Framework 16: Keyboard, Numpad suddenly stopped working; Touchpad still works

Community Support
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About a month ago, I have gotten myself the Framework 16 (7040 Performance). It worked perfectly out of the box and I had no worries until now about its quality, using it as my study laptop. As of today, however, only the Touchpad seems to work, while the Numpad module and Keyboard both refuse to work.

At first the Numpad had odd behavior, its backlight not being toggleable and somewhat rapidly turning on and off while simultaneously breathing. Also, at one point it kept inputting the + key, only being stopped once I pressed it on the keyboard. Concerning, but nothing that can’t be solved by a simple disconnect-and-reconnect, right?

After doing so, the RPI-RP2 partition showed up. I didn’t hold any keys, so this was even more weird. And after a bit of scrolling through a wiki… Boom. My keyboard isn’t responsive anymore, the RPI-RP2 partition having disappeared. And at some unknown point, my Numpad also stopped responding to inputs, with the backlight still being somewhat inconsistent (the Keyboard backlight is still always off).

I have tried disassembling and reassembling multiple times, mirroring my USB slot layout, restarting multiple times, but to no avail. This is outside of OSes, since I have this problem when trying to access the UEFI menu as well, but for information’s sake, I am dualbooting CachyOS and Windows. My layout is (left to right, top to bottom) Keyboard - Numpad; Spacer - Touchpad - Spacer; USB-C, USB-C; AUX, HDMI; USB-A, USB-A.

Any idea how to fix this, at least temporarily? Since this breakage inconveniently happened on vacation, I have no access to the screwdriver, nor to my main Framework account (hence the temp account). And if this can’t be fixed: What part is to blame?

2

Make sure your computer is clean, and contact support.

3

That will have to wait until I am back home; I don’t think I want to spend time identifying issues as of now.

I have managed to at the very least get they keyboard in running order via the catridge blow method. My numpad still seems borked as it has its backlight permanently on and doesn’t accept any inputs, including the calculator and numlock buttons.

I immediately enabled “Force power for input modules” in EUFI once I saw my keyboard worked, since another person had a similar problem get solved using it, but no luck.