Rattling / Buzzing in left speaker

So is it the speaker itself is blown or rattling against its own mounts? Or is the speaker somewhat loose, touching the keyboard above it when the case is fully assembled and resonating against the keyboard?

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Anything that resonates at the same frequency as the test tone or at a harmonic of it could be sympathetically vibrating. Wondering how much of a peak there is on a frequency response sweep at those frequencies.

After working with Framework support to resolve the issue, they sent a new input cover. After installing it, the buzzing is gone completely in all frequency ranges. Videos of people talking in the affected ranges also are no longer hard to understand. I am surprised how much of an improvement it made just by replacing the input cover. Additionally, the touchpad on the new input cover feels much better than my original. The original was slightly loose and I just thought that’s how it was (and yes I did attempt to tighten it up).

For those who have issues, try working with support to get a new input cover! Now I just need to figure out how to transfer my dbrand skin…

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Had this problem but didn’t notice the cause until I looked at the input cover from the side; one of the screws was sticking out slightly at an angle. Loosening it and screwing it back in ensuring it was even solved the problem.

There is still a slight difference in response between the two speakers, but it’s minor enough that I’m going to call this a success. Listening to speech was intolerable before the fix, but now it sounds just fine. Headphones or external speakers are still preferable for better sound quality as both speakers distort if you push the volume hard enough, but that probably goes for laptop speakers in general.

One more thing: you’ll need a separate screw bit; the one provided with the laptop is not small enough to tighten the screws in question. Never mind, the provided bit works just fine after I tried again.

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Hi, I also have this problem on the fw13 AMD and I want to ask if anyone managed to solve it completely?

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Well then. Our little issue was referenced in the keynote (live link, will die at some point probably) just now. They are releasing a gen2 of the keyboard, which replaces the metal linkage bars with plastic instead, as apparently those metal bars were doing a lot of the buzzing.

The keyboards aren’t available for individual purchase yet, just on whole laptops, but I’ll probably try one once they are.

When their websites work again, you can find US English here: Framework Laptop 13 Keyboard

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Yep, I heard them mention the metal bars issue on the keynote and I let out a big “Aaaaaaaauuuggghhhhh!”. I’m glad they figured it out.

Apparently there is a whole thread of people who already figured this out and had some steps to try and manually fix it with your current keyboard, but you need to be careful doing it lest you just break the keys.

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To be clear, there seem to be two issues here:

  • Noise from keyboard
  • Noise from midplate contact

I am definitely affected badly by midplate contact. I’ll take a look at the separation. The people on Framework Support said my midplate is warped and I’ll have to buy another one, even though I’ve been having the issue since I bought the darn thing (their support process is just very time-consuming and I did not have time to go through it in the first year).

I’ll consider the acoustic foam fix if I don’t see anything sticking up. It seems unlikely that a new midplate would fix this.

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What do you mean by midplate? Do you mean the input cover?

I have that buzzing as well and holding the laptop by the corners worsen the situation. I don’t think it’s coming from the keys rattling.

When you take all of the peripherals off, there’s a thin, metal plate attached to the chassis by many captive screws. This plate covers all internal components like the speakers, SSD, battery, and motherboard underneath. In my case, that plate is causing the issue.

It’s $100 to replace because they don’t just sell the plate– it’s a module, so you also have to buy a PCB and a bunch of other things. It’s ironic that this is the case from Framework, which is trying to differentiate itself by being easy to fix…

Anyway, people are saying to stuff acoustic foam, like from cut up microphone covers, between the midplate and motherboard to keep it from doing this. I think I’ll try that, especially since they haven’t actually revised the part (so it’s likely to just keep happening).

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For what it’s worth, tightening the screws on the bottom of the (version 1) keyboard fixed it for me. It is disappointing quality control though.

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