AMD Athlon PCs are bricked by Spectre patch

[ItsMitch]

Source is coming in from El Register - https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/08/microsofts_spectre_fixer_bricks_some_amd_powered_pcs

Quote

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 …

 

 

While AMD is only affected by Spectre, it appears that Microsoft has just bricked several AMD Athlon PC's by causing them to become stuck at the Windows loading screen.

The only way to fix this is to reinstall the OS and delay the updates

 

Resolution form @mr moose - Thank you

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it won't be just Athlons, there are others on the Microsoft answers forum complaining of similar issues with intel,  but so far some have been able to start in safe mode and uninstall the update then block and restart.

 

Issues like this are reported after most cumulative updates.  It is entirely possible that lurking hardware issues are triggered by the update (which is why it tends to get reported on older hardware more than newer).  If people are concerned they should ensure all their hardware drivers are upto date before applying this patch.

 

 

 

But hey, should be a fun day for Microsoft to do more damage control since this is going to affect a lot of people who installed the patch, also why doesn't the patch do a recovery point for a highly critical patch is beyond belief

[flibberdipper]

Kinda odd how it wrecks Athlons but apparently nothing else. Thank god none of the computers in our house (or in family/friends' houses) run Athlons.

[JoeCoke]

Windows update, making you have to reinstall your OS since 1995! (Or whenever else it was introduced i dunno..)

[Ωhmbreon]

Oof. I know a friend who runs an Athlon X4 860....

 

[mr moose]

6 minutes ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Kinda odd how it wrecks Athlons but apparently nothing else. Thank god none of the computers in our house (or in family/friends' houses) run Athlons.

It won't be just Athlons, there are others on the Microsoft answers forum complaining of similar issues with intel,  but so far some have been able to start in safe mode and uninstall the update then block and restart.

 

Issues like this are reported after most cumulative updates.  It is entirely possible that lurking hardware issues are triggered by the update (which is why it tends to get reported on older hardware more than newer).  If people are concerned they should ensure all their hardware drivers are upto date before applying this patch.

 

 

 

[mr moose]

46 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

The only way to fix this is to reinstall the OS and delay the updates

 

In some cases you can restart in safe mode and uninstall the update, so I would try that before a complete re-install.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, mr moose said:

In some cases you can restart in safe mode and uninstall the update, so I would try that before a complete re-install.

Can also uninstall through Command Prompt

[ItsMitch]

4 minutes ago, mr moose said:

In some cases you can restart in safe mode and uninstall the update, so I would try that before a complete re-install.

I'll add your above post into the OP as a resolution, cheers.

[Drak3]

So basically, the realistic performance loss due to these patches is anywhere from 0 to 100%.

 

That's quite the spread.

[Okjoek]

I have an Athlon X2 B28 dual core in my old PC. Better make sure it uses nothing but Linux if I decide to plug her back in.

[ItsMitch]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

So basically, the realistic performance loss due to these patches is anywhere from 0 to 100%.

 

That's quite the spread.

But, Microsoft said there will be no performance problem! /s

[Drak3]

Just now, SC2Mitch said:

But, Microsoft said there will be no performance problem! /s

Well, given the performance of the Athlons to begin with, I wouldn't exactly call this a problem.

 

Excuse to finally upgrade, but not a problem.

[InertiaSelling]

Phew. I guess it's a good thing that my glorious athlon 64 3800+ 4k editing rig is still running windows XP.

 

Spoiler

 

[Androidcow1234]

Had this happen to me, but windows automatically rolled back the update after a couple restarts. 

[demonix00]

My laptop is running an AMD Athlon Processor and that has the update installed and everything is working fine.

[Mr. Smiley]

Well damn.  Will have to make sure my minecraft server doesn't auto update.  Don't need that going down, wont be able to breed more cows and chickens 

[Ryujin2003]

1 hour ago, InertiaSelling said:

Phew. I guess it's a good thing that my glorious athlon 64 3800+ 4k editing rig is still running windows XP.

 

  Hide contents

 

4k via VGA?

[Ertman]

Athlon is kind of a broadly used name at this point... 

[mr moose]

8 hours ago, SC2Mitch said:

But, Microsoft said there will be no performance problem! /s

They also said the iphone was dead when they released the WP. 

[ScratchCat]

Is this a specific generation of Athlon only or all types? This must only affect a single group of generations , any others would also be affecting phenoms as well. This would mean the generations having issues should be rather old and so have a negleible market share and therefore a lack of testing on the insider ring, therefore not really Microsoft's fault.

[mr moose]

9 hours ago, Androidcow1234 said:

Had this happen to me, but windows automatically rolled back the update after a couple restarts. 

 

I read that advice recently too, at first I didn't believe it.  Borked is borked right?  Wrong, sometimes a few restarts is enough for the updater part of windows to recgonise something is wrong and reverse the update.   I never knew.

[Matu20]

Recent Athlons have been pretty decent for their price, so I see this being a big problem.

[IntMD]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42619812

 

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Microsoft has halted some patches for the Meltdown and Spectre chip bugs after AMD customers complained that the software updates froze their machines.

The flaw in computer chips affects billions of PCs, smartphones and tablets around the world.

Specific fixes for the bugs on Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 had caused some machines to suffer blue-screen errors, Microsoft said.

In a blogpost, it said it was working with AMD to resolve the issue.

Microsoft said that it would resume fixes "as soon as possible".

"To prevent AMD customers from getting into an unbootable state, Microsoft will temporarily pause sending the following Windows operating system updates to devices with impacted AMD processors at this time," Microsoft said in the post.

It added that some AMD chipsets "do not conform with the documentation previously provided to Microsoft".

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

According to Ars Technica, this appears to be more AMD's fault.

 

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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.

This is an unusual act of buck-passing.

 

It's not entirely clear what the documentation error is. There are some reports that users with very old AMD processors are seeing crashes because the Windows kernel is trying to use an instruction that the very earliest 64-bit AMD chips didn't support. It's not clear if this is the cause of suspension, but the bulk of the complaints do seem to concern older chips, so it's certainly possible.

 

[RagnarokDel]

Not sure how big of an issue this is... Athlon is old AF.