Laptop Not Powering on With BIOS 3.07

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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.

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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.

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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

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