Hey everyone, looking to pick everyone’s brains and get some advice or points of view.
I’m debating whether to stick with my Framework 13 or get rid of it, after a little over a year of ownership.
I’ve also already contacted support regarding the issues I’ll be listing down below.
Use Case and Specs
90% of my use of the laptop consists of the following:
- UI Editing Software (Figma)
- Vector Drawing (Affinity Designer)
- Slack
- 10-ish Firefox Tabs
- YouTube music running as a Brave-based PWA
And just for good measure, here are my specs and what I use the laptop with:
- 12th Gen Intel i5-1240P
- Crucial P3 Plus 500 GB Gen 4 SSD
- Crucial RAM 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz CL22
- Windows 11 Pro
- Anker USB-C 4-in-1 Charging Station
- When I’m on the go, I use a UGreen 65W charger.
- UGreen USB-C Hub 5-in-1 20955
- Asus ProArt 2k 27 inch monitor
I don’t think I have a crazy intense/specific use case. But that’s the worst part, even with the modest high-mid tier specs, I run into a lot of day-to-day issues.
The Issues
Let me prephase this by saying I fair troubleshooting skills. Edit registries, repaste a CPU, follow instructions when PowerShell or a Console window is involved, etc. I don’t shy away from researching on Google, forums, Reddit posts, etc. For all the issues I’m about to list, I have tried something.
On top of that, I also understand that most of my issues come from Windows being Windows, and 12th Gen chips not being the greatest in general. Neither are issues that Framework themselves have a lot of agency over, and I understand that. My issues fall in two categories:
Power Management & Battery Life Issues
-
Biggest one is sleep mode straight up not working. This is more than well documented on the Framework forums, and even after following every solution I’ve found (powercfg, enabling and disabling certain services, etc) to this day if I leave my laptop asleep, there’s no warranty I won’t wake up to a hot laptop with a drained battery. Either that, or if I’m at home and my computer is just on my desk, asleep, without me using it, the fans fire up for no reason and it starts going with the screen still off. I compare this to my Windows desktop computer (Ryzen based, so it maybe is that) that always goes to sleep without an issue.
-
Laptop discharging while plugged in. This one baffles me. I’ve never been able to fix it consistently. From time to time, battery will start draining even though I’m working with the charger plugged in. I’ve tried a 100W charger and a 65W chargers, different cables, different ports on the Framework, and the issue pops up even then.
-
USB-C Power negotiation loops. As per listed on my specs, I use two different multiport chargers. They’re nice and practical, and from UGreen and Anker, both well established brands. The problem is that only the Framework has this weird issue where it sometimes forces the power negotiation to happen over and over again when I have say my phone and the laptop connected and the same time. This results in neither actually charging and me feeling like I’m destroying the longevity of both batteries. I’ve checked the power budgets for the different connection combinations (like how using 2 plugs can reduce each port’s wattage) and only use combinations that satisfy Framework’s 65W requirement.
Other Issues
- The trackpad will sometimes not register nor click. I’ve tried the fix where you press the center and it doesn’t fix it.
- Ambient Light sensor compensation is all over the place. I’ve opted for inserting a thin paper cutout to block the sensor and have a consistent brightness.
- Fan noise is very annoying.
Conclusion
To me, it seems like the only way out of these issues might be to just stop using these third party chargers, and just get a new one straight from Framework, together with upgrading to a Ryzen board. The thing is, it's a costly fix I'd rather avoid if possible and the crux of my issue.At that price bracket, it feels as if the better solution here is to sell the Framework itself and just get a different laptop. I don’t know if being annoyed by these issues is clouding my judgment of them.
If y’all were in this situation, what would you do?
