Intel to release all Meltdown and Spectre patches before the end of January & AMD issues

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich mentions that consequences of the patches 'are very dependent on the workload to be carried out', he referred to the performance reduction that can occur due to the patches. He further advised people to continue operating system and system manufacturer patches and reiterated the view that Intel was not aware of misuse of the related leaks.

For the Microsoft patches, several users of older AMD processors reported that the updates had caused their systems to stop booting. The Microsoft forum has several threads of users who complain that their system doesn’t start anymore after the patch. They only see the Windows logo after which the computer appears to be stuck. Mainly users with older AMD processors, like Athlon, Opteron, Sempron and Turion appear to be affected. Microsoft is investigating and aware of the problem and has updated information pages KB4056894 and KB4056892. 

Forum user eftgyhju has posted an overview of the issues and a workaround the involves uninstalling KB4056892 through the Recovery Console. Update KB4056892 should patch the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. Although AMD processors are only vulnerable to the Spectre attack, it seems Microsoft also ships the Meltdown patches to AMD users. The company has paused updates for problematic AMD systems.