It gets worse: Microsoft’s Spectre-fixer wrecks some AMD PCs 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 7 or 10 startup logo and not much more. Users …
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"Why is it that I could predict these things happening" .......
Sadly it's a no win situation. Most non technical (and many technical people too) don't know if a patch is critical, pointless or potentially damaging so have no basis on which to accept or reject it. So either they follow the little security education they recall and say yes to patches or they don't bother with patching.
If you don't force security patches lots of people will never install them. My daughter is a prime example of this. In the Windows 7 days despite knowing she should patch she would always say "no" when offered a patch as she was only using the PC because she needed to use it at that moment, so didn't have time for a patch. When she gave me her malware infested machine to fix because it wasn't working I saw she hadn't allowed it to patch for over a year. At least with Windows 10 her PC stays patched, and as far as I can tell the forced updates are causing her little or no discernible grief.
MS made it so slow and painful to update that people stopped updating.
My experience of Linux on the other hand is the complete opposite. It doesn't tend to unexpectedly force a reboot on you either.
It's pretty simple: MS is fixing a problem of their own making by introducing forced updates.
> Most non technical (and many technical people too) don't know if a patch is critical, pointless or potentially damaging so have no basis on which to accept or reject it.
It's pretty hard to know whether a patch is necessary or not when the only information MS supplies in the list of patches is "this is a security update".
MS should be supplying full patch information in the windows update interface, not a generic message.
Microsoft used to give much better information on each patch (and I would read it and select which ones to install). I think this was on XP - I would even "hide" some updates which would prevent them from being installed or showing up in the list again.
Unfortunately, at some point, Microsoft apparently decided users didn't need to know what the patch was actually fixing and stopped giving any sort of information that would allow us to choose.
Why is it that I could predict these things happening back when Win 10 with forced updates was introduced, but MS couldn't?
Because you don't make vast wedges of cash from selling user-data to advertisers? It's remarkable how making money off something seems to switch off self-critisism..
Agreed bad, but you know microsoft will just spin the press .. "oh look at how many we've saved, the millions running our windows 10 with updates that don't brick won't be part of the worm spreading masses"
And this happened before .. remember the driver that killed gamers systems for keyboards and mice? Yet where do they go? .. back to microsoft to slurp up more free gruel. MMMMmmm thank you microsoft might I have some more?
FYI tell your friends, the first places Spectre related malware is likely to show up? .. those "download to see this movie" apps. We internet poor do love our stolen goods.
"FYI tell your friends, the first places Spectre related malware is likely to show up? .. those "download to see this movie" apps. We internet poor do love our stolen goods."
Quite right. I dont run AV at home, because I am the only one there and I dont do stupid shit like that. The machines I made for gf and stepson have plenty of AV , because they will click on anything.
If people could just learn to not download executables ( or to download them from a suitable URL ) everything would be fine.
In fact I think I will start imposing corporate lock down type policys on friends and family.
I had 4 AMD servers running 2008R2 and 2012 that showed a stop error after this patch. I managed to recover by starting Windows recovery (F8, repair my computer), opening command prompt and using this command below:
Dism.exe /image:c:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions
Mileage may vary
I was silly enough to check the MS site for instructions. My first thought was system restore, but I figured MS would have any additional info.
NOPE!
All MS is providing is a link to a generic BSOD diagnostic guide. Not even a suggestion to simply roll back with system restore.
Interesting that update KB4056892 is designated a quality improvement update by Microsoft, with only passing mention of security (possibly including the specific issues) at all. It's one thing being a bit hush-hush about all this, but would be reassuring if users knew for sure they were protected as best they could be.
Is nobody answering that question?
Yes, several chips have multiple degrees of vulnerability for the issues... And Microsoft and Linux worlds can scramble to patch the issues via software, but...
CAN Intel and AMD design new chips without the flaws? Would they call it Core i3.1 or Core i4, or Core i6...?
Is it safe to say that Intel Roadmap have its place reserved on the trash bin, or at least delayed a whole generation to circumvent the design issue?
Did they stop making the faulty processors, or do they just expect the OS'es producers to completely fix the problem on the OS level?
Keep making the same processors with the same flaws is like keep making cars with Takata airbags to recall them later!
STOP DOWNVOTING ME! This is a valid question!
The fault is with Intel chips. The error is with all other types of processing using branch prediction (AMD, ARM etc). This speeds up computers, but introduces methods to break security. So new software or hardware is needed to make security stronger, or change the branch prediction logic.
Unless I am confusing Meltdown and Spectre there's something very wrong here.
1: Meltdown only affects Intel CPUs but it can be patched.
2: Spectre affects all CPUs but can't (yet) be patched.
3: There is a third AMD bug, which apparently needs physical access to the machine to exploit
So just what is the update supposed to be doing, because i am not sure it should even be trying to install on an AMD machine?
"KB4056892 is not your friend if you run an Athlon"
I have an AMD Phenom II X4 945 processor that's about 10-12 years old. The Windows update that Microsoft is offering me is KB4056894. I'm wondering if this processor is Athlon-related and whether this update is safe.
That's the Windows 7 version of the patch. It broke one of my laptops running an AMD Turion64 X2 CPU, but went fine on another running an Intel Core2Duo T7200. Be careful. The good news was that running the system repair sorted it out (from the F8 startup menu before the Windows logo pops up) - if you've not got a recent one, make a restore point yourself before trying the patch.
It's now a day later, the morning of Patch Tuesday; and I see that Windows Update is no longer offering me KB4056894. Looks like it got recalled:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4073707/windows-operating-system-security-update-block-for-some-amd-based-devi
As of right now, Windows Update is showing me no "important" updates.
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