HELP REQUEST: FWL13 suddenly stopped charging

Framework Laptop 13
1

This was also sent into Framework support a few moments ago, and I did search this site and didn’t come up with an exact match for my issue. So, I wanted to see if the brain trust here has any additional ideas:

As of yesterday, my FWL13 with 13th gen i5 is no longer charging it’s battery. I have plugged it into three different third party ~100W USB-C sources and cables, each of which has charged this laptop no problem previously. However, the indicator light on that coast stays amber instead of turning white, and cat /system/class/power_supply/BAT1/status stays “Discharging”. Battery power goes down as if zero USB-C power is being used at all.

I plan to open the lower shell to unseat and reseat the battery connector carefully. Any other troubleshooting steps I should try? I do have an 11th Gen i5 also that I could plug the battery into, to rule in/out battery failure.

I believe this main board was purchased more than 1 but less than 2 years ago (Feb '24 IIRC), but I am on an RMA replacement due to graphics issues that was sent to me right at the end of 2024. Not sure if it qualifies for a warranty or goodwill replacement or not.

Let me know anything else I should try!

2

Small update, on the 4th or 5th try it did actually take the Battery Disconnect -Yes + removal of battery connector and actually proceed to boot. Prior to that it would light the power button icon, coast LED stayed amber, and it wouldn’t get to a framework logo screen even. Computers: where trying the same thing over and over again is not an insane thing to do, you may actually get different results on a subsequent attempt. So at least I can do the work I need to do before replacement parts could show up.

I put the battery from the laptop into my 11th Gen homelab mainboard. The homelab mainboard is charging it just fine…

Going to go ahead and proactively order a 61Wh battery (even though I’d prefer a 55 sure to the failure/ degradation rate of the 61).

Support isn’t back to normal hours until the 5th apparently. Ugh.