Microsoft has paused the distribution of its latest Windows 10 patch after users reported their machines were unable to boot following the installation.

The update was designed to fix the so-called Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities present in almost all modern processors.

However, Microsoft’s community forums were soon flooded with complaints as users left unable to start-up their PCs.

The issues appear to be limited to certain models of AMD chipset.

Microsoft has blamed AMD’s documentation for the unexpected problems.

A spokesperson for the company said: “Microsoft has reports of customers with some AMD devices getting into an unbootable state after installing recent Windows operating system security updates.

“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.”

Windows 10 machines powered by an AMD processor are no longer eligible to receive the latest software update.

Microsoft has blocked the software upgrade to avoid machines from getting into an unbootable state.

Users who are no longer able to boot-up their AMD machine following the update should head over to Microsoft’s support site to try and recover their computer.

Microsoft says it is working with AMD to resolve the issue. It has promised to push-out Meltdown and Spectre patches to AMD PCs soon.

Earlier this month, Microsoft issued the following statement about the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerability, “We're aware of this industry-wide issue and have been working closely with chip manufacturers to develop and test mitigations to protect our customers.

“We are in the process of deploying mitigations to cloud services and have also released security updates to protect Windows customers against vulnerabilities affecting supported hardware chips from Intel, ARM, and AMD.

“We have not received any information to indicate that these vulnerabilities had been used to attack our customers.”

AMD chips are not vulnerable to the Meltdown vulnerability, however they are vulnerability to one of the discovered Spectre attacks.

Patches and operating system updates could address this flaw.

AMD said there was a "near zero risk" its chips could be exploited by the second Spectre attack.

By contrast, the flaw appears to be present in every Intel chipset produced in the last decade, according to The Register.

It enables normal users applications, as well as JavaScript in web browsers, to bypass the access protections built into the kernel and ascertain the layout or contents of protected kernel memory areas.

Kernels in operating systems have complete control over the system.

It is the kernal that connects applications to the processor, memory, and other hardware built into the computer.

Kernels also contain a memory space hidden from user processes and programs that houses password data, login keys, files cached from disk, and so more sensitive data.