Boot Problems, Random Shutdowns, and More

Framework Laptop 16
,
1

I bought my FW16 in Batch 17. I love the concept of the laptop and have been using it almost every day since I got it. However, there are multiple issues I’ve been having:

  • the laptop has a really hard time booting. When it’s off, there’s a roughly 60 % chance of it going into a bootloop where the power is on for about one to two seconds, the fans spin up very briefly, and then the power gets cut and it immediately turns on again, and this repeats over and over, but the screen stays black during this entire time; a 35 % chance of it actually staying on (no bootloop) but the screen just stays black and the BIOS/bootloader doesn’t show up; and 5 % that it actually goes into the bootloader. Sometimes it goes from bootloop into the “black screen but power is stable” mode, and from there it sometimes gets into the proper bootloader mode, but I have not found anything that seems to make a meaningful or measurable difference (I’ve tried all combinations of input modules I have in every slot including no input module in any slots, and the same with expansion modules; and I have also tried one RAM stick (both ways) and two RAM sticks).
  • If the laptop does boot eventually, it runs relatively stable, but sometimes the screen just turns black with the power button staying lit, and the only way of getting out of this is to hold the power button for 7 seconds to force a power off. This usually happens after a couple of hours.
  • When I put the laptop in Suspend (on Arch), it sometimes keeps the fans spinning even when the power button goes from lit to pulsing, and sometimes it turns them off but turns them back on when the lid gets closed. Sometimes it also just never goes to power button pulsing mode and just turns the screen black but keeps the fans spinning and the power button stays lit.

I have no idea what causes any of these issues, and I’ve been dealing with them for a couple of months or maybe even a year now, so I wanted to ask whether anyone knows what to do about this. I really don’t wanna send the laptop somewhere because I need it every day for my university work.

2

From your description, there is a hardware related problem.
I would try unplugging all slot cards, the internal ssd, wifi cards, leaving just the ram and mainboard and see if you can reliable boot into the bios with F2.
If that works, the problem is with one of the things you removed.
If it still does not boot correctly, it is probably ram or mainboard.
In any case, contact FW support via their web site form.
My guess is that you will need replacement mainboard or ram.
If you diagnose it to ssd or wifi card, then it might just need ssd firmware update.