Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 10 2018, @01:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the making-boat-anchors dept.

Microsoft's 'Meltdown' updates are reportedly bricking AMD PCs

Following reports of unbootable machines, Microsoft has halted updates of its Meltdown and Spectre security patches for AMD computers, according to a support note spotted by the Verge. It made the move after numerous complaints from users who installed the patch and then couldn't get past the Windows 10 splash screen. "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," it wrote.

[...] "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," the company said.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @02:45PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @02:45PM (#620471)

    Bricked?... or just not booting Windows any more.... two different things.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=1, Informative=2, Total=3
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by SomeGuy on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:12PM (1 child)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:12PM (#620482)

    To the the "normal" person, it might as well be bricked. They won't have any way to repair it other than to take it in to a shop. And many of them will simply throw out the machine and buy a new one - that was probably the whole idea of this "glitch".

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 11 2018, @03:08AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 11 2018, @03:08AM (#620783)

      Oh come now, enough with the shade throwing.
      Just stick in the Windows boot CD / DVD and reinstall.
      Like we all do. Every six months.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by tibman on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:25PM (5 children)

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:25PM (#620485)

    Bricked is a term that laypeople have successfully stolen. It no longer means the device is permanently dead unless fixed with a hardware change (or complicated software change). Bricked is now dead without a nerd doing something (including simple software change) to fix it.

    --
    SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @03:55PM (#620495)

      Bricked is a term that laypeople clueless tech writers have successfully stolen.

      FTFY.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:14PM (1 child)

      by linkdude64 (5482) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:14PM (#620576)

      Tech illiterates should never have been given "Write" access.

      I'll see myself out.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:44PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:44PM (#620692) Journal

        How about a compromise and let them write to /dev/null?

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:24PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:24PM (#620581)

      Bricked is a term that laypeople have successfully stolen.

      Oh, like "hacking"?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by etherscythe on Thursday January 11 2018, @05:20PM

      by etherscythe (937) on Thursday January 11 2018, @05:20PM (#620985) Journal

      It has become a more nuanced term.

      dead without a nerd doing something

      That is what "soft bricked" means. "Hard bricked" still means what "bricked" used to mean.

      --
      "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:44PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:44PM (#620538)

    Not booting windows is a security improvement (not just against those bugs, as already pointed out below).
    Since those people had an AMD to start with, they probably have knowledge, or know someone, who may help use this opportunity to try Linux for their non-gaming uses. That would also contribute to make us all safer.