Screen flickers after logging in and at random times

Framework Laptop 13
1

Hi,
I setup two brand new Laptops 13 (AMD, DIY) this weekend and am mostly liking the experience so far.

On one of them the screen flickers and shows content where it’s not supposed to be (like the taskbar moves a bit right for a fraction of a second). This happens when logging in for sure and at times while using. For the times it happens during use I have not been able to discover a pattern.

Drivers are up to date and I have also verified the hardware connections are properly fastened.

Topics checked, but not helping to resolve the issue:

edit: the flickering is very serious when charging the laptop at either of the two rear ports with the charger provided by Framework.

1 Like
2

Welcome to the forum. Sorry that it’s an issue which brings you here.

Does it only happen when charging?
If you haven’t already, try using the charger / power adapter from your other laptop, just to eliminate the charger as a source.

If it occurs consistently enough when logging in, I’d suggest taking a video of it.

3

Hi MJ and others,

That’s a good tip. I’ve uploaded two videos onto OneDrive:

* With charger plugged in
* Charger taken out

Yes, it does occur with the other charger as well.

4

Oh yeah, that’s quite a lot.

Is there ever any flickering when no charger is connected? I’m not clear on that part.

What OS are you using?

Though, it does feel like a hardware issue to me. Have you contacted support? Note that it may take them longer than normal to get back to you at the moment. See Status of Framework Support (October 24th, 2023). If you haven’t contacted them yet, I’d give them as much information as possible in your initial message and provide your videos, to hopefully speed their assessment of the issue.

5

Hi MJ,

Thank you again.

Yes, also when not charging it does flicker, but not nearly as much. Though quite annoying it is workable. I’m using Win 11 Pro by the way.

I have contacted support as well, but I did see that they are quite busy indeed. I did that after linking to the videos here, so they have the same information as you and I do. As they are busy, I decided to also use the forum.

Regards,
Robert

1 Like
6

Not that it would help, but mine does the same. It’s fine on battery, but as soon as the charger is plugged in, it flickers and tears. I tried three chargers (original FW charger, Dell 65W, Dell 90W PD from my monitor)

7

I have been able to resolve the flickering. As it turns out, reseating the left cable connecting the screen to the motherboard was the solution.

I guess the modularity of Framework has proven itself already. Imagine that cable had some glue…

8

Hello together. I’ve got my Framework 13 since yesterday and am also new here.

My Framework shows the same, sometimes extreme, flickering. For me, it seems like, the flickering occuring has maybe something to do with the brightness sensor.

If I sit in a dark room, wake it up from sleep and the screen turns on, but not very bright, the flickering starts. The darker I set the screen then, the extremer it gets. And if I set it manually brighter, it instantly turns off at a specific brightness level.

Before that I also tried different Linux versions, like PopOS, Zorin, Mint. But if the flickering starts, it even flickers on the POST Screen, before any OS bootet up. So it couldn’t be only a driver issue from some distro, but more on a firmware level. I hope, this is fixable with an update.

9

After reconnecting the cable and carefully placing it back into its “channel” with as little friction as possible, I have to say that, in my case, not much has changed. The flickering still appears.

Is it possible that the cable or its shielding is already damaged, so that at lower brightness levels not enough signal is coming through to maintain continuous illumination? Does that make sense? I’m not knowledgeable enough in this area to say for sure.
I think I’ll go ahead and open a ticket.