That iFixit guide is useless. It tells you how to remove the thing, how to safely detach the antenna and everything, then says to reinstall it all you have to do is “follow these instructions in reverse order.”
Which utterly fails to explain how to attach the antenna.
Are you connecting these wifi antenna’s correctly to begin with? The shield should really be keeping them in place, preventing them from releasing from the connection to begin with.
Do you fully seat the antenna heads until you feel them click down? Once this happens, placing the shield over them should prevent them from coming loose.
You don’t need to bash perfectly good guides or be rude to those trying to assist. Perhaps you should just ask a friend/relative to do this for you, if you’re not physically able?
If one want to diagnose issues with booting, wouldn’t it be better to leave the WiFi disconnected? Or maybe there are clues that suggest WiFi is related to the initial issue?
I think that he has it booting with only 1 ram stick and is trying to add wifi to finish installing the OS.
I originally suggested that he remove the wifi module because another user said they had the same problem that turned out to be the wifi card… I wish I hadn’t suggested it.
Do you have to wait that long each and every time after a battery disconnection?
I believe the DDR5 training only needs to be done once, and the BIOS stores it, unless you add/remove/change RAM modules. And it’s really a fundamental need for RAM with the ever increasing bandwidth and slowly increasing frequency. Very not Framework specific, but any pre-assembled system should have it already done for you, so you get faster/better user experience.
Hi. I think those iFixit instructions are wrong for the Framework 16.
The wifi card is different in the iFixit pictures when compared to @MarkRendle pictures of the wifi card.
The complication seems to be an extra piece of plastic on the @MarkRendle wifi card pictures.
To be fair, there are like zero instructions on ifixit or the framework support site on how to install the card.
The safest way to remove the wifi card on the framework 16 laptop appears to be the method used in the support area of the Framework web site:
Framework 16 Repair guide → Replace → Mainboard
It guides to remove some other things first before removing the wifi card and lets one remove the wifi card with the cables still attached.
But, even that still does not give a video on how to reinstall the wifi card and cables again.
Sorry, I don’t think I’ve been rude to anyone, and I don’t think the guide was perfectly good: attaching the WiFi antenna is not just removing it in reverse.
Sadly I am the friend/relative that people ask to do stuff like this for them. I have no escalation path.
What about the guide was not good? Attaching the antenna is literally the reverse. But for your reference, I’ve sketched a diagram:
I almost missed it the first time I scrolled through it too, but it’s there. It been shows them removing it.
I am really struggling to understand why the tension around this topic is so high. I guess I’ll find out when I get my Batch 1 unit.
There is a shield in pictures. Some images are reused from the 13.
Try using something flat to press the wires into the ports and have the wifi card on something flat. I needed to do that to get an old laptop antennas reconnected. They should never be falling off regardless unless a decent amount of force is used.
It’s because there are a bunch of people who have their pre-order in and they’re worried that their units will have problems too. Which they might well have, based on my experience. My reason for posting here was to make people aware of problems.
@Qyygle
I think something that would help with the instructions, is maybe to take other bits of the laptop apart first, to uncover more of the wifi cables so that one can have the wifi card removed from its slot while attaching the cables and thus making it easier to attach the wifi cables as the cables are longer then and easier to line up correctly.
Hmmm… That plastic cover on the Wi-Fi module… is that something unique that Framework does? Don’t think I’ve seen that before (then again, I haven’t had to open up many other laptops before).
If it is unique, then they should definitely make a video guide for the proper install/removal of it. I can see the purpose in theory (project the plugs and cables during install), but it also means it’s something extra compared to others, and thus extra possible difficulties could arise from it.
Since I don’t have mine yet (batch 4), I can’t really tell the difficulty without doing it myself.
TL;DR: Whatever you do, don’t detach the WiFi antenna wires.
I am returning my Framework 16. It arrived yesterday, the DIY option, and I had a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro and a 32GB matched pair of Crucial DDR5-5600 16GB SODIMMs all ready to go in. Opened up the laptop, installed the modules, closed it back up again, popped my install USB stick in and powered on to… nothing. The power light came on but the display did not power on and there was not the fan noise I would expect.
