I opened my laptop to re-seat the ram because it is randomly hard-powering off, but the threaded-insert that goes under the power button looked loose. I tapped it and it immediately fell off. I was on Batch 5 of the OG framework laptop, and this brings my total to two failed threaded-inserts (one motherboard insert came out in the upgrade to the AMD board and now one of the case inserts) over the span of 4 years. This time, since its a case insert, I can’t just ignore it since the captive screw will be rattling around so I’m ordering a replacement bottom cover. Hopefully framework has done something over the past four years to fix this clearly flawed part.
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The motherboard inserts do seem to be somewhat weak. For me, I have 5 complete Framework 13’s and a couple extra bottom plates, and every single one has had the middle insert nearest the battery come out.
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Thanks for the confirmation! Any chance these bottoms are as old as mine, or are they examples that more recent bottoms still have the same problem?
They’re spread across a couple years; my last order for a bottom case would have been a bit after the 7040 series came out and the first one would have been for a 12th gen intel shortly after those came out, whatever time frame that is.
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Can they be glued back in, or is the material around the insert so damaged that there’s not much to glue them to?
Only about 25% of the original pillar remains, the rest came off with the insert, so I assumed it wouldn’t be strong enough. But thank you for asking this because I wrongly thought this insert was on the bottom but now I see its on the input cover side so I guess I ordered the wrong replacement part. I’ll probably keep my order because the motherboard insert is also gone but I guess I have two parts to replace instead of one.
Edit: Looks like if I put up with the rattling screw for a bit I’ll be able to get one of those 2nd gen keyboards without a windows key so I’m going to go that route. Hopefully framework releases those soon 
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roughly how many times would you say you’ve opened your framework? just out of curiosity.
I’d estimate no more than 30 over the 4 years. I usually have no reason to be going in there except for blowing the dust out of the fan maybe once or twice per year but there were a couple instances that caused repeated openings (going back and forth with tech support, an experiment that had me swapping out the SSD a couple of times, swapping out the wifi card a couple of times)
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Thanks, Tom1
I suppose if I get one of these, I’d use glue or epoxy to pre-emptively reinforce the pillar, though it is likely that all it will do is delay the disintegration, not prevent it. Chances are high that they are simply using the wrong material (plastic too weak or too sensitive to heating/cooling cycles).
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On a positive note, my random hard-poweroffs seemed to have stopped. I don’t know if it was reseating the ram or removing the loose threaded insert that solved the issue but its been a week now with no hard-poweroffs.
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