It gets worse: Microsoft’s Spectre-fixer bricks some AMD PCs

[Solarquest]

KB4056892 is not your friend if you run an Athlon

Microsoft’s fix for the Meltdown and Spectre bugs may be crocking AMD-powered PCs.

A lengthy thread on answers.microsoft.com records numerous instances in which Security Update for Windows KB4056892, Redmond’s Meltdown/Spectre patch, leaves some AMD-powered PCs with the Windows startup logo and not much more.

Users report Athlon-powered machines in perfect working order before the patch just don’t work after it. The patch doesn’t create a recovery point, so rollback is little use and the machines emerge from a patch in a state from which rollback is sometimes not accessible. Some say that even re-installing Windows 10 doesn’t help matters. Others have been able to do so, only to have their machines quickly download and install the problematic patch all over again …

Those who have suffered from the putrid patch will therefore need to disable Windows Update as just about the first thing they do. Keeping the machine off networks seems a helpful precaution.

The Register cannot find a Microsoft response in the thread, a reasonable lack-of-reaction given many of the complaints accrued over the weekend.

AMD CPUs are immune to Meltdown but susceptible to Spectre, but the silver lining in that cloud has been dirtied by the patch problem.

 

[Deleted member 65228]

Do they even test before releasing?

 

[n0k0m3]

Yes, but Intel paid them...

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

Let me guess.. Microsoft 'forgot' Athlon's don't support SSE4 or higher and sometimes not even SSE3?

That'll brick em.

 

[Faybert]

God, this goes far.

 

[Azure]

Do they even test before releasing?

Media frenzy must have made them rush things.

 

[brambedkar59]

I am sure this has nothing to do with some guys manually applying patch (or creating the registry key required) with an incompatible AV.

 

[LASER_oneXM]

source (bleepingcomputer.com):
Microsoft Pauses Rollout of Windows Meltdown and Spectre Patches for AMD Devices

Microsoft has halted the rollout of Windows OS security updates for the Meltdown and Spectre patches for all customer devices that use an AMD CPU.

The OS maker announced the decision earlier today after numerous AMD users reported Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and other types of errors that in some cases prevented computers from booting.

"After investigating, Microsoft has determined that some AMD chipsets do not conform to the documentation previously provided to Microsoft to develop the Windows operating system mitigations to protect against the chipset vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown," Microsoft said in a support page.

The company has decided to stop the rollout of the following Meltdown/Spectre-related security updates:
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Both Windows desktop and server OS types are affected by Microsoft decision to pull security updates for AMD devices.

The issues with the Meltdown and Spectre patches on AMD devices are just the latest problem that Microsoft has to deal with.

All users, regardless of CPU type, may experience a BSOD after installing the Meltdown and Spectre patches if they use an unsupported third-party antivirus program. Yesterday, Microsoft announced it would not deploy Windows security updates at all to devices running incompatible antivirus software.

The January 2018 Patch Tuesday security updates are scheduled for release later today.