Orange Blinking light after firmware update

[Gabriel_K]

Batch 05
Fedora 35
Using Framwork’s power supply

Hello, I recently updated my bios to 3.07 using the shell script method, and after the flash the light near the charging port flashes oranges after it’s fully charged, and will only stop if I unplug the power supply, then plug back in. I’ve checked if it was due to the lid not being closed, as suggested in a similar post, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Just curious if I should be worried, given the fact that this bios update addressed a battery charging issue. Any ideas?

[mackncheesiest]

I had checked that my lid was properly closed as well and it didn’t go away either.

The only other idea I’ve seen is that it’s related to the battery charge limit

[2disbetter]

That is correct. If the battery limit setting was set in BIOS, then when that limit was reached it blinks orange to let you know that charging is finished.

[Gabriel_K]

@2disbetter, That’s what I figured (it meant charging complete), but it didn’t do that before the BIOS update. I’m guessing it’s something new? (I also didn’t do a search within the community for ‘amber blinking light’. Had I done so, I would’ve seen the battery charge limit post… Oops…)

Either way, that’s good news at least. When something blinks orange (or amber), it sometimes means ‘bad’, so I figured it was worth a mention.

I much preferred it before, where the light went from solid orange to solid white when charging was complete. Do you know how to get that behaviour back?

Hopefully something official is mentioned sooner or later, as I’m sure we are not the only ones who have noticed this. I don’t think I’m going to tinker with the BIOS yet, as unplugging it and plugging it back in does the trick.

Thanks for clearing this up.

[Wanderer]

@mackncheesiest

he only other idea I’ve seen is that it’s related t

Thanks this was a good post, I was noticing the same behavior, it did not occur to me that it was triggered after my firmware update. It’s good to know I thought it could mean an issue with the charging system on the laptop.

[anotheruser]

I’ve seen different behavior after playing with the charge limit up and down. For example, my charge light went from blinking to unblinking, despite my being at an 80% charge and charge limit.

From another post I made:

@anotheruser

I’ve seen some bizarre behavior in the side indicator lights’ blinkiness. Context is provided below; weird bits are in bold.

Notation:
< : my action
> : result from the laptop

< set charge limit 80%, run laptop from 100%
> laptop discharges to 80%, showing some forgotten indicator light pattern
< run laptop at 80% (seeing 81%)
> laptop blinks amber
< unplug laptop, run to 75%
< set charge limit 100%, run laptop charging to 82%
> laptop solid amber charge
< reboot, set charge limit 80%, run laptop
> laptop keeps charging from 82% to 85%
< disconnect laptop, reboot several times, run discharge to 80%
< plug laptop in, run laptop at 80%
> laptop shows solid amber light

I haven’t attempted to reproduce this yet.

[Libberator]

Seeing the same behavior on the same bios update, running Windows. Did not change the battery limit in the bios, but it seems fairly benign. Agree that flashing orange is normally a bad code, might be worth correcting in the future.

[bearFixes]

I just got my frame.work on Feb 3, 2022 and after the update I can confirm that the led blinks orange when closed and charging/charged. Not sure why but it does. I was worried about it TBH because amber unless solid is usually not a good thing. Framework maybe consider changing this behavior so people dont think there is something wrong. Great laptop so far though.

[Tater]

After setting the max battery charge in the 3.07 bios to 90% the charging indicator blinks red once the machine has reached that.

I’m really just wanting to make sure that is the expected behavior and not a sign of something else. Only the LED on the side with the power adaptor connected is blinking.

[Fraoch]

Seems to be expected behaviour, yes.

The LED colour should be amber/orange though.

But solid amber when charging, blinking amber when it’s reached its charge limit. You won’t see white (full charge) any more if you have a charge limit enabled, except if it’s full when you enable the charge limit and it drops from there.

[Tater]

You’re right it is amber. It looked more red under my office lighting. Awesome thanks!

[Jonathan_Haas]

Yes, it’s expected with the current firmware, but it has already created some complaints and it looks like they’ll change it to solid white for the next firmware update.

(Source code change here: https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/EmbeddedController/commit/d8fa4cc0f83d49d3c912cc8a5bfed2823bf662a9 )

[nmiles]

I noticed this on my laptop today. What’s interesting is that it was white earlier when it finished charging to 100%, and now it’s blinking amber at 100%. Both with 3.07. I went through the mainboard reset procedure because I am having powering on issues, even with 3.07 BIOS. I posted about it here, but not sure if that would be related to why I saw a solid white LED and blinking amber LED.

[dkter]

@nmiles

I noticed this on my laptop today. What’s interesting is that it was white earlier when it finished charging to 100%, and now it’s blinking amber at 100%. Both with 3.07.

Same for me – I’m not having powering on issues though, and I haven’t set a charge limit