BIOS update required to prevent premature aging of 61Wh battery

Framework Laptop 13
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To prevent premature aging of 61Wh battery, a BIOS update is needed for your Framework Laptop 13:

Note that if you experienced battery swelling on your 61Wh battery, we have extended the warranty by an additional year, and you can reach out to the Support team for a replacement: https://frame.work/support/

Context

With the high energy density on the 61Wh battery, leaving it at 100% state of charge for an extended period of time can shorten the lifetime of the battery. During the last few months of 2024 we have seen a small number of users with 61Wh batteries that have experienced early battery swelling. After doing failure analysis with the battery manufacturer, we’ve determined that the issue can be caused by leaving the battery fixed at a high state of charge for an extended period of time. We have updated firmware to resolve this for each Framework Laptop 13 generation. With this firmware, the system automatically allows the battery to slightly discharge from maximum voltage if it has been left plugged into power for over 5 days.

In addition, we’re extending the warranty period on the 61Wh battery by an additional year for all batteries included in systems shipped before the updated firmware is available. This also applies to 61Wh batteries purchased in the Framework Marketplace prior to the firmware update being available for all Framework Laptop 13 generations.

Battery Lifetime Extender firmware rollout

Edited (All Framework systems now support battery extender functionality through a BIOS update).

If you leave your device plugged into power the majority of the time and want to limit battery wear while waiting for the BIOS update, you can do so by manually lowering the battery charge limit to 90% or lower in BIOS settings. You can follow this guide to find the setup menu option for each model of device.

With the high energy density on the 61Wh battery, leaving it at 100% state of charge for an extended period of time can shorten the lifetime of the battery. To prevent this, we have added a new feature that automatically limits the maximum state of charge if the system is left plugged into power for more than 5 days. The timer is reset after the system is disconnected from a power adapter for more than 30 minutes.

Battery Extender Duration Battery State of Charge
0-5< Days 99% → 100%
5-7 Days 90% → 95%
>7+ Days 85% → 87%

This functionality also reduces cycling of the battery by allowing the battery to discharge by several percent before charging again. Note that in addition to this automatic setting, you can still manually set a lower charge limit on your battery in BIOS to further preserve battery longevity.

Battery Extender Setup Menu Options

This feature can be disabled or enabled in the BIOS Advanced menu.

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Battery Extender: This option is enabled by default. If disabled, the system will always keep the battery fully charged.

Battery Extender Trigger: This option sets the number of days that must pass before the battery state of charge is reduced automatically to extend the battery life.

Battery Extender Reset: This option sets the number of minutes that the system is running on battery before the extender is reset, causing the system to charge to 100% when attached to power again.

Platform Battery Extender and Battery charge limit Introduced
Framework 16 - AMD Ryzen 7040 3.07
Framework 16 - AMD Ryzen AI 300 Support present since launch
Framework 13 - AMD Ryzen 7040 3.09
Framework 13 - AMD Ryzen AI 300 3.04
Framework 13 - Intel Core Ultra Series 1 3.05
Framework 13 - 13th gen Intel Core 3.08
Framework 13 - 12th gen Intel Core 3.17
Framework 13 - 11th gen Intel Core 3.22
Framework 12 - 13th gen Intel Core Support present since launch

FAQ:

I’m based in the EU/UK, is my battery warranty extended?

Yes, for those in regions with 2 year warranties with systems shipped prior to the firmware update, the 61Wh battery will have an additional year of warranty added, making it have a total of 3 years of warranty coverage. For regions with 1 year warranties, the battery will have 2 years of total warranty coverage.

I got my computer in 2021 but my 61Wh battery module in 2023, is it going to be covered?

Yes, if you purchased the 61Wh battery prior to firmware updates being available for all platforms, your 61Wh battery warranty will also be extended by one year.

Does this impact the 85Wh battery?

We have not seen this issue occur, but as a precaution, we will be updating Framework Laptop 16 firmware to include the same automatic battery lifetime extension functionality.

I have a 55Wh battery, is the warranty extended?

No, based on the battery chemistry on the 55Wh battery, we have not seen this issue occur.

I have a 55Wh or 85Wh battery, can I leave it fully charged for an extended period of time?

The new automatic battery lifetime extension functionality applies to all Framework Laptop batteries. We recommend utilizing it to maximize lifetime, but it can be disabled in BIOS settings if you prefer.

I have a Laptop 13 Ryzen 7040/ Laptop 16 Ryzen 7040/ Framework Laptop 13 11th, 12th or 13th Gen Intel Core, BIOS does not have the Battery Extender functionality yet. How do I protect my battery?

All platforms now support battery extender functionality. Please see the table above to update your system to the latest BIOS.

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There is good news in the post. However, I have the following worries.

  1. Various fixes at the BIOS level have been pending for months and months. So: 1a) When will the BIOSes at issue - those with the battery fix - actually appear?; and 1b) will those BIOSes contain the other fixes?

  2. Will the proposed fix remedy or worsen the other battery problem, namely, that when on mains power and with a battery that reports as fully charged - or mostly reports as fully charged - intermittently the battery state switches to discharging?

EDITED to fix a minor grammatical flaw.

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Thank you for your attention to this. This is great news!

My use case is leaving my laptop plugged in most of the time, into one of several docks I have around my house. I daily move it between docks, meaning it is unplugged for a few minutes at a time. I believe the algorithm you describe would not help in use cases like this.

