This is my first post here, so feel free to ask clarifying questions.
I recently started running into an issue with my FW13 intel 12 gen (3 years old and used by a graduate student), where it will start to feel “fuzzy” when it is plugged into a charger. I started noticed it a few days ago. I thought it was the current charger I was using, but it has showed up with subsequent chargers that I have used.
The areas that feel the most amount of electric fuzz are the bottom right and the top left areas of the laptop. I have tried removing the battery and examining it for visible damage with no luck. I am going to spend time later today removing the battery and then plugging it in to trouble shoot that way as well. I downloaded BatteryInfoView and it says that my battery health is around 88%.
Followup: I tested my laptop to see if the electrical feeling occurred without the battery inside and the feeling is still present.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be happening? I have also opened a support ticket and will update if there is movement there.
This is probably leakage current from the charger. The allowed limits for that are unfortunately well above the perceptible threshold for most people (especially in places using 240V mains). Also kind of a downside of “premium” laptops with metal shells
There are chargers that have less of it or even none in the case of properly grounded chargers with a ground connection.
Assuming you have a charger with proper safety ratings that aren’t faked this is likely harmless but can be quite annoying.
Try using a charger that has 3 mains power pins.
If this does not help, you might have faulty house wiring.
See if the problem disappears if you plug in at a different building.
That will identify the house being the problem.
I was thinking it was also leakage from the charger as well. I have since tested it with different chargers that don’t have a grounding wire, so I’ll see if that is a help. The thing that confuses me the most is that issue is a recent development after using the laptop for 3 years with a charger that didn’t have a grounding wire.
If it’s a different ungrounded charger that isn’t that weird, the ammount of leakage current varies wildly between models. If it’s the same charger that is a bit weirder but it could still be potentially caused by you being somehow better connected to ground and there are a hell of a lot of factors influencing that.
Thank you for this information. I am curious about how my laptop felt fine for the first 3 years of use, but has recently started this up. Is there a reason this would start up? Are there wires that could be shifted around that could cause this issue?
No, this is 100% caused by current leakage. As I said, it is as much to do with the circuit you’re plugged into as the device or the charger. If you’re using your charger in a new location, sometimes even within the same building, or if you recently had electrical work done (including at the street by your power utility), any of those could be enough to cause this. It’s impossible to know for sure what caused it to start now, but its harmless and quite common on metal-bodied laptops.
I got a grounding wire charger and it did help with the sensation but it was still present. I think this issue a bit more sever than just the power cable. I have contacted support and they are going to take a look at it. I’ll send another update then. My hope is this issue can be identified and help anyone else who has started experiencing this type of issue with their framework laptop.
My final follow up: TLDR- Customer services was not the best but they did what they could to make it up to me as a customer, laptop doesn’t shock me anymore (except when using an HMDI with my ONKYO receiver)
I sent my laptop in to Framework for assessment. They said they were unable to find anything wrong with it. We had a long email chain back and forth, with a time frustratingly long response times, but eventually got to the point where I felt like there was nothing the support could do to “fix” the issue. The support team had noted that my hinge was a little loose (first gen), and gave me a quote to fix it. I said I would like them to fix it and have it sent back ASAP (I needed my laptop back before the last term of my masters program started). The Framework team sent my laptop back rather quickly and I came to find they had replaced the hinge for free as well potentially a few other little things. I appreciated their attempts to engage in figuring out this issue. In the future, I would have liked to have a more consistent customer services experience.
As far as the electrical issue goes: I don’t experience it while using the laptop with my charger plugged in anymore. I do however experience it when connecting my laptop with an HMDI to an ONKYO receiver. I get the feeling the receiver may be pushing some power back through the HMDI or something.
I did try it at three different buildings, back when the issue was prevalent. Since the support team took a look, its been doing well. I’m not still fully sure why the issue was occurring, but the ONKYO seems to be part of the cause.
If you suspect the ONKYO.
There is sometimes a screw on the back of the ONKYO marked as GND or Earth.
If you connect that to an earth. It might help you.