Hello people did anyone get anything concrete from support? I have raised a ticket with support but I do not have the time. My whole day got wasted due to a bricked BIOS update.
Just had the same issue, with the same version bumb from 3.18 to 3.20 and hanging at two dots. Fixed it by disconnecting the battery briefly. After reboot I confirmed the fTPM question and then the BIOS update actually completed.
This just happened to me. Framework support told me I’m out of warranty and my screen is just completely black. Should I try David Henry’s method? Not sure if I have enough technical background to perform it.
You can first try to compile all informations needed, the programming software, the command lines to execute, the BIOS file. Once you have all this, build the precise plan of what to do and in what order (ask questions for what is not clear to you). Thus you can decide if you want pursue in this way (buying the required hardware and proceeding the flash operation) or not. You can also ask assistance of an AI (what I did) to prepare and check your plan.
Personally, I had some little background but I never did that before. With the commands and instructions that were given on the BIOS recovery topic, I found that it was not really that hard. And the programmer was cheap.
As an alternative, you can look for a repair shop that could do that for you.
I suggested that years ago when I first got a Framework main board and Cooler Master case. If adding a little (don’t remember the name exactly: JST? ) header is cost prohibitive, even masking out an area on the mainboard for soldering a header to connect to pins would be great.
At least the test points would be there to talk to the flash chip if recovery becomes necessary.
Thinking of the internal costs alone on Framework that are being spent on warranty replacements when all that is fouled up is a bad BIOS flash has to be having an impact financially.
I got a bit curious and did a bit of probing, there is an unpopulated header above the flash chip (JSP1 right under the left ram slot) that has a lot of the pins of the flash chip connected. But it is even smaller pitch than the chip itself so being unpopulated that is not that helpful.
I followed instructions on the other thread linked by David Henry and reprogrammed my BIOS chip successfully! I made a little guide on Reddit. Hope it helps.
@Richard6 It’s great that you got your laptop working again.
Framework should have never released a BIOS that bricks working machines, regardless of the warranty state.
Resorting to hardware level hacks to get a laptop working again is just nuts. The vast majority of people would not be able to do this. Framework needs to do much better here.
I don’t disagree, it’s nuts and also: this is the community forum for people willing to do exactly this in order to repair and sustain their devices.
I’m tempted to buy a kit and prove I can work it for my FW 13 AMD 7040, then offer to un-brick out-of-warranty devices for people in my country who can easily send them to me. I think that’s the community response and it builds on the people documenting their experiences with the openness that FW Org hope for.