Laptop Not Powering on With BIOS 3.07

Community Support
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@ssu I would suspect that what fixed it in both those cases was the CMOS battery recharge, and not necessarily the fingerprint ribbon cable. But I’m happy to be proven wrong. :slight_smile:

For me, the positives of the Framework laptop outweigh the negatives. The only negative I have is this one. The positives are that I have a modular, “future-proof” (within reason), user-serviceable laptop that is as sleek and portable as one from a more mainstream manufacturer. I’m quite pleased with my purchase (don’t call me a cultist! :stuck_out_tongue:), even if I need to keep my laptop plugged in while I’m not using it to avoid this issue. I would be even happier if someone from Framework would speak up and tell us this will be permanently fixed, preferably via a BIOS upgrade.

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@ssu - I did not try that solution at the time. However, I’ve gotten a new input cover since (RMA’d the previous one for a different issue). Maybe it is still an issue with the new input cover, I don’t know. I will try that doing that once I have the tool to open the laptop just to cross it off the list.

Maybe they will see this thread and confirm whether the issue has re-occurred for them or not.

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@ssu It was a false positive. I still have the battery fail and have to do a reset or plug in the laptop to AC while in use. I’ve resigned myself to this just being the way it is for 11th gen boards.

I read in the thread about the 12th gen boards that this was improved so I can already assume the “solution” us 11th gen board users will be told is to upgrade; which is irritating.

I haven’t returned to this thread until now (I saw your mention yesterday) because I don’t believe there is an actual solution to our problem

1 Like
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Man, that surely does suck…

I’m currently ‘still’ on the bandwagon for the 12th gen board…but seriously need someone to run it through before making another purchase.

55

Same. Once I hear confirmation that a board upgrade would resolve the issue I may upgrade or wait it out a few iterations. Just can’t justify another gamble at the moment so will just tether to a wall outlet for now

56

I do appreciate everyone’s feedback on this. That said, I’d still like some official word from the Framework team. Good or bad news, I want to know, officially, if this will be fixed or not on our 11th gen boards.

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…and if it’s a board / hardware issue, is it covered under warranty?

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I’ve had issue with this and followed all the guides that were posted, and when it happened last it still did the same thing.

I thought the issue was that the CMOS battery was dead and wouldn’t hold a charge, but I tried the steps again and found that slightly (and I mean SLIGHTLY) moving the battery seemed to fix the issue. (Still works after a month!) YMMV and it may need to be replaced, but I would siggest trying it before placing a support ticket.

It may be that off the production line the system works as intended, but during shipment it gets wiggled out of place to where it doesn’t work.

Hope this helps!

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My laptop is gorgeous and I like it.

But when I turn on the power button, it never comes on. But when I plug in the power cable and press the power button, it comes on quickly and stays on after I unplugged the power cable, even though each occasion the battery was at 91%, 72%, and 56% charged.

Therefore, please help solve this problem on my beautiful laptop because I have only enough knowledge to unbox and let up this laptop. I do not understand any of the conversation around BIOS or tech stuff, let alone to fix it. Thank you.

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As a short term fix, I would recommend leaving the laptop on the charger for 24 hours. This is likely happening for you due to the secondary battery for keeping the time, and BIOS settings is drained. This will probably help get you back up and running without issue for a while with little to no issue, especially if you let it charge for a few hours at least once a week consistently.
We are still waiting on Framework to discuss the possibility of a longer term fix as far as I’m aware.

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This solution works. However, a laptop is, by its very definition, meant to be portable. This cannot be a permanent solutions and is (barely) a workaround, at best. How do we get the Framework team’s attention on this matter?

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I’d assume the best way would be to either keep complaining about it for several months on the forum, or bring the issue to the eyes of influencers that previously were singing praises of the Framework laptop.

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So, I noticed BIOS version 3.10 was recently released. Not sure exactly when, but it does seem to include some battery fixes. I’m hoping it fixed this issue, as well, but I’m not quite sure how to test it…

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Update:

I’m back once again to complain about this issue. I upgraded my BIOS to 3.10, and I thought the issue was gone for a while. In the past two weeks, I’ve had my laptop not power on until I plugged in charger, twice. The latest one was today, and the battery was on 67%.

I had a support case open with Framework a while back, but it seems I’ll need to re-open that wound.

1 Like
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It’s a hardware issue…can’t be fixed. Not one that they’ll fix / recall for 11th gen customers.

Only workaround.

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I have a Batch 8 Framework Performance model (i7-1165G7) which came with 3.07 BIOS installed and which is still running Win 10 Home.

I didn’t fancy trying the procedure given in the Framework Knowledgebase (My Framework Laptop (Intel 11th Gen Intel® Core™) is not powering on), nor the other recommendations in various other threads, and none of the suggested explanations were definitive so I experimented.

