I’ve had my FW13 AMD for 6 months now and absolutely love it. I’ve used Fedora and Ubuntu daily and have had almost no issues.
I wanted to play Rocksmith (guitar hero type game using a real guitar) which is hard to get working on Linux, so I went ahead and did a clean install of Windows 11 (incl. driver pack) and then dual booted Ubuntu.
Windows is working fine right until I plug in the “real tone” guitar cable (1/4" to USB A) which is required for the game:
The game, Steam and 1Password crashes
Steam won’t launch with the cable inserted, even if I’m not trying to play the game
Shutting down the machine results in it being unable to power off completely, i.e. normal shutdown process until screen goes black but keyboard and power button never turn off. This happens as soon as you plug in the cable, even if you do nothing else before/after outside of shutting down the machine.
If I boot with the cable inserted, the whole machine goes haywire once I get to the Windows logon screen, e.g. taskbar never loads, screen flickers black.
A few things worth mentioning:
The cable is old and USB A - Possibly an issue with USB 3 compatibility?
Plugging in the cable while booted in Ubuntu doesn’t cause any obvious issues and it shows correctly in HardInfo.
I can see the cable correctly in Device Manager.
A few things I’ve tried:
Uninstalling drivers USB, audio and the cable.
Changing the position of the expansion card.
Checking event viewer.
Disabling USB-related power options in the power plan.
Disabling power saving options against the USB devices in device manager.
Disabling fast startup (Windows).
Using a USB C expansion card with Blukar C->A adapter.
Testing the cable with my Win 11 desktop PC in a USB A 3.0 front panel port.
Any help or suggestions are massively appreciated!
I’ve got roughly the same issue on the same model, FW13 AMD - specifically the inability to power down or reboot with external devices connected. This happens with anything connected via USB-A as well as with HDMI connected, and only in Windows 11 (I dual boot with Fedora 41, where I have other issues but not the power one). I’ve tested everything you’re listing, and in addition I’ve tested multiple different cables for both HDMI and USB.
I think the issue is going to be related to power negotiations and it is failing or the cable you are using is doing something non-standard. What you could try doing is plugging a USB hub (3.0 or PD based) into your Framework, (it would be best if the hub was independently powered so as to cross that out as a potential problem source) and then plugging the cable for your game into the USB hub. This would hopefully act as a buffer and you should see different behavior.
If this works, then the issue is the cable and the way it handles power.
I was having the issue when the only external peripheral connected was via HDMI as well, so it’s definitely not just a USB cable issue. With that said, I’ve since tried switching the location of my extension cards around a bit and tested with a powered USB hub, and the issues persist.
However, I suppose it’s not quite the same issue as OP was having: my laptop does actually shut down or reboot as requested via the power menu, but it takes up to ten minutes for it to do so. That is, it shows the “Shutting down / rebooting” screen, then the display goes dark and the power button stays lit as it fails to continue the shutdown process for several minutes. Eventually it manages it, then booting back up is usually as quick as expected.
This happens in Windows with any peripheral at all connected. I’ve systematically unplugged everything and plugged in one thing at a time and it happens no matter what’s connected in addition to power. I’ve tried USB-A, HDMI and even headphones with nothing else connected at the same time and they all cause the same behavior.
Relatedly, connecting a Bluetooth headset causes Windows Explorer to crash irretrievably, and rebooting with the Bluetooth device on so it autoconnects on login leads to any attempt at opening audio settings crashing Explorer again.
I appreciate your attempt to help, but I’ve now spent several days troubleshooting all this, including a reinstall of Windows, and I think I’m going to email Framework support to request a return. This machine is a disaster.
I want to clarify and say that my symptoms are the same - Since making the post I’ve noticed that the machine does eventually turn off/reboot, but it takes many minutes (more than 5) of a blank screen (keyboard and power button still illuminated) before it happens.
I’ve ordered a powered USB 2.0 hub to see if it makes a difference and will be raising a support ticket afterwards if not.
If you’re able to, maybe try with just an external display connected but no USB devices and see if it malfunctions the same way. It might not help solve the problem to know that, but might be interesting to Framework support? Also it could eliminate the powered USB hub as a possible solution.
