Hi all, about 3 weeks ago I took my laptop apart for a regular dusting, in the process I damaged the touchpad cable. Or at least that’s what I assumed because the laptop was not powering on, and the power button LED did not light. I have since replaced the touchpad cable with a brand new one, charged the laptop on the charger that came with it until the side LED’s turned white, and it’s still not turning on or lighting the power button. Additionally, when I try to power it on while it’s plugged in, the charging lights go off. I’m completely lost.
Hi and welcome to the forum
Have you tried a main board reset?
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My machine does not have that coin cell battery… Just the empty slot. Is this something that was supposed to come with my DIY order?
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I also did not get red lights to confirm the reset state, I’m going to start a ticket with framework support
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I don’t have an AMD, but there may be more help if you search.
Have you tried opening, maybe so if you ‘know’ you don’t have the CMOS|RTC battery?
Are there two red lights that are on showing the mainboard is still alive?
Is the screen pitch black, i.e. no way to get to the BIOS?
Official support is essential if you have a warranty.
All the best
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The way to do the mainboard reset on newer machines without RTC battery is to plug in power and then press the chassis open switch for 2 seconds, wait for the red open chassis blinkning and repeat 10 times and then start using the SW1 switch.
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where is the sw1 switch? edit found it. I’m not getting red lights when i hold SW3
It is supposed to be blinkning red when SW3 isn’t pressed. You hold it down for two seconds and release, then as soon as the blinkning comes back you press it again.
Copied the actual text from Framework about mainboard reset which I have gotten in both of my cases involving mainboard issues.
Can we ask you to try a Mainboard reset?
You can follow the guide here:
- Plug in system to AC
- Remove input cover
- Press the chassis open switch in the center of the mainboard 10 times, you must press it slows, so press for 2 seconds. Release, wait for the red blink on the Mainboard LEDs, and repeat.
See the photo below for reference:
alt image - Press the power button to boot the system.
- BIOS settings will be reset to defaults.
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okay, i managed to follow those steps. Following that i unplugged the ac cable, plugged the battery back in, reconnected the touchpad cable, and set the touchpad in place without screwing it in. I pressed the power button, nothing. I plugged the AC cable in, got the orange charging light, pressed power button, charging light goes off screen stays black. wtf is happening?
is the process different if my battery has been unplugged? I started with everything assembled, plugged the laptop in, removed and unplugged the touchpad, pressed 10 times for 2 seconds waiting for red flash before pressing again, then pressed the SW1 power button and all lights went dark.
Pressing SW1 is how you should do it and they do not mention battery so I believe it doesn’t matter.
Any chance there’s a pic somewhere showing the Chassis Intrusion switch? Note from support just says “in the center of the mainboard,” but I don’t see a switch… 
NM, found it! (and SW1) Just required putting on glasses (who knew? 
) and a flashlight. Unfortunately didn’t fix my power on issue, though…
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I would go through with framework support if you can. I got an RMA for my motherboard, swapped the old board out with a new one, and the issue disappeared. Best of luck!
Thanks. I tried, but they informed me that the board is bad and that there is nothing they can do about it since I’m 3 months outside of the 12 month warranty period. I realize they aren’t obligated to help, but 15 months is pretty ridiculous for the lifespan of a system board. I have a motherboard that is 30 years old and still boots. Their advice was to buy a new one from their store, and they wouldn’t even offer a prorated discount or anything. I was actually kind of surprised because they’ve been pretty willing to work with folks based on my experience and since I’ve bought ~$2500 worth of framework gear now over multiple iterations. Was yours in warranty still?
P.S.- I confirmed it’s the mainboard as I swapped in an 11th gen board I’ve been using in a desktop enclosure for my kids, and it works fine with the same parts.
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Mine was still under warranty. I’d only had the laptop for a few months. 1 year isn’t acceptable for a machine like this, especially since it’s a QC issue. I would push support a little bit to try and get an RMA, especially since they repair these boards in-house. If they don’t, which they probably won’t; you might be able to get the board repaired by someone else for less than the cost of a new one, although I have no idea what’s causing this power-on issue, so it might not be worth it… Just wanted to throw the idea out there.
I hope you get this resolved soon.
Well, I’m glad at least yours happened when you were under warranty! Hoping it isn’t so prevalent that it’s going to happen again at some point.
They had me try multiple things along with multiple pictures and video at every step ending with a complete disassembly the machine to get a picture of the back of the mainboard, after which they said:
" Thanks for your reply. After a thorough review of this issue and of the submitted photos/videos, we’ve come to the conclusion that there is a need to replace the mainboard.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to replace it since the warranty has already expired. For more information, click here: Does Framework provide a warranty?
Alternatively, you may purchase a new motherboard from our Marketplace.
Let us know how you proceed.
Thanks for contacting Framework Support, and have a great day"
I thought this was a lot to make someone go through if you have no intention of ultimately replacing the board. I also had the distinct impression that, at each step, the person responding to me wasn’t reading the history of the previous steps as there was a LOT of overlap. I only kept going with it in the hopes they were going to ultimately replace it. Very disappointing…
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Yes the replies maybe are by those on duty/shift and hence not the same person 
Yeah, and that’s fair I guess. It’d just be nice if they took a bit more care to avoid overlap, especially when that overlap involves repeated disassembly of the same parts.
(In case anyone’s curious, btw, I ended out just buying a Core Ultra board and popping it into my existing shell. Fired up right away and running without issue. Just sucks that I spent another $500 when I really don’t think I should have needed to do so.)
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