Framework 16 Bricked (Crashed / Doesn't Boot)

Community Support
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1

I was using my Framework 16 like usual (just using a web browser) when it suddenly crashed and shutdown (screen instantly went to black and all LEDs turned off). Now, when I attempt to boot it, it doesn’t start and none of the lights (charging, fingerprint, motherboard, and keyboard) illuminate. I’ve opened it up and tried the following things with the same result:

  • Pressing power button
  • Removing battery, plugging in AC, and then pressing power button
  • Removing AC power, plugging in battery after leaving the motherboard alone for a few mins, then pressing the power button
  • Putting in the battery and hooking up AC power, then pressing the power button
  • Re-seating the fingerprint reader / power button, then trying the above steps again

I’m somewhat at a loss on how to proceed. My experience with the Framework has been fairly seamless, so this is somewhat out of the blue. In the rare chance that it’s my fingerprint reader, is there a way to try turning on the motherboard without the fingerprint reader? Below are the full details, but I’m not sure if they’ll be of any help.

Full Details

System Info

HW: Framework 16 AMD

Expansion Bay: Just the shell

Expansion Cards: 2x USB-Cs, 1 HDMI, 1 SD, 1 USB

Power Adapter: Framework 80W (plugged into top left port)

Battery: Framework 85W

OS: Arch (Not certain of kernel)

BIOS: No idea, updated maybe a month or two ago?

Firmware: Updated using fwmgr a week or so ago (only fingerprint reader had update, wouldn’t update at first, getting a weird error in KDE discover, it was something like the device already had the firmware?, then I didn’t check back on it and a few days later it was gone).

DE: KDE

Browser: Zen

Crash Info

Plugged into thunderbolt dock (external display, ethernet, keyboard, and mouse). Was using Zen, loading a webpage, screen went black, no mouse or keyboard input works, look over and laptop looks like it’s powered off (screen off and fingerprint light off).

2

Laptop is now turning on, however, motherboard lights flash red for a little, screen doesn’t turn on, and fingerprint sensor alternates from solid to blinking to off repeatedly. It then doesn’t shutdown when you hold the button. It turned itself off though at one point, in which then I tried to flash new BIOS from USB but spamming F12 did nothing.

3

If it dosen’t turn on after leaving it to charge for a few minutes I would contact support.

4

I have contacted support, but they haven’t gotten back to me. I’ll relay here if they do.

5

if the battery is drained, you might have to leave it on a first party charger for an extended period of time. as the battery won’t have enough power to boot the computer. But given it dosen’t boot on AC I don’t think that is what is at fault.

6

We are all end users here on the forums. Support is going to be the best avenue to try and resolve this. Something likely needs to reset at a minimum and there could be a hardware issue going on which explains the mainboard not passing the POST upon power up.

7

My guess is some hardware has failed.
Remove all usb devices, expansion cards, docks.
Remove ssd, wifi card.
Power off laptop.
Remove power adapter.
Wait 10 mins.

Try powering back on. Do you see any display?

8

Support wrote back, they said to send them a video of the mainboard codes (which only appear after a minute of booting). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find information about the codes online, so I’ll have to wait for them do decode and write back. They also instructed me to perform a mainboard reset, but it didn’t change anything.

9

Just tried, unfortunately, no luck. No display, only mainboard red lights blinking then codes flashing.

10

Hi, could you describe the flashing sequence?

11
12

Sure, would love any help anyone can provide.

If I plug in the battery, the mainboard flashes red twice. If I plug in AC with the power, the mainboard continuously flashes red.

Once I press the power button, it flashes red for a minute then flashes the following sequence, R for red, G for green, B for blue, P for purple:

bgggggrggggggpgggggggggggbgggr

Afterwards it goes back to flashing red.

13

I’m not really sure how to interpret these codes for my situation. Is there a chance these only display after some level of the BIOS boots?

14

I looked at the codes, not counting the purple and blue color I think it has a problem with the Input Module and the screen, but I’m not sure.

15

The input module isn’t plugged in (booting with the lid open), so that could for sure be an error. I’m confused on the screen though, that should be plugged in. It’s also possible I’m looking at the wrong thing, since the website says:

You may see an orange LED blink followed by 8 green or blue blinks, these are post code bits determined by our manufacturer and can be ignored in the troubleshooting process.

16

I haven’t checked any LEDs other than the red and green ones, so I’d ignore the other colors as indicated on the website. And you’re right, the input module error is expected when the module is unplugged, so I’d ignore it. To verify if the problem is actually the screen, I’d try connecting an external monitor and see if anything appears. Even so, as I said, I’m not sure if the screen is the screen.

17

Those blink codes look OK.
Can you post a video of the LED blinking?