Can't get laptop to turn on after upgrade (Framework 11 to AMD7040 swap)

Recently did some upgrades on my old Framework 11 purchased in 2021. The biggest of these changes was upgrading the mainboard to an AMD7040, but I also got a matte display, the AMD wifi module, and swapped out the SSD and RAM.

I had some issues routing the antenna and webcam wires correctly, causing a huge headache last night. While fiddling around with the laptop last night, it did turn on and boot correctly. I don’t have an OS for it yet so it was just booting to the select boot media screen. However, due to the wire routing issue last night I had to disassemble the laptop and leave it disassembled until this morning when I could come back to it with fresh eyes.

Now after spending some time this morning I finally got the bezel on flush and got the touchpad on flush. Now all I had to do was load up Windows to a bootable USB stick, slap it in there and… the power button doesn’t work now.

I removed the touchpad and checked a few things.

  1. The LEDs blink red when I unplug and replug in the battery - this seems standard as it is trying to detect that the touchpad is correctly on the laptop, and the blinking stops after 30 seconds
  2. The red LEDs will also turn on and start blinking if I plug the touchpad’s ribbon cable into its slot on the mainboard, specifically, they will blink twice if the power button is pressed
  3. I did some research and saw that there is a little switch towards the top middle of the board that needs to be depressed by the touchpad being on and correctly aligned. What is weird is that the computer was turning on and booting to the BIOs screen last night even if the touchpad was not making contact with this switch.
  4. Deciding to experiment, I depressed this switch with a spudger while the touchpad was plugged in and hit the power button. Now, instead of the red LED blinking twice, no LEDs blink at all. This is the state that the computer is in if the touchpad is completely connected and screwed in.
  5. Next I read that I might have to reset the mainboard. I followed the steps to do this, first disconnecting the touchpad, then the battery, then letting it sit for a few minutes for the remaining power to drain. Then I tried plugging in AC and… nothing. No blinking, no lights. I tried AC in to all the USB-C slots on the computer.
  6. If I plug AC in before I remove the battery, then remove the battery, the LED lights will stay on and continue to blink red
  7. The LED lights also turn on and blink if the AC is plugged in while the battery is plugged in
  8. If I plug in AC and have the touchpad attached, the LED will turn orange and stay orange as though the computer is charging, however, pressing the power button still does not turn on the device
  9. I thought maybe the touchpad ribbon on the touchpad side might be loose, so I followed the instructions and pushed that in some more, but this made no change

I’ve attempted everything I see among the most common responses for this problem (the contact switch, resetting the mainboard, the touchpad ribbon) to no avail. The computer is clearly receiving some sort of signal from the power switch because it makes the two red leds flash twice when pressed, but the computer itself will not turn on.

Another thing I can think of are perhaps that maybe the RAM is bad or not properly slotted? However, the RAM is brand new direct from Framework, and it was slotted correctly last night because the system turned on. It would also be unlikely that both sticks are unslotted.

The last thing I am thinking of is that maybe the battery is too low for it to turn on the system right now? I did leave the battery connected to the mainboard last night (although the computer wasn’t on). I have no idea if this perhaps just needs charged or what. This also doesn’t explain why I don’t get any LEDs or indication of charge when the AC is plugged in on its own.

*Update: I’ve now left it plugged into AC, battery and touchpad connected, orange LED on solid, for about 30 minutes and still does not turn on

Hello again! I would double-check the connections. Also, there is a (very small) switch at the top right of the board that will turn it on in case for some reason the primary power switch has failed. The switch that turns the blinking red lights on or off is to detect the chassis being open or not.

Finally, they need to create an official guide, but I believe that the steps in this post are what you need to follow to reset the newer mainboards: Reset forgotten BIOS password - #17 by sgilderd

Fingers crossed that one of the steps above work for you.

Hello! Thanks again for stopping by and helping lol. Troubleshooting is always the most fun part of working on hardware.

Which connections in particular are most relevant here would you think? I can just go through and double-check it all but curious if anything in particular can cause an error such as this. I know, for example, that some people have had issues related to their RAM.

I’ll go through that thread and see what helps. I’m confident I’ll get this thing up and running, just got to figure out what exactly to do.

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Since it doesn’t want to power on I would check the power button/fingerprint reader connection as well as both sides of the cable between the input cover and the mainboard. If you can power it on with the tiny switch on the corner of the mainboard, then you should be able to see if the keyboard at least is working, in the bios.

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Gotcha. I pressed the switch and get the same thing that happens when I press the power button - red LED, blinks twice, then nothing. I ran through the reset list on the supplied thread and that didn’t seem work, either.

Sorry to hear that. Are you seeing the led on the side indicating power? You might try plugging power into different ports, and one ram chip at a time in each slot to see if that helps any. If nothing is working, then your next step likely will be to reach out to Support.

To help isolate the issue of the components from the board you might try taking it out of the laptop and try running it in “standalone” mode. Essentially, take it out of the laptop and try to get it to power on. You can safely put in on a piece of cardboard while you experiment.

As you have already started it once or twice with a battery it might be expecting it and not wanting to go into the standalone mode. I thought there was a tutorial on how to get the AMD board into standalone mode in their help sections. Once you get it working in standalone mode; then put it back in the case but do not connect anything and see if it still starts, then start plugging parts in one by one. These are just my quick thoughts on trying to figure out what part is not working.

You should probably start a ticket with support though so they can help you troubleshoot the led codes you are getting or not getting to try and start the board.

Let us know how it turns out and best of luck!

Yep started a ticket with support, gonna work with them and see how it goes! If I get a solution I’ll for sure post it here.