I have a batch 3, 395 128GB desktop that doesn’t boot. After pressing the power button, it stays on for like 3 seconds and it turns off. After a while I see the LEDs near the power button that is located on the mainboard start blinking in a specific pattern.
LED pattern:
I have used the support form last night waiting to hear from them. But in the meantime, I was wondering if anyone knows what the LEDs exactly indicate? Is there a manual somewhere I can refer to? And if someone managed to solve this issue?
I’d love to know that too. I had a similar behaviour as well when I presumably messed up my boatloader. I had to remove the ssd from the system, reformat it (did so with an external M.2 drive socket on another system) to get rid of whatever was wrong there. To test if that is also your problem, you can remove your SSD(s) and just blug in a live linux usb stick and see if it changes anything during boot.
I put in a Samsung 990 Pro 4TB in the first boot. Then I removed it, with no other storage plugged in. Same behavior was seen. Shouldn’t I at least get to the BIOS screen? Did seeing the BIOS screen depend on where the SSD was plugged in for you?
In general, for diagnosis unplug everything, SSD, WiFi, RAM etc.
Leave a keyboard attached.
As the RAM is soldered onto the mainboard in the desktop, you should see at least something appear on the display. As soon as you see something, press F2.
The display needs some RAM installed in order to work.
If that works, then one-by-one add back the SSD etc. until if fails to boot.
I tried unplugging the WiFi module as well and nothing else plugged in. The mainboard doesn’t stay on for more than 2 seconds.
I have never even seen any hints of the mainboard trying display anything and the RGB on the keyboard I plug in never turns on, suggesting that the USB ports may not even get power to them.
I’ll find a PSU next and see if the one that got shipped with it as issues.
Have you contacted Framework Support? If it doesn’t boot with an OS install USB and an empty SSD, when everything is correctly assembled, this should be a warranty case.
If you happen to have a spare ATX PSU lying around though, it can’t hurt to test if it works with that one though.
I contacted the support in around 12:20 AM of Aug 29 (pacific time), before posting here.
In the meantime, they asked me to try a bunch of simple troubleshooting steps. The last video I sent them was with no SSD, no WiFi, no extension modules and every cable except HDMI and power unplugged. Then I unplugged the power cable until there were no orange lights on. Then I pressed the CMOS RESET button for more than 10 seconds, then plugged in the power with only an HDMI monitor plugged in from before. Same behavior was seen again. I got that last request on Thursday last week in response to me asking for updates 2 days after their previous response where they said they’ll get back to me after 1-2 days, after even simpler troubleshooting steps were followed and pictures of the shipping box were sent to them in case it was potentially tampered with on the way to me.
I sent the last video to them on Saturday, asked them about an update on Monday noon (pacific time). And as of writing this, I’m waiting for their reply to me pinging them on Monday.
In their communication, they mentioned that:
1- They are dealing with higher-than-normal number of tickets.
2- In response to me asking for guides on the LED status, they said they’re working on expanding guides, including the LED status and POST behavior.
Please keep us informed especially those of us who have yet to ship - I was hoping that this thing (framework desktop) would run right out of the box. I’m getting too old for troubleshooting. I knew it was too good to be true.
Failures in newly shipped units are not unheard of, especially with a new product. If it happens more than rarely, that’s a significant concern. Presumably, we’ll know soon enough if that’s the case, thanks to this forum.
The other consideration in my view is how quickly Framework responds to such findings and how easily/quickly they resolve it. I’d be willing to cut them some slack on response time, at least temporarily, as the product launch is in its very early stage and support is reported to be backlogged.
But for obvious failures, especially when so well documented as the OP seems to have done, the product should be quickly replaced. Framework has not done so well on that score AFAICT, and that’s what I’ll be looking at to potentially reconsider my Batch 13 order.
I’ve done many many consumer and hacker product launches. Number one job is to double and triple check QC before anything goes out the door. Basic electronic burn-in tests before final assembly and packing would have caught this. Simple POST checks would also have caught this. At the price being charged, there is no excuse or pass here
Their support responses were essentially the same as @Sh_Ra ‘s: take photos of the box, what troubleshooting have you done, etc. The final decision was: warranty replacement or straight up return. I’m opting for return, and this is telling as their response:
Hi June,
We’ve escalated your ticket for return processing, and one of our staff will get back to you soon with additional instructions.
Please note that our RMA and Repair teams are currently experiencing high contact volume, and response times have been impacted, resulting in minor delays.
Thanks for your patience while our team works through requests as quickly as possible.
Regards,
Framework Support
I suspect the issues with the FW12 laptop case cracking are the reason for “high contact volume”, rather than anything inherently wrong with the FW Desktop….
What a let down. You - we- have been waiting for this for a long time and then this happens. I would be so disappointed and I’m sure you had big plans for this so called state of the art technology marvel. I am at a crossroads as well - cancel or throw the dice one more time. God be with you and I hope you can replace it with something more reliable. Please keep us informed on the return process - if was painful or seamless.
I found another PSU and saw the same issue. Took a video of that and sent that to the support. RMA process started. Yesterday, I got notification for a new mainboard that is coming my way, while I need to ship the faulty mainboard back with their prepaid shipping label. (I checked right now, and it has started shipping already)
Last I heard about the guides is that it is pending approval to publish, and the code I was seeing corresponds to:
10 On/Off - Power glitch detected (POK) / Power glitch detected during boot.
But since I tried with another PSU and nothing worked still, they determined the board is faulty and replacing it for me for free.
@Sh_Ra
fwiw … i also had an issue with my Framework Desktop (seemingly) not starting up … contacted support and also had blink codes from the LEDs … they provided this link that documents the LED Blink Codes:
I’m also having this issue. I can get into the BIOS fine but when I try to boot into the OS I just get a black screen and then the PC powers off and the led flashes. It was working fine the night before. Were you using Bazzite by any chance?