I charged the laptop up to 100% using the Framework charger. I then disconnected it, powered down and disconnected it from the charger (2022-07-31).

I then left it disconnected from the charger for over 24 hours (varying from 24 hours and 11 minutes to 33 hours and 32 minutes) before trying to power up again. I did this for 17 days (from 2022-08-01 to 2022-08-17) before it failed to power up.

The on button was not lit up so I connected it to the Framework charger – the button lit up – I pressed it and disconnected the laptop from the Framework charger. It booted up (2022-08-18 at 0:58) – battery showing 60% without time remaining detail – date and time showing as 2022–08–17 and 0:24. (I had previously powered it down on 2022-08-17 at 0:23 when the battery was showing 62% with 6 hours 33 minutes remaining.)

I carried on experimenting until 2022-09-16 before I charged it up again.

I didn’t try leaving it for 24+ hours again after I recharged it so I don’t know whether there is a specific battery level before it fails to boot. At the penultimate shutdown before it failed to boot when disconnected from a power supply the battery was showing 64% so if there is a specific battery level it’s somewhere between 62% and 64%.

Connecting the laptop to a power supply until the light on the side flashed was sufficient to allow the laptop to power up again – even when immediately disconnected before pressing the on button. This was true whether I used the Framework charger or a USB-C to USB-A cable (Anker USB C Charger Cable, PowerLine+ USB–C to USB 3.0 charger cable (3ft/0.9m), High Durability Type C Braided Charging Cable; and an oneo Endurance USB–C Data Charging Cable – 2M) connected to a USB 3 port on a desktop computer. I didn’t try connecting to a USB 2 port.

The time remaining figures would change (up and down) frequently – even when the battery %age didn’t change. Also the date and time would show details a little later than the date/time that the laptop had been shut down. Windows reported multiple failures when a manual date/time sync was tried even though internet access was OK. I shut the laptop down after 5 minutes of sync fails.

After shutting the laptop down it would then reboot properly while still disconnected from a power source. The date and time would show correct details after the reboot. The laptop would reboot again after a further shutdown if done soon enough. It rebooted after a delay of 4 hours and 22 minutes but failed to do so after a delay of 4 hours and 38 minutes so if there is a specific maximum delay it would appear to be between these two values.

I can’t say that what I found will be true in all cases but neither a cable nor a charger is particularly heavy or bulky so I’ll just pack one or both if it looks like failing to boot may be a problem when I take my laptop away from home.

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Welcome to the 'grin and bare it" club.

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Hi @John_Haggerty this is from someone who authored a 90 post long thread about this issue :see_no_evil:

We have to separate the two things out - Laptop Battery 100% charged and BIOS Battery 100% charged (Yes, this is not ideal specially since there is no fancy indicator in the OS that says how much the BOIS battery is charged). The Framework RTC/CMOS battery is rechargable as has been established elsewhere and will last only 21 days without being plugged in (irrespective on main battery charge %)

General rules of thumb I’ve come to accept

  • The BIOS battery can take upto 48 hours to charge fully and it only charges when the laptop is plugged in
  • The BIOS battery will completely discharge (in theory) if the laptop is left unplugged for around 20-21 days (in new condition, those numbers will go down eventually but someone calculated a lifetime of 6 years for it, though other people have had to replace it 8 to 10 months in)

Now, there are other issues possible which may indicate a dodgy motherboard (specifically a dodgy RTC battery soldering issue, but other possible issues have not been detailed, like in my case). Symptoms for these are (all assuming the laptop has had one 48 hours uninterrupted charge cycle)

  • Unplugged it, used the laptop, left it around for < 20 odd days and tried to start it without plugging it in, it doesn’t start.
  • If you unplugged the laptop overnight, next day morning you try to start it, the power button doesn’t respond the first few presses, then fires up
  • If you unplugged the laptop overnight, the next day morning you try to start it, the power button doesn’t respond (to first 5-6 presses). Then you hold it down and it fires up.

I have a list of videos on all these behaviours that finally resulted in my mobo getting RMAed by Framework.

Laptop not starting after remaining unplugged for 21 days or more is an un-resolvable hardware issue that I have accepted I’ll live with.

69

Hi Sumit,

Thanks for your response.

I bought my Framework as a backup machine which I power up once a week to check for / install software updates.

I looked into this at the end of July out of curiosity as it wasn’t causing me any particular problems. I only published my post just in case it might be of help to others.

I hadn’t been aware of your 90 post long thread - it seems it was only started after I’d finished experimenting in mid-September.

I’ve since read your thread and the thread at Viability of an ML 1220 rechargable battery for RTC | CMOS (11th gen) - #306 by Jason_Dagless.

Thanks to everyone for the info - I understand things a lot better now.

Regards,

John

1 Like
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As sumit said, I have resolved to live with the problem with battery/power cable plug in/ booting