What I find most interesting about this is that I’m only experiencing it in Windows - in Fedora, having peripherals plugged in has no impact on shutdown/reboot, so I’m unsure if it’s a hardware or software issue. Unfortunately in Fedora I’ve been unable to connect my bluetooth headset though, so it hasn’t been a viable alternative for things like work meetings.
No issues with only an HDMI monitor (via USB C adapter) connected, which is interesting in relation to your machine.
I’ve also just tested with a powered USB 3.0 hub which behaves exactly the same as if I plug in the problematic device directly. I’m not expecting the 2.0 hub to work when it arrives but it would be good to rule it out.
I had the same thought. I wouldn’t expect the OS to influence the power negotiation but I’m completely uneducated in the matter.
I’ve found a few more threads (1, 2) with similar issues, interestingly they all have an AMD processor and Windows and I can only find examples within the past month.
I’ve just tried reinstalling the driver bundle, as well as installing the 2024-11 Windows CU (I did check for updates yesterday but this didn’t appear), however the issue is still occuring.
I’m the one experiencing the same behavior (threads 1 you mentionned).
I have contacted the support aaaaaaaaaaaand… no answer…
I tried to unplug everything, reinstall windows, update drivers with and without Framework bundled ones. This is a disaster.
I bought another dock and even if it’s a little bit better, if I plug an usb A or C device in the dock OR in the laptop directly, it crashes and can’t reboot properly.
Appreciate the thought, but disabling fast startup was one of the first things I did and I’ve also done the sfc /scannow song and dance, both to no avail. I won’t be doing any more deeply involved troubleshooting at this point as it’s a waste of work hours, as soon as support gets their ducks in a row for a return I’m replacing this computer with something else.
It seems like a Windows Update is probably to blame. Getting this sorted will be very important so that if a BIOS or driver update is necessary that they are able to work on it. Working with support is going to be the best way to facilitate that.
Understand that if a Windows Update is to blame this means MS changed something and it broke current drivers or BIOS functionality. It isn’t really fair to blame Framework for something MS did.
Of course this isn’t proven here, and we are just trying to drive down to the root issue. But just throwing that out there for what it is worth.
I didn’t find much to indicate that people were havin this same issue outside of Framework users when I looked around initially, but you may be right. Personally I’m not very interested in assigning blame, I just need a computer that functions properly for work - I’ll probably replace this machine with some MacBook variant as Windows 11 seems outright hostile to its users even when it “works”.
I would encourage you to do what works for you. Understanding why things don’t work help you to make informed purchases. For example is it Windows that is the problem or perhaps the maker of your audio cable that you are trying to plug in? Have you checked that it supports Windows 11 by any chance?
I totally understand your reasoning and would do the same given you’re unable to connect literally any external device to your machine.
That said, I would encourage you to detail as much of the issue in your return request (or even better, an initial support ticket if you haven’t already) to try and help Framework avoid losing any other customers. I will do the same once I’ve tested the USB 2.0 hub.
As AltCoyne mentioned, I’m not just having trouble with any one cable or device. Audio, HDMI, USB (with or without powered hub), even bluetooth, it doesn’t matter what I connect. I can see that there are a lot of issues in Windows 11 that’d bother me as well - the constant push to put “AI” in everything, the slow and crash-prone UI, the inability to fully disable Edge as a browser option, and so on - but this particular problem seems to run deeper than that. Plus that even when I boot into Fedora I’m unable to use my bluetooth peripherals.
So yeah, the breaking issues are the reason that I’m returning the computer, and the things I dislike about Windows 11 (which I’ve never used before now, I was on Windows 10 which I find tolerable) are the reason that I’m switching to Mac for work.
I included a link to this very forum thread in my return request, which is part of why I keep describing my issues in detail even though I’ve given up on solving them hopefully you and others can get your Framework machines working as intended, I really do like them conceptually and might get one for personal use in the future. But for a work tool that needs to be stable and reliable I think it requires too much tinkering.
hopefully you and others can get your Framework machines working as intended, I really do like them conceptually and might get one for personal use in the future. But for a work tool that needs to be stable and reliable I think it requires too much tinkering.