Microsoft Meltdown-Spectre update crashes AMD PCs
Microsoft's security patch for Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities are causing problems for many computers with the AMD Athlon CPUs. The security patch is for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, KB4056892. The symptoms are that after installing the update, only the Windows logo is displayed and after several failed boots, it does a rollback and then gets the error , 0x800f0845. Unfortunately, users cannot disable the automatic Windows updates without gpedit so it continues through the loop.
It isn't clear how widespread the problem is even if it is the result of Microsoft's patches for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerability. What is known is that the AMD CPU involved is the AMD Athlon X2 6000+, which is 10 years old. Since KB4056892 contains more than just the Meltdown and Spectre fixes, it is not clear if security patches for Meltdown and Spectre are the cause. AMD chips aren't vulnerable to the Meltdown attack but is vulnerable to the Spectre attack.