For one it’s ground so it could just be the victim of the actual cause, it could also just be physical proximity to the issue or a combination of the two.
My guess is still that the big capacitor is under the melted spot but without someone tearing down a fan we can’t really know.
I accidentally killed a fan while trying to wire it to another laptop (didn’t realize there were 2 revisions of the fan, and referenced the one with reverse polarity of the wires), and it’s the one with the ground at the bottom. It isn’t quite the same situation but i’ll pop it open sometime when I remember, and show the layout of things to give y’all a better reference of what’s going on.
This one has the red wire on the outside.
And this the black on the outside.
Like all the other ones that failed. Probably that has something to do with it. Like he noticed:
I will check my FW13 from late 2021 later today which version it has.
Autopsy images as promised. Cant see any values on anything & no multi meter. This is seemingly the same design revision as the dying fans- FRANFVHYA1 310600NJ Heatsink and Fan Replacement Guide - Framework Guides
Interesting, they put the passives on the blade side.
Given the different pinout I am not sure it is the same board as on the burnt out fans.
If it is, the closest component near the reported melted places would be R2 but on the other side of the board. Intuitively I would expect having to go through the board to spread out the hat more and cause a less pinpointed melted spot, on the other hand it is a pretty thin pcb.
Now I want to see the autopsy of one of the burnt out ones even more XD.
The pinout is the same, I soldered it incorrectly, which is why it died.
Now I gotta big clive this pcb to figure out what r2 does XD
Edit:
R2 is connected to the tacho pin and supposed to be like 10k according to the datasheet. even if the chip failed completely short (and the tach pin was fed unlimited current) there 10k should not get anywhere near hot enough for this meltery. I am more confused than before.
The burned spot may be closer to the com terminal than r2.
Here are a somewhat more aligned version of the pictures (I mirrored the bottom side for easier matching):
Same problem here a couple of days ago with my i7-1165G7 
The motherboard is 7 months old, changed under warranty for an unrelated problem. I was very happy with the change, because I had a lot of fan noise with the last one, and none with the new one, but probably a bit of noise might have been better 
Frame.work support is quite unhelpful, telling me that I’m out of warranty, and just asking me to buy new everything :
We recommend starting by replacing the Heatsink and Fan kit module. This component is crucial for effective thermal management, and addressing it first could resolve the overheating issues you are experiencing. However, if the problem persists, we advise proceeding with the replacement of the mainboard. Given the circumstances, we cannot guarantee that the old mainboard will function reliably after encountering the current issue, and investing in a new mainboard may ensure better overall performance and stability.
As it is at least the 5th reported case here, maybe they could investigate a bit? I’ve got nothing against buying replacement parts, that’s the reason I got a Frame.work in the first place, but I’m not keen on buying them to maybe see them fail again soon.
The strange thing here is that I was only streaming video on the couch at the time the smoke started, and the computer was not hot to the touch at all, so I doubt the problem is overheating.
Could you autopsy the fan?
I’m still hoping for Frame.work support to ask for it to be sent back so that they start looking at the problem, but if they don’t, I will !
Its just a guess. The fan has active components on it. Maybe one of those components is failing, creating a short. In which case the mainboard needs some over-current protection. My guess is that maybe the mainboard does not have the overcurrent protection, and thus the wire melting symptoms.
So, instead of an event being raised, as a result of detecting over current or no current, reporting “fan failure” to the user, its just melting instead.
My guess is either the controller or the motor capacitor, that thing probably has the hardest live on that board.
Still very curious and seeing a dead board would likely be very informative. Even more if someone could measure if the cap is shorted or what on the controller broke. Also the state of the coils would be interesting. From my overclocking experiments with fans I found that if the controller can handle it the coils can fail.
Just got an answer from support when pointing them to this thread, and asking for more details about what could have happened.
Regarding the issue of your laptop, the burns were on the soldered circuits of the heat sink fan, we suggest buying a replacement in the Marketplace for a replacement. We’re sorry we are not able to tell exactly how the burnt might have started from that part, we cannot speculate on things. We’re sorry we cannot assist further on this issue due to the limitations and the situation.
Pretty disappointing. Guys, several of your laptops are emitting smoke, with the same part failing, maybe you should investigate ?
Again, I’ve got no problem with buying replacement parts, but if there is a systemic problem, I’d like it to be addressed.
@Destroya maybe you could have a look at this thread, and escalate it somewhere ?
Please reach out to support again about your fan issue and replacement.
Thanks a lot Kieran !
