Thanks to everybody who chimed in. I’m still not really sure what happened or where I goofed up, but I’m typing from my Framework 16 with the new mainboard, so I eventually got things working. I figured I’d give the update so that maybe somebody could see where I went wrong and point it out for anybody else in the same boat I was in.
When I posted Friday night, I was following suggestions I’d Googled, but nothing worked to get me into the computer. The next step was reinstalling Windows. I did that and when it rebooted I ended up in the same place – the Windows login screen and it telling me that my password was incorrect. I could try to reset using my challenge questions, but I kept getting the answers wrong. I spent quite a bit of time poking around on the Microsoft website looking for someplace where I could rest those questions, but without success, and I also could not find them stored away anywhere on my computer. I’m not sure, but I’ve had the account for so long, I may have set those questions up more than 20 years ago.
At some point, I essentially gave up, but after getting to the challenge questions, I tried to answer them again and they worked. Like I said, I knew the answers, but couldn’t remember how I’d input them. Like if you had to input my name, but didn’t remember if I used my full legal name, a short form, what my friend’s call me, or a nickname. I finally cycled through and got the right one.
Once I got the challenge questions correct, I was able to set up a new password, get in, and then reset the password so that now my FW16 opens with the same password that I was trying to use before.
I had three problems at that point. First, the left speaker didn’t work. Second, I couldn’t get the fingerprint reader to work. And Windows wasn’t activated.
I worked on Windows activation first. My FW16 was part of the Batch 1, DIY, so I purchased my own copy of Windows. That meant that I didn’t get the usual product code. I just paid the money to Microsoft online and the OS activated. I therefore could not input a code to activate.
In an attempt to figure things out, I actually swapped my original board back in. Gotta say here, I love Framework. I had to replace a fan in an MSI laptop and it was a tedious process that required removal of the entire motherboard. It turned out, with that MSI, you also had to completely disassemble and remove the motherboard to replace the SSD. Here, I swapped out the mainboard in 25 minutes. I can now do it even faster without needing the guide. Just so easy.
Putting the original board into the computer and booting up led to another situation where the PIN didn’t work and I couldn’t use the fingerprint sensor, but the PW was fine. I think I changed a setting about my Windows installation, something about using the Microsoft login on all devices, but honestly, after I got things working, I wondered whether I even needed to do this step at all. I may have just been missing the right step on the upgraded FW16, but whatever. It was so easy to swap boards, it didn’t really matter. I think I actually enjoy breaking the things apart and putting them back together.
One thing the mainboard swap let me do is fix the left speaker problem. As soon as I opened the FW16 up to start the process of swapping boards, I could see that my speaker cable wasn’t completely attached. So one problem down.
Booting back into Windows with the new mainboard installed, I finally found the right place in the activation menus, located my computer, and with one click, I had an activated installation.
That leaves only my login problems. I now can get into my FW16 using my password or a PIN. It will not let me use my fingerprint. Initially, when I was going through the problem that had me locked out of Windows altogether, I wasn’t sure that my fingerprint sensor was connected or working. That one cable is the only thing that I find difficult about the mainboard swap. Once booted into Windows, though, I can access the fingerprint sensor, and I went through the process of putting my finger on the sensor and having the computer acknowledge it. I just can’t seem to get the computer to actually use the fingerprint to let me log in to anything. I don’t even think it is an option when I first boot up the computer. I suppose I’ll stumble upon the answer at some point, but if anybody reading this hasn’t fallen asleep and can point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.
Also, I’ll take opinions on this situation. My son’s Asus started dying and he needs a computer for university, so we got him a FW16. I bought the pre-built with the 7040 Ryzen 7 and 16GB of RAM, because holy mother, RAM prices. I had a 4TB SSD that I pulled out of something else, and so I replaced the standard 512GB drive that came in it, and I got him a 2030, too. I also gave him my AMD GPU, so he’s set. But here’s the question.
Given the timing of me receiving the upgraded mainboard, I thought I could just swap the Ryzen 7 in my son’s computer with my old Ryzen 9 board. That, in fact, was my plan when I first started swapping the new board into my computer Friday night. Given the problems I had with logging into the computer and potentially screwing up the Window’s activation with my son’s computer, I started re-thinking it. Now, tearing the computers apart and swapping boards is actually the fun part for me, so I have no problem with that aspect. But I’m looking at the specs of the Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 and wondering whether it is worth the potential headache with TPM 2.0 problems and the OS for the limited added performance. I know the integrated graphics on the Ryzen 9 are better, but since he has the 7700 GPU, he’s good. Plus, I’d like to take the leftover board and try to turn it into a Steam machine. I guess the better integrated graphics of the Ryzen 9 would work better there. Thoughts?