12th Gen Intel Core BIOS 3.08 Release

SKU# and SYS SERIAL NUMBER: FRANDACP06 FRANDACPA62443001V

SYS CONFIG: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-1260P

RAM:
Crucial Technology
Part Number: CT16G4SFRA32A.M16FR
2 sticks of 16G, total 32G

SSD:
product: WDS100T3X0C-00SJG0
vendor: Sandisk Corp
size: 1TB
not removed

Wi-Fi:
product: Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz
vendor: Intel Corporation
not removed

External Devices/Other: none

EXPANSION CARD TYPES: 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A, 1x micro-SD

BIOS VERSION: Factory original, I think it was 3.05

DRIVER PACKAGE VERSION: n/a

OS VERSION: Debian Linux 12 on kernel 6.6.8-amd64 (kernel from Sid, rest from Stable)

FAIL RATIO: n/a

STEP TO REPRODUCE:
Using EFI shell via USB drive.
Step 1 - Unzip file to bootable USB drive.
Step 2 - Reboot, go straight into the flash update screen.
Step 3 - Remember that I didn’t disable secureboot like I was supposed to.
Step 4 - reboot into BIOS settings, disable secureboot
Step 5 - Reboot, go straight into the flash update screen.
Step 6 - Press enter to begin flash
Step 7 - See this (note this is abridged; I can upload a complete photo if desired):
Flashing Firmware 1: Current mode:2, starting row:22, Total rows: 117.

Flashing Firmware 2: Current mode:2, starting row:118, Total rows: 501.

Flash completed successfully.

Unable to redirect file.
Script Error Status: Invalid Parameter (line number 116)
FS0:\framework-firmware-update\firmware>

Step 8 - Waited for about 5 minutes to see if anything will happen, nothing happened.
Step 9 - power cycle machine.
Step 10 - BIOS update starts again, but displays a message saying power adaptor is not connected.
Step 11 - I moved the power adaptor from left side to right side, and front to back. Didn’t help.
Step 12 - Unplugged the power adaptor, turned off the laptop, waited about 5 minutes.
Step 14 - Plugged it back in, put the bootable USB back in, and powered laptop on.
Step 15 - Straignt into flash update screen. Press enter to begin flash.
Step 16 - some time later, flash update was complete and successful.

OBSERVED RESULT: First attempt was “Unable to redirect file” (see step 7). Second attempt (after letting the EC reboot) was successful.

EXPECTED RESULT: Obviously this one, we expect it to flash successfully and be reflected in BIOS settings.

ISSUE RECOVERY METHOD: See step 12 above (unplug, power down, and wait).

EXTERNAL DEVICE MODE or NAME: generic USB

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Successful on the first try, no issues afterward

SUCCESS SKU# and SYS SERIAL NUMBER: FRANMACP04 A4 / FRANMACPA423450020
SYS CONFIG: i5-1240P
RAM: Crucial DDR4-2666 (8x2)
SSD Crucial P5 Plus
Wi-FI: Intel AX210
External Devices/Other: None
EXPANSION CARD TYPES: 2x USB-C (right and left rear - right rear was used for PD input, left rear empty), 1USB-A (front right), 1 storage card (1 TB, front left).
BIOS VERSION: Can’t remember what I started on. Bought the board in fall 2023, if that helps.
DRIVER PACKAGE VERSION:
OS VERSION: Windows 11 Pro
FAIL RATIO: Used the .msi, success on first try
STEP TO REPRODUCE: No Failure
OBSERVED RESULT:
EXPECTED RESULT: Flashed Successfully
ISSUE RECOVERY METHOD: N/A
EXTERNAL DEVICE NODE or NAME: N/A

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There is no download and even if there was:

I hope its just a eDP cable issue that you can resolve by reseating some of it.

contact support is all I would do if reseating by myself would not fix it. and great you made videos, would help support seeing your issues :smiley:

Great news that this enables support for the 61Wh battery! I’ll finally be able to use that!

When will the EFI download be back - I’m running Fedora 39 here.

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To me this reads as you can’t downgrade to lower that 3.06. I want to downgrade to 3.06!
Please give me download!!

Yes I have a ticket open with support. I probably won’t hear anything till after the weekend. I have things back to working in windows and just the glitchy nonsense on the splash screen and in the bios so I’m just going to leave the hardware alone for now.

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All that was ever published was the 3.06 Beta. And that thread is still up, including download links 12th Gen Intel Core BIOS 3.06 Beta. Framework never updated the known issues on that, even though it was enough to kill the release of this version as final, but other than that…

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In theory you can, but as stated in that thread and some folks tried, left side ports will not function. If you have a support ticket going, great, hope they contact you with helpfull hints and ideas.

I never seen 3.04 or 3.05 downloads, they where only applied from the factory. 3.06 beta was, and still is available. My best guess is to retry 3.08, maybe with ass less possible hardware attached or inserted. I also rebooted after all updating, and disconnected the battery for 10 seconds (was a guess amount of time). The both side leds showed colorful leds probably finally really pushing the new firmware for the usb host adapters/retimers?

Support will know the best answers.

What was the problem? Was it related to the new BIOS in general?

In my case, under Windows 11, discharge battery to 80%

with

Framework_Laptop_12th_Gen_Intel_Core_BIOS__3.08b.msi

With patience, one time process bar goes to 100%, back to 95%…
some reboots later. Looks like for me so far everething ok.
With Tunderbolt-4 Dock got second screen like bevor.

