I had an unusual issue that occurred with my Framework laptop.
I have not used my Framework laptop for almost a month. Last night I decided I wanted to charge the battery the format a external drive to use as I want to dual boot with Windows and Linux with the laptop. I connected the power supply and noticed immediately the battery charge light didn’t turn on. So I attempted to turn on the laptop and nothing, not even the power light on the finger print reader/power button came on.
I removed the modules except for 1 and nothing… Tried connecting the adapter directly to the port and nothing. Next I thought it was the battery so I took the keyboard off but also check the connection on it and it was good. Disconnected the battery and reconnected the power and nothing. So I look at the CMOS battery thinking it could have gone bad and I need a replacement but then I saw it said rechargeable. I decided to take the CMOS battery out and waited 10 seconds to take a gamble and see if the CMOS needed to clear.
Put the CMOS battery back in and connected power back and the charge light came back on and I can turn on the laptop but it take a little for POST to kick in but it is working now.
I just found it odd. Could the reason be is because I had it not used it for so long and the CMOS battery needed to be recharged and/or reset by removing it?
This CMOS battery pull is required in the case where the Intel processor is in that ‘stuck’ state, caused by low CMOS battery voltage…if I’m not mistaken.
In some cases, the processor doesn’t get into a stuck state, and the CMOS battery pull is not required. Just need to plug in the USB-PD.
Current known workaround to avoid either cases all together is to make sure that you:
Charge the CMOS battery fully to start with, by having the laptop plugged in for 24-hours. AND
Plug in the laptop at least once a week, for 8 hours.
I also wanted to add to this. The reason the laptop takes more time than usual to load on first boot after reseating the RTC battery is that it has to retrain the RAM. This also happens on desktops when changing RAM, or I believe when clearing CMOS on those as well, and will take longer the higher RAM capacity is in the system.
Below is someone’s blog about this issue. Thanks, someone! I plan to use this page as a secondary reference source (it’s like a second option, not a primary source) for this topic on the Framework Wikipedia.
Yeah, I agree! In the case of the Framework, while many things happen in this community forum or outside the community every day, it’s important for someone or a web media to write an article about a specific topic as a second opinion. Wikipedia encourages adding a secondary source to the content on the page. Adding only a primary source (= article by Framework) is not enough.
I actually already added the blog page above to the Wikipedia page.
I quoted your post with the review link in another thread with a call to action. I believe the issue has been summarized quite well in that thread, and it’s the thread that @nrp has already responded to before Framework, and their support team started ignoring the issue.
My wording definitely wasn’t the best. To clarify, the message I was trying to get out was more along the lines of “For those that want to continue expressing their dissatisfaction with the way Framework, as a company, is handling their own proposed resolutions to the issue that several users are claiming to have, here are some options to continue bringing this to their attention through multiple avenues.”
That just wouldn’t roll off the tongue though, so I decided to simplify my argument. A little too much apparently.
I really think Framework, in good conscience, has a responsibility to include some kind of note on the 11th gen product info / sales page with specific mention of this issue / behaviour / characteristic / flaw…
Forum posts / replies / blogs…while fairly ‘official’ isn’t the usual pre-sale product info gathering channel.
This is what we aren’t sure about since the dialog seems to be rather one-sided since the last time we heard from @nrp. I haven’t gotten any more responses to my support ticket (previously they were replying a couple times per day) so we aren’t sure what is going on. Are they discussing options internally? Are they preparing to share more info on a plan? Are they investigating how to fix? Without any feedback it feels like they are just ignoring entirely and hope folks sell their machines and stop discussing it here so the internet forgets
Some confusion here. If I gave the impression that the level of charge on the main battery 10% 90% or whatever was in some way related to the charging or level of charge of the CMOS battery then I didn’t mean to imply that.
I had quoted somewhere that an interesting and detailed report on main battery state and use is available via a Microsoft utility, this is useful, but didn’t include anything about the CMOS battery state, charge level etc.
What I did post maybe yesterday in one of the three threads on the subject of the PC not powering on without the aid of the mains power supply was that the official response is that there isn’t any CMOS battery information available like voltage, state of charge etc. in a Windows utility (as there is for Desktops), where there is detailed info on 12v and 5v supplies, temp at various paces on the mobo etc. The official answer from support on info on the CMOS is an unequivocal NO.
What I have not asked is info on the voltage charge state etc. will be available in the new model.
The issues is when both the RTC and then main battery go dead, USB-PD cannot negotiate and alongside that the 11th gen processors go into a bad powered state which is fixed by pulling the RTC.
Framework support have just come back saying the RTC needs charging. I’ve asked them why this laptop needs to be treated this way and no other laptop I’ve owned.
“To summarize, we have to plug in the laptop with the power adapter for at least 24 hours every once in a while to let the RTC recharge and prevent a low battery state resulting to not powering on if not connected to the power adapter. Can we try to plug in the laptop for at least 24 hours and see if this will help?”
Under UK law it’s past the 30 days but they do have the right to try to repair or replace. If they cannot or won’t then by law I can ask for a refund.
Yes but the inference was that I should have known about that from the start when I got the machine.
It isn’t anywhere in the initial or basic instructions anyone needs to get their laptop working.
Yes now I can try the 24 hours charge test. If that doesn’t work then I assume I have a faulty laptop and Framework can work with me to deal with the situation to get a properly working one or refund me.
