We’re seeing a disturbing increase in CID (Customer Induced Damage) around broken bezels due to improper installation on first setup post-arrival. Please follow the guide to install or remove the bezel. What we’ve seen, is that customers are not folding their displays flat and are trying to install the bezel without properly placing the bottom portion over the hinge section fully. They are then forcing the lid closed, causing the bezel to crack. If you encounter resistance when trying to close the lid, this is the likely reason.
We have a large number of extremely helpful guides that will walk you through pretty much anything you’d need to do with your Framework Laptop, and we have enhanced guides launching alongside the Framework Laptop 16, complete with videos, when it starts shipping. We mention this in all post-purchase emails, but please, if you need help, the Framework Guides and Framework Knowledge Base are great places to start.
I just got a new framework: Batch 11 of Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)
I followed the bezel installation instructions including laying the laptop flat. However, the lower left corner of the bezel would not stay flush with the laptop, and it became clear when looking at the laptop from various angles that things were not lining up properly. For example, there is a gap between the screen and the bezel on the lower left side. When viewed from behind with the lid closed, the bezel is not flush with the bottom of the laptop.
I carefully and successfully removed the bezel several times in an attempt to get it aligned just right, but my efforts were not successful. In fact, this misalignment causes the bezel to catch on the lower body of the laptop when opening the lid. I consider the laptop unusable at the moment.
I submitted a ticket on Thursday, and responded to the auto-response email with pictures. However, I have not heard anything back yet.
Sorry, I should have stated the situation more clearly in my post. When I open the lid, the bezel gets stuck against the frame of the laptop. If I open the lid too far, the bezel actually begins to crack because it can’t come loose from its stuck position. Since I don’t have a lot of experience with the laptop yet, I do not want to risk using it without the bezel, and I also don’t want to have to contort the bezel too much to open the laptop lid because I don’t want to cause further damage.
I believe that you nailed it. The cable does not sit nicely in the channel. I started working with the tech support folks, and I hope that we find a resolution soon.
I like the video, but I should mention that it will not help to solve my issue. Currently, tech support has instructed me to use electrical tape to hold down the display cable near the hinge. I strongly suspect that the display cable does not fit properly because it is too long.
I mention this because other people seem to have this issue. Step 10 of the Quick Start Guide deals with the bezel, and its comment section has several people running into issues. Someone even posted an image of how the cable is supposed to look; however, when I compare that image to an official image of the cable, I can see how the cable in the official image sits cleanly in its channel and does not intrude onto the base plate of the captive screw. I’ll have to post an image of my cable, which looks even longer than the other user’s.
The image in the Guide is from a Framework Laptop 13 (11th Gen Intel Core) and later iterations of the Framework Laptop 13 do not have the clip holding down the cable. That said, the cable should sit in the channel like the first image you posted (minus the clip from the second image you posted). We do not have different lengths of that specific cable. I’ve checked both Framework Laptop 13 (12th Gen Intel Core) and Framework Laptop 13 (13th Gen Intel Core) and reviewed imagery of Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040 Series) and they all sit exactly the same. If you have imagery to share of the display cable being too long and interfering with bezel installation, we definitely would want to review that. As we’ve shipped a very large number of Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040 Series) over the past few months, the number of contacts for bezel issues, while a significant increase from previous generations, would not rise to the concern of a manufacturing issue given the evidence in the tickets submitted. We’d like to investigate if you can share some photos of this cable.
Here are some images of my process so far. I hope people find this helpful.
Keep in mind that the bezel issues I described earlier seem to have come from the improperly seated cable as seen in the first picture.