FAILURE SKU# and SYS SERIAL NUMBER: FRANDACP06, FRANMACPA62362006Y
SYS CONFIG: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-1260P
RAM: Crucial 32GB, 1 Stick
SSD: WD 2TB SN850 NVMe
Wi-Fi: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210
External Devices/Other: Power on USB-C
EXPANSION CARD TYPES: 3x USB-C, 1x USB-A
BIOS VERSION: From Factory 3.04
DRIVER PACKAGE VERSION: Framework_Laptop_12th_Gen_Intel_Core_driver_bundle_W11_2022_07_26.exe
OS VERSION: Dualboot: Windows 11, Debian 12
FAIL RATIO: worked on the first try.
STEP TO REPRODUCE: No Failure, so far. Can boot in both OS

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Thanks everyone for all the help and advice, I eventually got things working normally again.

Support got back to me and provided the same link to the 3.06 bios, they asked that I attempt to install the 3.08 bios again and if that didn’t work try the 3.06 bios. Neither one actually seemed to try to install as soon as the machine rebooted it just showed the normal boot screen (with flickering) and dropped me back into windows.

After another email from support with a long list of things to try. First they asked me to try reseating the display cable again. At first this went as poorly as the first time. No display output to the internal screen but I can connect an external one and things are working okay (of note if I reboot with the external screen connected I can see the boot screen on the external display and it does not flicker) the internal screen’s backlight keeps coming on momentarily but doesn’t recover like it did last time.

They ask me to boot with the internal screen completely disconnected and then reconnect. this time while connecting the internal cable I notice it feels a bit crunchy, so I hit it with some canned air and reconnected. This time when I boot up the boot screen is visible with no flickering and everything seems to be working!!!

TLDR:
Perhaps this was actually just really back timing for an issue with my internal display cable.

I still find it weird that it would happen just at that moment and before I opened the case. It’s also kind of impressive that windows would be able to persevere through a bad connection.

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  • FAILURE SKU# and SYS SERIAL NUMBER: FRANDACP06/FRANGACP06, FRANDACPA623010031/FRANGACPA6223400P1
  • SYS CONFIG: i7-1260p
  • RAM: G.Skill 32GB Dual Channel 3200MT/s
  • SSD: Samsung 980 1TB
  • Wi-Fi: AX210
  • External Devices/Other: Only a 90w power cord
  • EXPANSION CARD TYPES: 2x usb C, 2x usb A
  • BIOS VERSION: 3.06
  • DRIVER PACKAGE VERSION: Latest
  • OS VERSION: Installing from Windows 11 23H2 from the MSI. Debian was also installed and GRUB2 was the bootloader.
  • FAIL RATIO: The first MSI link failed 100% of the time: “The installer can only be run on Framework Laptop 12 Gen Intel Core Mainboards.” The subsequent 3.08b msi succeeded the first time.
  • STEP TO REPRODUCE: 1. Run the 3.08 MSI file
  • OBSERVED RESULT: “The installer can only be run on Framework Laptop 12 Gen Intel Core Mainboards.”
  • EXPECTED RESULT: Flash bios
  • ISSUE RECOVERY METHOD: Use the 3.08b MSI file linked by Kieran Levin in reply 20 in this chain.
  • EXTERNAL DEVICE MODE or NAME: N/A
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Phew, glad it works again. dust got in there maybe or surface level oxi? we may never know. wishing you a display that will now forever work

The msi ran fine for me, no issues. i7 1280P, win11

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Not sure if this is a new issue with this firmware or an existing one, but the difference in power consumption between performance modes is have little to no effect on power usage.

Windows balanced
Max battery - 31.5w
Max non-turbo - 33.8w
Max turbo - 30.7w

Windows performance
Max battery - 39w
Max non-turbo - 38w
Max turbo - 37.3w

Windows efficiency
Max battery - 22.62w
Max non-turbo - 25.48w
Max turbo - 22.27w

This is peak power during a benchmark. I was trying to see the performance difference between them to get a good balance of battery and performance but got tripped up by these numbers.

When I have more time I plan on doing more in-depth testing, as well as testing in Linux.

Is it possible to flash back to the original to confirm this is new behavior or will it block me from doing so?

On my system (Linux) the new update is not detected in fwupdmgr. I did 3.06 update with that method in the past, have lvfs-testing enabled. Is this expected?

This update won’t be done through lvfs, intel csme can’t be updated through it.
Also see below, update for linux is temporarily on pause.

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Apparently yes, you can downgrade, but if “original” means “released” to you, no

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Wild, that’s fine I’m not having any issues and will just assume this has always been broken which is a bummer.

Thanks for sharing that, re reading it I know I read it before and just forgot.

If you want to discuss tis further I would recommend having this split out from the topic.

At first glance I have several questions: 1) How are you measuring power draw? 2) Times you are measuring against? 3) Thermals while doing so? In short I don’t think anything is broken, or changed. I suspect you are measuring using Powertop which generally polls fairly slowly so “power usage” is not directly representative of what is happening over time you really need to use a kill-a-watt to measure draw from the wall. Also the thermals are going to matter immensely as the difference between the modes is going to be leavened by hitting those thermal limits i.e. throttling because it is a thin light laptop.

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Windows & HWinfo, I’m not concerned about wall power. Only battery.

In my testing the bios profiles don’t affect wall power only the windows power plans did.

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