AMD has blamed Microsoft for a software problem affecting PCs using its K6-2 350MHz or faster chips which means machines hang and need re-booting. The problem, which only affects machines running Windows 95, can be fixed by a software patch but end users cannot obtain that from AMD. Instead, according to Rana Mainee, AMD's European market analyst, end users must find the patch on the Microsoft site. But a search of the Microsoft site revealed nothing when we searched it at two pm, GMT. Whether you did a search on AMD and/or K6, the result was nothing. The problem occurs with Win95 OSR2, OSR2.1 and OSR2.5 on PCs with AMD chips running at speeds of 350MHz and gives the messages Device IOS failed to initialize, You must reboot your computer, or Windows Protection Error: You must reboot your computer. AMD says that while the problem is intermittent with the 350MHz part, it is more likely to occur with faster processors. Mainee said: "We spoke to Microsoft and they said it was a software timing loop problem, so they did a patch which they had been offering from their Web site." He said that it did not affect majority of the 350MHz population, but only the 10 or 20 per cent of machines which still use Windows 95. "If anyone has a problem, all they have to do is to search [the Microsoft] site for the patch," he claimed. He said that Microsoft had said that it did not want AMD to either post the patch on its own site or point to the place where the patch exists on the Microsoft site. "Microsoft has asked us not to," he said. "We're not passing the buck". ®