Got the email notification that it was in stock…I can’t order it because I have a 12th gen and no BIOS update in sight. I really wish they would get their BIOS pipeline fixed. In the same amount of time I have received three updates on my five year old Thinkpad T480s…yes I know Lenovo HUGE, Framework not huge plus extra crap due to module combinations.
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Updated to 3.06, laptop will no longer accept charging, on battery power only. Where is a link to the old firmware?
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Your comment sent me down a rabbit hole last night. I went back to the marketing page for the 12th Gen Intel and Framework indeed markets that it has Thunderbolt, but I definitely didn’t have it listed in my Windows 11 Pro device manager, and my Caldigit TS4 dock didn’t seem to connect as Thunderbolt.
After some Googling I found this Microsoft support thread about Thunderbolt and Windows 11, and someone said the following:
Same problem on Dell XPS 15 9520 with i9-12900Hk. TB4 is working under windows 10 but TB controller disappear under windows 11. Seems to be a general issue in windows 11 with 12th gen intel. USB-c is working fine. TB4 dock is working but recognize as a USB4 device. TB audio interface is not working. Intel software updater cannot detect TB.
Last night I formatted and reinstalled Windows 10 Pro on my laptop, and now the dock seems to be connecting over Thunderbolt and working great. I still don’t see a Thunderbolt controller in my device manager, but as far as I can tell it operating over Thunderbolt.
I also ran the Intel Driver & Support Assistant in both Windows 10 & 11, and neither detected a Thunderbolt controller. It really does seem like it should be listed, so I’m not sure what’s up with that. But in the end my problem with Thunderbolt compatibility issue was actually a Windows 11 problem, not a Framework problem. Thanks for giving me that information to send me down that path, this makes my day.
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I would contact support, they should respond reasonably fast!
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I’d like to clarify something for folks surrounding USB4 & TB3/TB4.
USB4 does not explicitly equal TB3. It can be TB3, but isn’t always. It’s kind of like what’s happening around HDMI 2.1, but more confusing like the entire USB naming conventions with things like USB 3.1 Gen2 vs. 3.2 Gen1 and it’s mess.
Thunderbolt, no matter the version, is an Intel proprietary spec. USB is a consortium, with input from many, many manufacturers. With the introduction of USB4, Intel opened much of the TB3 spec to be usable by anyone, and USB adopted it as part of the USB4 spec. However, like everything USB4, much of it’s “spec” is optional inclusion. The allusion I made previously to HDMI 2.1 is probably easier to understand. HDMI 2.1 allows for 4k@120Hz with HDR due to the increased bandwidth, but manufacturers are not required to support those features while still being allowed to call something HDMI 2.1. There was even a moment (I believe they backpedaled on this but it might still be a thing) where the HDMI consortium was actually going to require basically anything that meets HDMI 2.0 spec to be called HDMI 2.1 even if it doesn’t support any of the new features/higher bandwidth of HDMI 2.1. In much the same way, USB4 can support TB3 and it’s features, but manufacturers are allowed to sell products as USB4 without supporting those TB3 featuresets.
Prior to the USB4 TB3 inclusion, devices needed to have specific hardware to meet TB3 spec. These were Intel chipsets, some of which was in the CPU but much was a separate chip, to do what TB3 does. The same is true for TB4. Most desktop motherboards don’t have Thunderbolt because the advantage of TB (adding more IO) is meaningless, but some companies sell PCIe cards that add TB ports for those edge cases where it’s useful, which is how you can have an AMD Ryzen desktop with a Thunderbolt add in card. This is also why Framework was able to make a laptop that can use Thunderbolt even though they hadn’t yet met the TB spec. You may recall having seen this: Framework | Framework Laptops now have 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports (this was shared previously in this thread) Nirav went into more detail, but the gist of it is that you can have the hardware inside a laptop to do Thunderbolt, but to actually guarantee functional Thunderbolt support you need to meet the spec and pass certification with Intel.
That certification is include in the 12th gen 3.06 BIOS, which is still beta. Now, Thunderbolt devices like docks absolutely can work laptops that aren’t certified, but they won’t be guaranteed to work. Heck, even when the dock and laptop have been certified they might not work well together. I had a Caldigit TB3 dock that refused to play nice with my old Dell XPS 13.
Beyond the concern over the CVE’s that we’re still missing via stable releases of the BIOS, I’m personally also pretty annoyed that in November of 2022 the CEO of Framework said this:
We’ve worked with our manufacturing partner and chip suppliers over the last two years to address each test failure through firmware modifications, and now have fully compliant firmware and hardware!
