I posted a question a little while back about strange charging issues I sometimes encountered when using my Framework 16 on the train, where after a while the laptop would stop charging. Since then, it seems like the issue I’m encountering is actually more generalised: the laptop will sometimes have trouble accepting or supplying power from the expansion ports on the left hand side.
The most recent issue I observed was today, where I had the machine plugged into a USB hub via the middle left expansion slot, and a MIDI keyboard controller plugged into the middle right slot. The USB hub was powered externally, and was connected to a keyboard, mouse and audio interface. The laptop was being powered by the rear right expansion slot.
The USB hub worked for a bit, but after about 5 minutes started malfunctioning. The audio interface rapidly powered on and off in quick succession for a few seconds, and then gave up. Re-plugging the cable into the laptop just caused the same thing to happen, until I swapped it to the middle right expansion slot instead, after which it was perfectly fine. Moving the MIDI controller to the middle left slot didn’t cause any issues (presumably because it wasn’t demanding much load).
This matches up with subsequent charging experiences I’ve had since posting the previous question: if the laptop stops charging with the charger plugged into the rear left port, and refuses to start charging again even if I unplug and re-plug it, moving the charger to the rear right port always works. I also remember having a similar issue a while back, where plugging a Native Instruments DJ controller into the middle left port caused it to stop working after a short while, but it worked absolutely fine when moved to the middle right port.
Is this indicative of a hardware issue with the left-hand expansion ports or power circuitry? Would it need a motherboard replacement to fix?