The November Patch Tuesday update fixed a security vulnerability related to Specter Variant 2 on most AMD processors. However, the next follow-up in December, the last for 2022, was probably not the most kind to systems with AMD processors. This is because some users are reporting freezing issues on their AMD Ryzen systems. This is apparently happening on Windows 11 22H2 with update KB5021255.

Reddit user Thomsen48 states that the freezing issue on their Ryzen 5 4600GE systems was apparently also present in November’s Patch Tuesday (KB5019980). This comment has seven upvotes (at the time of writing) which may indicate that others have experienced similar issues. they to write:

After installing this update on Windows 11 22H2, our customers with AMD processors started completely freezing at random times for minutes, then unfreezing again.

This issue also occurred after KB5019980, which we removed. Now this update introduces this problem again. Uninstalling the new update, like the problem again.

Disconnecting/connecting USB devices will cause the system to reboot again.

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 4600GE (Lenovo M75Q Gen 2)

The same type of clients on Windows 11 21H2, is not affected.

Another Redditor BabyMayCry in the same thread Remarks Similar problem on Ryzen 5900X where their computer would freeze for 10-20 seconds:

These CUs cause my computer to randomly freeze and then disconnect after 10-20 seconds.

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

Task manager shows system interruptions at 100%
Event Viewer > Custom Views > Management Events shows a few lines of this that correspond to the times my computer froze:

Report an Autopilot.dll WIL error.

HRESULT: 0x80070491

File: onecoreuap\admin\moderndeployment\autopilot\dll\dllmain.cpp, line 128

Message: NULL

So far Microsoft hasn’t confirmed any issues with December Patch Tuesday, but that’s understandable since it was the holiday season in the US and many other parts of the world.