Microsoft suspends Meltdown and Spectre patches for AMD after PCs suffer 'blue screen of death'

Microsoft has abruptly suspended Meltdown and Spectre patches for some AMD machines after complaints from users poured in to report that the update caused their machines to crash and prompted the so-called "blue screen of death". The update includes security measures to guard against the Meltdown and Spectre attacks which came to light last week.

The two critical vulnerabilities, which exist in Intel, ARM and AMD chips built in the past two decades, allow attackers to access nearly any data stored on the device, including files, passwords and photos. These flaws affect nearly every modern processor and impact a wide range of devices which use these chips, such as computers, smartphones, tablets and servers.

Technology companies such as Intel, Google, Apple and Microsoft have since scrambled to develop and release a flurry of announcements and patches to address the issues.

However, Microsoft said in a statement that it is temporarily halting its updates for some older AMD systems after the devices running the chips did not react as well as expected after installing them. Some users reported issues loading the start menu or taskbar while others said their machines would not boot altogether. In some cases, users were met with the dreaded "blue screen of death" on Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 when booting.

Microsoft blamed AMD's technical documentation for the unexpected glitches.

"Microsoft has received reports of some AMD devices getting into an unbootable state after installation of recent Windows operating system security updates," the company said. "After investigating, Microsoft 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.

"To prevent AMD customers from getting into an unbootable state, Microsoft has temporarily paused sending the following Windows operating system updates to devices that have impacted AMD processors."

AMD confirmed the issues in a statement saying it is affecting some older generation processors.

"AMD is aware of an issue with some older generation processors following installation of a Microsoft security update that was published over the weekend," the company said. "AMD and Microsoft have been working on an update to resolve the issue and expect it to begin rolling out again for those impacted shortly."

Last week, AMD claimed the exploits barely impacted its processors. The researchers who uncovered the two exploits, however, said they verified Spectre on AMD processors.