So I went to the Community and asked, and people suggested reseating the RAM, so I did, or trying each of the RAM modules independently, which I did, inserting them in Channel 0, which seemed like the right one for a single stick (spoiler: it wasn’t).
Having still had no joy, somebody suggested disconnecting the WiFi module, so I did that. As I was removing it, one of the antenna wires disconnected from the tiny little terminal on the card.
It was at this point that I tried putting a single RAM module in the Channel 1 slot, at which point, hurrah, the display finally turned on. Finally, I could put everything back, close the laptop up, use it with 16GB of RAM and open a support ticket to figure out the problem with the other slot.
EXCEPT… this WiFi module, and specifically the small plastic shield that incorporates the screw that holds the module down, is an absolute swine. You can’t insert it into its slot and then attach the antenna wires, because the little plastic bit covers the terminals. So you have to try to
And you have to do steps 2-4 without accidentally detaching one of those terminal wires, and let me tell you, those are not solid connections. The slightest tension will pop the wire off again. And if you misalign the 1mm wire stud with the 1mm terminal stud and push, you’ve got a very good chance of damaging one or both of those tiny little fragile bits of metal and then you’re just done.
That photo is maybe 4x actual size. I’m 51 years old and I wear reading glasses, and even with them on I can’t see those connectors properly.
Look, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I will say that I have happily poked around in and upgraded SSDs and RAM in multiple regular laptops, and built several desktop computers from parts in my long life, and I can’t deal with this thing.
Also there is currently no mention of this WiFi module anywhere in the Guides. The current WiFi Replacement Guide covers the one in the FL13, which is different. That rates the difficulty as “Moderate”; I would rate the difficulty on the FL16 with its plastic shield as “Bloody Difficult”.
I don’t know what caused the problem with the memory. It might be a firmware thing. But it might be an issue with the mainboard, and if they send me a new mainboard I’m going to have to attach the antenna wires to the WiFi module, and I can’t.
Even if it’s a firmware issue, in 2 or 3 years they’re going to release a new mainboard and I’m going to want to upgrade to it, but then I’m going to have to attach the antenna wires to the WiFi module, and I can’t.
So there you go. Years of R&D and design to build a truly revolutionary laptop, and the whole thing has been made a non-starter for me by a small piece of plastic shielding that makes the WiFi module too difficult to connect to the antenna wires.
How would I fix this? I have a couple of possible suggestions:
I wanted to love this thing. I wanted it to be the last laptop I ever bought. I’ll continue to watch Framework with hope and optimism, and if they ever publish a blog saying “hey, we fixed the WiFi module so it doesn’t make you cry, check it out” I certainly will.
For now I wish you the very best of luck with this admirable and ambitious endeavour.
Those wifi antenna connectors were always the devil (the slightly bigger ones from the mini-pcie era weren’t much better though) but at least on the 13 the plastic bit is an improvement over not having it.
That could work.
Soldering micro coax isn’t as mun as it sounds.
Really sorry to hear about this. I know you are very disappointed. To think that a non-diy model would have avoided all of this for you.
I think most people think that just because something is modular and made to be worked on that it is NOT a sophisticated piece of delicate computer components. Knowing how complicated all of this is, I feel that Framework has done almost miracle work in making this complexity far more accessible to the masses.
That said I am once again sorry to hear of your frustration. I would ask you to work with support and not give up on the awesome that is Framework just yet.
What I do is either hold the Wi-Fi module in place with one hand/finger and attach the wires with the other hand, then place the plastic shield in place and screw it down. Or just screw the card in place without the shield, attach the wires, then remove the screw while holding the card down, place the plastic shield in place and screw it down.
I’m sorry such small, but obviously frustrating thing has led you to give up on the laptop all together. But obviously, a “DIY” (whether that refers to assembly, upgrade, or repair) laptop won’t be for everyone. Cheers!
