New FW13 AMD AI9 Won't Start / Black Screen

Community Support
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Hi Community:

I have a new Framework 13 AMD Ryzen AI 300 AI 9 HX 370 DIY edition which I purchased with a single 48GB RAM module and 2TB NvDme less than a week ago. I received and assembled everything and installed the new firmware and Ubuntu 25.10 and was off and running with no problems for 2-3 days. This thing is beautiful!

However after a system crash I rebooted the laptop and now only have a blank dark screen – I cannot enter the BIOS via F2 or temporary boot from USB via F12. No splash screen, just the display lighting up and fans power up, then black.

The system powers on normally on both AC and battery. (The software crash was due to a system-wide language change, which requires a new login, and I rebooted as the dialogue had frozen – maybe not exactly relevant as this seems to me to be a hardware issue).

I re-opened the laptop abd following the guides I unscrewed and re-seated the 2TB disk module; switched and seated the single 48GB RAM module between slots, then put it back in the right slot; unplugged and re-seated the keyboard/trackpad clip. Everything was secure, and working fine before the crash and reboot.

At one startup the system displayed the original boot message (with the QR code) after which I re-seated the disk module again. This didn’t work. After trying to startup again after the above, I re-opened the laptop to remove the battery, plug in and start, in case it was a battery issue (reported online). But as noted above the system powers on both on AC and battery, but does not start further. No BIOS or USB keyboard shortcuts.

I understood that some combination of removing the battery, using AC power, etc. will reset the mainboard, and maybe that was the issue (after re-seating all modules, checking battery and AC power). I wanted to follow the guide for full reset of the mainboard state but the one online refers to removing and re-seating the CMOS battery.

This guide is specific to the Intel and other models of the FW13 but not the AMD AI one I have. I believe that mine has the RTC Battery Substitute module since there is no round battery beneath the RTC slot I saw inside. So I was not sure how to fully reset the mainboard, it may be useful to add another guide for those without RTC.

I also tried different combinations of holding the power button for 30 or so second and cycling with the AC plugged in and with only the battery. I also checked the full guide for accessing and replacing the mainboard but I didn’t want to go that far, the laptop was working the day before with everything as-was.

But now I still have only a black screen, which powers and lights up, but nothing further. I haven’t yet checked with an external display but I am fairly sure the display is fine. As noted above, on one single occassion since the crash it did show the initial FW boot screen with the QR code.

Can anyone please suggest next steps to get me started again? For several days everything worked great on Ubuntu 25.10, and I had migrated my entire data and system over before this fatal crash and failure to start again. I hope I may not have to have anything replaced and there is a way out which I can do myself. Thanks and best wishes to the creators and community!

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This one might help, if you can find the chassis open switch.

This guide is for the FW16 with AMD CPU.

The process should be similar for your AI9 mainboard.

If you contact FW support via their web site, they should email you back the proceedure for the AI9

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Regarding other diagnosing steps.

  1. The best diagnosis is trying to get into the BIOS with F2.

If you don’t have a working display. Keep pressing the F2 up/down quickly after powering on.

If the display works, press the F2 as soon as the first words are displayed on the display.

  1. The only think normally preventing the display working, is the lack of RAM. You have to have RAM working before the BIOS will display.

So, the best thing is probably to remove the Battery (carefully, pins easily bent), remove the SSD/NVME, Remove the Wifi card, leaving only the RAM in. Then leave the laptop powered off (not suspend, powered off) and unplug the PSU, and wait 60 seconds. (this resets the EC) Then plug in the PSU and try to power on and see if the display shows anything.

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With not being able to get to a bios screen this seems like a ram issue or possibly a mainboard issue. I would try different ram if possible, as well as opening a ticket with Support. Best of luck getting things resolved.

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I wonder if this is the bath tub failure curve kicking in, and you happened to be at the start of the curve.

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Dear @James3 and others:

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I am now back to the initial Framework boot screen, having unscrewed and removed almost everything and replaced the modules, power, battery, etc. – and isolated the SSD/NVMe as the problem.

I would like to note that I never found the chassis open switch even after removing and lifting the mainboard and peeking inside the black tape that covers the entire board from the optional RTC battery slot to the WiFi module. Does the AMD AI series have a chassis open switch? It seemed easy enough to remove the mainboard after just unscrewing – I put it right back in because I didn’t see any reason to poke further.

There should be an update guide online for mainboard replacement that documents the differences between this newer model and older ones (the WiFi module is also located in a different place than in the mainboard replacement guide – I had to see the WiFi module guide which shows the one I have).

Anyway I am back to a working boot screen and BIOS, which is some progress. I believe it may have helped something to remove everything and power cycle with only the adapter plugged in. I connected everything except the battery and storage last – the laptop works fine on battery and AC power. The memory module is back in the slot from which I was able to originally boot when I first setup the laptop.

I haven’t put the SSD/NMVe back in yet to see if I can boot from it again. I am going to boot from USB into Ubuntu 25.10 again and check the disk module if it is recognised. So happily, it seems there is nothing wrong with the laptop except the storage – and I hope it’s the module and not the slot!

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I am now back to fully operational after removing the SSD/NVMe (WD Black 2TB SN850X which I ordered along with the laptop) and replacing it with the SSD/NVMe disk module from my old laptop (Dell XPS 13 circa 2016) which (to my surprise) booted normally into my old desktop.

So the problem was nothing in the laptop, it was the disk module (+1). Whenever it was inserted I could neither enter the BIOS nor boot from USB stick – I had an Ubuntu pen drive ready to try and diagnose the disk in a live session but this wasn’t possible.

Only removing the faulty disk module got things working – with no module inserted I could boot from USB, enter the BIOS, etc. but not with it in. Inserting my spare disk module from my old laptop got everything working.

I feel that there should be some better way to diagnose problems with the disk module as all I had was a black screen until I narrowed down the problem. However I just inserted the faulty disk module in my old Dell XPS13 and it won’t boot or go to BIOS or USB boot either.

As I noted earlier I feel that the guides should be updated for the AMD AI 300 series which have different internal arrangements. I never figured out where and if there is a chassis open switch and how (if I actually did so) I reset the mainboard. In any case I am back up and running and exploring this wonder of a laptop!

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@shekhar

It is good to hear you have diagnosed the problem.

Note that this is a community forum, my messages are just other users like you.

If you purchased the SSD from FW, raise a support ticket via their web site.

They will most likely replace it.

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Yes I have contacted support about the faulty disk module.

My Framework 13 is working great with my ACER FA200 2TB SSD, which is a year old. I was pleasantly surprised to find that after I put it into my new FW13 it booted fine into the same Ubuntu 25 install which was on my laptop circa 2016.

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Is there some way to mark this topic as resolved?

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Normally you can just edit the title and put “[SOLVED]” at the start.

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