I see a number of folk receiving their AMD FW13 are encountering a burnt input panel connector on first power on.
I haven’t seen any statement from Framework Support regarding this, however, I will be receiving my laptop soon (batch 5), and would appreciate guidance on whether there is any pre-power on check that can be done to identify problems upfront.
Of course, would be good to avoid damaging a new laptop (and disappointment after such a long wait), and would help Framework by avoiding support cases, returns and unnecessary cost.
You can visually check that the cable appears to be inserted straight. I believe Framework has been applying double-sided tape under the cable, so if it does appear straight and fully inserted, then don’t remove and reseat it unnecessarily. Input Cover Replacement Guide - Step 8.
If you have a multimeter and good eyes (or good magnification), you could also check that there is no short on the power pins.
Input cover pinout: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13/tree/main/Touchpad
Well, I can only guess, but my guess is that people put the connector on the board not in a straight angle… If you press it on the board in the wrong angle it might cause a short circuit…
But that is only a guess, if you want to know for sure what is going on you must investigate a burnt board…
Thanks for the replies. My understanding is that it is the ribbon cable connector already fitted to the input panel that has the fault. Not the connector that the user connects.
Would really be great to hear something from Framework on this, especially if there is something that can be checked/done before powerup to prevent the issue.
Note that the number of occurrences of this is exceedingly small compared to the number of units we’ve shipped out. We’ve also been working closely with our factory over the last few weeks to root cause the issue and identify why our existing functional tests didn’t catch it. We found the root cause to be misalignment of the Touchpad Cable by the operator inserting it, and we’ve put additional test fixtures in place specifically measuring for this.
A visible artifact of misalignment will be the right edge of the connector that the Touchpad Cable plugs into being cracked and lifting up, which indicates that the cable is shifted over:
In the case that someone finds their connector like this, would they submit a support ticket for a replacement, considering the connector is cracked, or should they simply remove and properly re-insert the cable?
As always, thanks for chiming in and keeping us informed.
Many thanks Nirav. Very much appreciate the transparency and great to see that the team have been working through this and have mitigations in place.
@BigT asks a good question above. If anyone encounters a connector that is cracked and lifting up, should they try and reseat it themselves or simply raise a ticket (or both!)?
