It's alive!

I’ve had a bit of a journey with my Laptop 16 and it’s not quite over yet, but after Support sent me a shiny new mid-plate I now have a mostly functioning laptop.
I’d like to thank Support for being very patient with me when I was frustrated. I look forward to working with you to resolve my RAM slot issue :wink:
This screen is gorgeous…

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Awesome. Glad you got it (mostly) working. Do you have one RAM slot that initially wouldn’t boot with a RAM stick inserted? I only ask because there were a few other users with that same situation, but once they got the machine up and running, they tried the other slot again and it was then working as it should.

Not sure how far you’ve gone with testing. Maybe you’ve gone past this point and I’m late to the party (well, it’s a party now that your laptop is working). But I just thought I’d throw it out there. Cheers!

Oh, I’ll give that a try again today then, thanks.

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Yeah, no. It POSTs and boots with either stick in Slot 1, won’t POST with either stick in Slot 0 or with sticks in both slots.

This is a 2x16GB Crucial set, part number CT2K16G56C46S5, which is on the list of validated modules.

Opened a new support ticket, but at least I can use my new shiny with 50% RAM for now :slight_smile:

Update:

Support sent me an email detailing how to do a mainboard/BIOS reset by pressing a little button on the mainboard 10 times, but it hasn’t resolved the issue. :frowning:

I am impressed with the support team. The email they sent even had a picture with an arrow pointing at the button I needed to press.

P.S. This is not me complaining, I’m just sharing my experience in case it’s useful to other people. I was in the first pre-order batch so some teething troubles are to be expected, right?

Final update:

Inspecting the RAM slot with a USB “microscope” revealed that one of the pins on the slot was damaged. Support sent out a new mainboard and I did the full transplant, which was remarkably painless following the extremely well presented instructions.

My Framework 16 is now fully operational with two RAM sticks and I am very happy with it.

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I’m having a no post/boot issue as well. Just assembled it last night. Let it run for 45 minutes (way more time than is needed for training) but no luck. It has power, fans spin up, but just a blank screen. I have Framework’s memory installed (2 x 16GB sticks) so compatibility shouldn’t be the issue. :frowning_face:

Try each stick individually in both Slot 0 and Slot 1, see if that works. If one stick doesn’t work in either slot, faulty stick. If both sticks work in one slot but not the other, faulty slot.

Pro tip: you can power on the laptop without the midplate, if you get to the “Connector board not detected” screen on the display then the RAM is OK.

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Thanks, I’ll try that! Not looking forward to all those midplate screws though! :slight_smile:

@Keith_Andreano
If you plug a USB keyboard in, you can navigate the BIOS and boot OS without the midplate.

It worked…after a fashion…
I took the stick in slot 1 out, didn’t boot, took the one in slot 0 out and replaced it with the one that was in slot 1, it booted! Then, just for fun, I installed the other stick in slot 1, and it still booted! Thanks for the help! The BIOS sees all the memory and both M.2s.
Unfortunately, even after the AMD drivers were installed and BIOS updated to the latest version, it still doesn’t see the second M.2 drive in Windows. Any ideas? Thanks again!

Could you describe, for a visually impaired person, where this button is if you can remember?
Very many thanks,
David

If it is SW1 like on the 13, it is a small surface mounted push button located adjacent to the upper left corner of the wifi module. Just below the left fan and left of the wifi module connector. Between screw number 6 and the fan.

[edit]
okay, so what I described is the internal power button. The button needed for the reset procedure is another one as described by @James3 below.
[/edit]

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Hi,

The “chassis open switch” for the FW16 is located between the left RAM module and the battery.
The battery is a large object that is closest to you if the touchpad was closest to you when you started. Hopefully you know where the RAM modules go from when you first installed them.
Note: I am assuming you already know where the RAM and Battery are. If not I can provide instructions.
To be honest, I don’t know how you would notice the “red LED flashing” in the instructions below. When I was doing it, the red LED flashed in less that 2 seconds after removing the press on the chassis switch. During the press the LED was white. So, I would translate the instructions below, to press for 2 seconds, release for 2 seconds, and repeat 10 times.

The switch is not a direct push button switch.
The switch body is a small flat rectangle about half the width of a finger. Long edge left to right. On its left edge there is a thin arm pointed outwards and upwards towards the left.
You can push the arm downwards. The “pressed” position is when the arm is flat.
That is the “chassis open switch”.

The “board reset” operation appears to me to be nothing more than the equivalent of clearing the CMOS and resetting the BIOS back to factory defaults. I.e. the same as the “restore default config” option in the BIOS screens. I have noticed that this does not change the “secure boot” settings. So, if you disabled secure boot, you don’t have to go back in and disable it again.

See instructions below for the full reset operation.
There is a picture in the middle, but that is unlikely to help you. I left it in so that it could help others.

Hi,

A picture of the FW16 for others.
The instructions of how to do a reset the FW16 mainboard using the guide below.

  1. Please turn off the laptop and unplug the charger.

  2. Remove the input module, touchpad module, spacers, and Mid Plate, then plug in the charger.

  3. Slowly press the chassis open switch/case switch 10 times, holding each press for 2 seconds. Release, wait for the red blink on the mainboard LED, then repeat this step.

Please see the location of the chassis open switch for reference.

alt image

  1. Press the power button to boot the system.
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