How does one tell which kind of power cable is going to work for charging one’s framework laptop, and which is not? How do we describe the differences in these devices?
I have several charging cables. I have noticed three behaviors.
1 - it just works (not very many of them)
2 - it tries to provide power but plugging in causes a boop-boop-de-boop-boop song as the power connection is there and not there and there and not there and there and, usually at the end of the sequence, not there.
3 - it does nothing.
The one that works is a power cable from Dell. It has a big box and plugs into the wall and has a USB-C connection. Any others fall into the second and third category, including USB-A to USB-C cables from Apple and from cheap office supply stores.
What can tell you whether a particular cable will charge the laptop?
I don’t see you mention what kind of power supply the cable is plugged into. So I figure starting from the beginning might be good.
Framework laptops use USB PD (power delivery). So number 1, you need a USB PD power source.
USB PD requires a USB-C to C cable. As the PD communication takes place over the CC pin, which doesn’t exist on older USB-A plugs. So yeah, those are straight out. And USB-A is 5v only, which even if it was PD, provides so little power for a laptop that it would have been of little use to most people anyway. *USB-A is 5v only, ignoring the old proprietary “fast charging” protocols, which are all slowly dying, having been superseded by USB PD.
So a USB PD power source, of enough wattage to be worth using with a laptop. I’d suggest 60 to 65W. Anything less, and you might not get full charging speed if you’re simultaneously using the laptop for something resource intensive. And a USB-C to C cable.
Beyond that, avoid cheap no-name cables. Or “brands” that you’ve never seen before, as chinese sellers make up random throwaway “brand” names to avoid selling no-name items. Such products can use such wholly inadequate materials that they may fail to work correctly, or worse, be dangerous. Like non-copper wires, which can’t handle the power they claim due to too much resistance.
I think Frameworks sometimes, if you’re lucky, emergency charge from 5v, but from reports it seems unreliable. It trying to do that might be what you’re seeing here, if this is from a low wattage power source. But it can be other things as well, like a power source that can’t do what it advertises.