ZDNET’s key takeaways
- An AMD utility is inflicting drives to constantly write and rewrite knowledge.
- A Reddit person reported that their drive’s well being was being degraded.
- Workarounds are in place whereas AMD works on a everlasting repair.
Below regular circumstances, an SSD would possibly go all day while not having to entry or write recordsdata. However for some AMD Radeon customers, something however regular circumstances are inflicting drives to constantly write and re-write knowledge. The Exterior Occasions Utility (EEU) that AMD installs alongside its CPU and GPU drivers is reportedly the offender.
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SSD demise by a thousand cuts
Studies of the problem first surfaced in July on AMD’s official PC person discussion board, with one person stating that the Exterior Occasions Consumer Module and EEU have been consistently writing info to their SSD after putting in a Radeon 9060XT graphics card. Subsequent feedback on the thread this month affirm that the problem has continued regardless of a number of bug fixes and patch updates, with two customers reporting onerous numbers for knowledge utilization starting from 0.3 MB/s to as a lot as 1.5 MB/s.
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This week, Reddit person darklinkpower posted that the AMD Adrenaline Version desktop utility additionally had the EEU driver bug, utilizing as much as 1% of their drive well being per 30 days for round 16 months. Which may not sound like a lot, however it may possibly trigger catastrophic issues if left unchecked.
AMD appears to concentrate on the problem; an organization official who goes by AMD_Vik on Reddit commented that it’ll “hopefully [be] fastened within the subsequent [update].” Whereas there’s little indication of how rapidly a everlasting, official patch will likely be pushed to customers, there are just a few methods you’ll be able to defend your self from the bug and forestall your storage drive from collapsing.
The workarounds
Resolution 1: Disable EEU
- Press the Home windows key + R, kind in companies.msc, and press Enter.
- Find AMD Exterior Occasions Utility.
- Open the properties menu, finish the service/course of, and alter the startup habits to Disabled.
This appears to be probably the most constant repair for many AMD customers reporting points, however disabling the EEU could cause its personal issues, similar to disabling AMD FreeSync assist or introducing show glitches in the event you hot-swap screens whereas your PC is powered on.
Resolution 2: Disable ReBAR
The AMD Adrenalin Version desktop app helps you to management how your PC elements talk with each other, and it could be one other side of a fancy downside. By permitting your CPU to entry your graphics card’s reminiscence, you’ll be able to quickly increase efficiency, however the EEU bug appears to let it and your GPU run rampant, consuming up each little bit of reminiscence they will discover. Altering just a few settings throughout the app could assist:
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- Open the AMD Adrenalin Version desktop app.
- Click on the gear icon in this system, then go to Settings.
- Search for Sensible Entry Reminiscence to be Enabled, Disabled, or Not Out there.
- If it’s enabled, toggle it off to stop your CPU and GPU from consuming up your system’s storage and RAM.
This can be a extra area of interest answer that carries its personal danger of introducing communication points between your CPU and GPU, so I solely suggest attempting this route if disabling the EEU itself doesn’t resolve the problem. AMD’s official repair could also be within the works, however with out a agency timeline for launch, customers are left twisting within the wind attempting to cease their PCs from hemorrhaging storage capability.
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