reached the SSD continuously at 1 MB/s, they would total about 2.77 TB per month.

Why the SSD-wear claims may be misleading

A Reddit user attributed a reported 14% drop in SSD health over 16 months to the AMD utility. The creator questions that attribution, noting that the bug likely had not existed for the full 16 months.

Windows may acknowledge writes before they are physically committed to the SSD. In another user’s testing, Windows Performance Recorder indicated that the utility’s repeated writes were going to RAM cache, rather than repeatedly reaching the drive. As a result, Task Manager’s reported write total may reflect requested writes, not actual SSD writes.

The creator also suggests the Reddit user may have been using AMD Replay, a feature that continuously records gameplay to the drive. That recording, along with normal computer use, could have contributed to SSD wear. The user’s SSD was reportedly rated for 320 TBW (terabytes written), which the creator considers relatively low for a 1 TB drive, especially for a heavy user.

The video therefore treats the reported 1%-per-month figure as unproven and likely influenced by multiple factors. The actual impact may vary depending on whether writes are cached, the drive’s endurance, and how the computer is used.

Suggested workarounds

1. Disable the AMD External Event Utility service in Windows Services. The creator recommends this as the simplest temporary fix, though it may disable some software hotkeys or related features.
2. Disable Resizable BAR in the BIOS. The creator says this may prevent the utility from attempting the problematic installation, but considers it undesirable because it disables a useful GPU feature.
3. Restore the missing files the utility expects, if they can be obtained from an older installer.
4. Install an older driver version, such as 26.3, until AMD releases a fix.

AMD representatives had acknowledged the issue and said a fix was planned for version 26.11.1, expected in the November release at the time of the video. The fix was not yet available then.

Main speakers and sources

• ThioJoe — The sole presenter and analyst, who examines the software and assesses the SSD-wear claims.
• AMD representatives “AMD Vic” and “AMD Matt” — Cited as publicly acknowledging the bug and saying it was under investigation.
• AMD forum and Reddit users — Cited for reports of continuous writes, SSD-health loss, and testing of Windows write caching.