(I have used the battery charge limit feature now, but something more built-in and less harmful to battery life would be better)

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It’s very cool to see you addressing this issue early and in a very customer-friendly way! Thank you!

If you’re touching the firmwares for this, could I request the battery histeresis functionality in BIOS where you specify min and max battery charge states instead of a single battery state?

I seem to have heard that charging/discharging cycles of only a couple percentages are harder on the battery than, say, letting the battery discharge to 50% before it can start charging back to 75%. When mostly plugged in this would mean the battery doesn’t receive either much discharge nor charge and is in effect in storage mode most of the time.

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My Framework 13 is plugged in 95% of the time, but I’ve set the charge limit to 80% in the BIOS during setup. How would the Battery Extender work if I enabled the option and set the trigger to 1 day? And if I set the reset to 30%, would it still only fully charge to 80%?

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I’m going to take a stab at it and guess that’s not the full story. There’s likely(?) an additional compounding issue with the FL13 having a battery charge / discharge flip-flopping behaviour when the laptop (processor, more specifically) is under repeated high load.

e.g. [TRACKING] Battery flipping between charging and discharging / Draws from battery even on AC

That’s been a requested feature since 2021…and has been ignored we have yet to see anything reagarding it since then.

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Hi, you forgot this text in your post :wink:

This feature can be disabled or enabled in the BIOS Advanced menu. [add instructions here to show people how to reach this menu?]

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good catch, fixed that :slight_smile:

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Adding on:

I had purchased a second 61Wh battery to replace the one that swelled prematurely since it was out of warranty at the time. After seeing this post, I contacted Framework support who (after escalating) agreed to refund the first 61Wh rather than replace when I submitted a ticket under the new warranty once I provided a photo of the battery’s serial number (under the big QR code). (And the second battery is subject to the extended warranty, too!)

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I have the same question, except I have the BIOS limit set to 60%. It’s not clear to me how the two options interact.

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The flip-flopping behaviour occurs at <1W when not under high load with a 60W supply.

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When gaming in performance mode, the battery is going to be repeatedly charged, as shown.

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Switching to a 100W supply solves the problem mostly.
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I set the battery charge limit to 75%, a different % might have different result.

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Charging Limit

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The biggest concern of mine is I don’t think the battery lifetime extender feature would have saved my battery even if it’s available on my motherboard and enabled.

I run the battery down to ~30% 2 or 3 times every week, which wouldn’t trigger the charging limit reduction according to how it works as described in this post. Yet my battery still swelled up within a year of use.

Additional context of my case: 61Wh battery became spicy in less than a year

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I have Framework 13 AMD Ryzen 5 764013 w/ Radeon 760M Graphics, 3501 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processors. I had set the Battery charge limit to 80% in BIOS 3.06. After updating to BIOS 3.07 the charge limit doesn’t work - it charges to 100% even when it’s set at 80%. I disabled Battery Extender and still doesn’t work.

Could someone guide to find resources and help from Framework?

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They’re working on a fix that should be released “before the end of March”:

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Ordered a new 61wh May 20 2024
It’s all swelled up now, March 2025

10 months.

That’s 10 months after ignoring it starting to swell months ago.

It lives propped up 45 degrees and elevated a few inches in the air on a desktop stand, cool and idle 99% of the time, and yes charged to 100% all the time. But so did every other laptop I ever owned and the batteries lasted more than 10 months!

Not to mention, why did I buy a new battery in May 2024? because the original battery from August 2021 puffed up. That was 2 years 9 months.

I thought 2.75 years was already an outrage, utter garbage when my 10 year old x1 carbon still wasn’t puffed up and still worked just with less capacity than new. But now 10 months???

I have a few different now-ancient Sony Vaios, x1 carbon, macbook air, that have flat pouch cells now going on 20 years old that still work (poorly) today and never puffed up, and they were at 100% charge the whole time they were in service for 5-8 years each the same way. (also have an HP that puffed up in 3 or 4 years)

Come on man, 2.75 years? 10 months? come on.

(edit, just emailed for a warranty since it’s under a year even after ignoring it for so long.)

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Sometimes I wonder if Framework is producing more e-waste, proportionally speaking to the units sold, compare to other manufacturers.

Or, maybe it’s the relatively more relaxed QC…more components are passed to consumers, at least get used awhile before ending up in landfills. As opposed to failing QC at the factory right away. :-\

It’s almost as if the relaxed QC is intentional so that less is wasted at the factory.

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I am pretty sure it is more of a visibility thing.

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Update. I mailed support, they asked for pics and immediately sent a replacement.

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I think the “80% capacity after 1000 cycles” is tested on laboratory environment, typically charging at constant current 0.5C until 4.4V(55Wh)/4.45V(61Wh) then constant voltage until current is 0.03C before cutting off charging, then discharging at 0.2C until the battery is exhausted, measure the capacity, repeat, repeat 1000 times.
The problem is laboratory environment is ideal, the temperature is kept at 23°C during all time, charging/discharging cycle is done repeatedly with little to no time kept at full charge(low degradation over time). The actual charging is quicker (1.0C initially then 0.7C), the temperature is higher(in the computer casing), laptop plugged in time is longer than using battery more often than not, even 60% limit is higher than the ideally 30%~40% charge for long-term storage.
In conclusion, the actual life expectancy is lower than the lab result.

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