It’s been 8 months since that post, and we the consumer do not have the fully compliant firmware that was promised. Again, most of us using TB docks are likely working just fine, but I’m curious how many “Oh wow this dock doesn’t work?” questions would be solved if the firmware was properly updated. To my understanding the certs can be part of the Thunderbolt handshake process, and if a dock is particular strict… that might be why it doesn’t work.
So, yeah, I’ll repeat myself again: I really want to like my Framework laptop, and I really want to keep it around and upgrade my motherboard again, but the issues surrounding the BIOS release schedule are disheartening. I’m hoping the 3.07 BIOS doesn’t have significantly longer to go under internal testing, but if it has another 6+ month beta period I’ll feel forced to jump ship back to the big manufacturers.
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Like I said, it is intended to use the Windows USB4 drivers for this. For my 12th gen FW, this shows up as 2 USB4 Host Routers in Device Manager (Win 11, from that start). That is how it is designed to work. The 3.06 Beta BIOS does not change this and does not need to, as TB4 means it is USB4 on the wire and every TB4 device is just a USB4 device with more than the minimum features and Intel’s blessing.
As this is getting somewhat off topic, if you have issues getting your TS4 to work, you might want to open a different thread for support for that issue, because it should work just as well under Win11. And nowhere does anything need to show up as “Thunderbolt” for it to work.
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I was using a Thinkpad P-series.
I have one Gen11 and one Gen12. I have financial stuff on another e-mail, which is not registered in this forum. I was an early adopter, but probably made a mistake with Gen12. Let’s see.
The Gen12 replaced the Thinkpad as Secure Laptop. The Gen11 is my development machine (mainly when developing on something which needs a TPM2 during the boot process).
Please have a look at Insyde's Security Pledge | Insyde Software
You can click through the months in 2023 and see e.g. Insyde Security Advisory 2023020 | Insyde Software Insyde Security Advisory 2023023 | Insyde Software
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Hoping to see an update soon, recently purchased a 61Wh battery, and was emailed after it shipped that the release was a mistake. Support told me to keep the battery, and wait for the update, which I’m fine doing if it is not months before I can install this item.
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Would you mind giving a short update on what is going on and how things are (not?) progressing with the new firmware?
It has been 6 month since beta testing of this firmware started and it has been nearly 3 month since you said you had a new version fixing most of the reported bugs in internal testing and would report a bit more often here.
Don‘t get me wrong: I don‘t want to make updates an end in themselves, simply for increasing the version number. And I am the last one one who doesn’t understand unforeseen problems in software development. But besides getting the promised Thunderbolt certification, this update should fix some very long lasting CVEs, add support for already shipped new hardware and fix some throttling-bugs if I got it correctly.
So given the fact that a new version should also need beta testing this long silence is rather unsatisfying.
With all due understanding for the necessity to release new products to stay economically healthy and therefore reassign limited manpower this is not a masterpiece, at least in communications!
You can and you must do better than no-name-companies selling cheapest hardware as special offers in food stores and offer virtually no support with BIOS-bugfixing, IntelCME-updates, new drivers, … after sale.
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The update adding support for the new batteries is not even released in beta.
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Just to chime in I would also appreciate an update even if it’s letting us know that the bios update is 3+ months out.
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@Kieran_Levin last post anywhere was May 8. It’s possible they no longer work at Framework, and this is why the promised-8-months-ago BIOS update is not coming and why there has been no communication. So do not get your hopes up and make upgrade/purchasing decisions accordingly.
Update is still coming. I still work at Framework. We have another build that is completing validation. However it does have some issues when using the EFI shell updater. I am pushing to release the windows updater as soon as we finish validation, and we may have to release the EFI update later on.
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Will this impact LVFS updates on linux?
Hopefully one can just boot into windows PE and update that way? Not that I can’t wait a bit more 
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Maybe, I’ll wait and see where things land.
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Anyone else getting where the system fan runs at high for really no reason? I’m only using a browser (everything else is closed) the fan is running full blast. When I then run HWiNFO, the fans come back to normal and sensors are showing 45-50C. Thoughts? (Side note, I also have a laptop cooling pad under the laptop as well)
I didn’t really notice this issue until after the 2nd time I installed the bios update (first time didn’t really take).
I have noticed this behaviour whenever temps reach this range. I think it’s by design. I remember seeing someone make a post about fan curves, Maybe look that up to adjust the fan curve.
I was under the impression that the fan sensors weren’t exposed and thus are not able to be changed. Is this no longer true?
I think it’s possible through the embedded controller? I found the post I mentioned for fan curves.
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