NOTE: I am making a service request too.
My 12th-gen intel Framework 13 seems to be bootlooping. This is not the first time this has happened. When I press the button, the button turns white (like it should), but the screen does not turn on.
It is completely off; from what I can tell, the LED backlight stays off.
Eventually, the laptop turns itself off, and then back on again.
This may have something to do with the Linux beta 3.08 firmware, which I unsuccessfully tried to flash. I think some of the USB-PD firmware was updated, but the rest failed. My attempts and errors are in the community thread.
This first happened a few weeks (I think? Time passes quickly) ago, and I followed the instructions to reset the mainboard on Framework’s support page, which worked.
Unfortunately, it happened again a few days ago, and due to a hurricane, I cannot access my screwdriver and perform the steps to reset the mainboard.
I am running Fedora Workstation 40 (upgraded from 38 to 39 to 40), using Grub 2 as my bootloader.
The main partition is LUKS encrypted, and I used to dual-booted windows, but eventually removed the partition and expanded my fedora partition to replace it.
While the partition table should be standard, I was a little suspicious that the EFI partition might’ve been to small or had other issues relating to the firmware update, and I had not set up the requisite partition for hibernation.
The only nonstandard part is my SSD drive (though I use a cablematters usb c charge cable and a 65W Anker brick). It is a 256 GB Samsung 960 Evo that I salvaged from another computer, but I updated the firmware and ensured its health was good. Unfortunately, as I detailed in a service request, the screw holding it to the motherboard is stripped, so I have been unable to swap it for a newer, higher capacity drive.
I bought my expansion cards when I bought the laptop. I do not recall if any of them are second-gen, but if I recall, the HDMI is not the newest available, as I wanted to replace it after upgrading the firmware.
The only other issue I have had (that I recall), and the main reason I wanted to update the BIOS, is poor charging detection on Fedora and Windows. While charging, both would occasionally think the charger had been unplugged, even when it hadn’t, and windows would go into battery saver. It would also seem to potentially discharge once fully charged and still plugged in, going from 100 to 99 and even lower, though I don’t think this correlated with its power consumption. From what I could see on the community forums, it seems this was caused by firmware bugs. It’s worth noting that the firmware updates that did potentially go through, for the USB-PD, did not seem to affect the behavior.
I recorded the following LED indicator sequence (video at bottom):
Orange (before turning on)
press power button, turns on, indicator LED stays orange
Green
Orange
Off
1 White Flash
power button and diagnostic LED off
8 Green Flash
Hold green (9 total? power back on)
3 Green flash
1 Orange flash
2 Green flash
1 Blue flash
4 Green flash
1 Blue flash
Orange
power button off, LED stays orange
power button on, LED stays orange
power button off, LED stays orange
power button on, LED blinks off, returns to orange
Repeat last two, except LED does not blink off
Interpretation of results (relying on this page):
No diagnoses (12 green flashes)
Post code: 00100001
In hex, this is 21, and according to the Insyde BIOS instructions, it corresponds to #define BDS_START_ISA_BUS 0x21 // ISA BUS driver initial
I do not know for certain that the endless repeating keeps the same indicator light pattern as shown here, but the power on and off continues.
During this sequence, I had in four expansion cards:
usb a (bottom left)
usb c (top left)
usb c (top right, plugged into outlet)
HDMI (bottom right)
However, when I removed the cards, or unplugged the power, the same issue occurred (though I did not check the indicator lights as closely)
In all cases, it turns on, the screen stays off, it turns itself back off, and then it repeats forever.
Holding down the power button can stop the loop, turning it off fully. I managed to discharge the battery by leaving it to run without being plugged in, and it repeated the loop until it ran out of charge. I do hear the fans when the power light is on, but potentially only after a few loops (presumably because the CPU heats up).
It has been several days since this started again, and I have been unable to reset the motherboard. Even if/when I can, I can’t afford to have this continue, so I want to figure out what’s wrong and if anyone else has the issue, and I am contacting customer service to see if I need to send it in to be fixed.
Video of LED sequence (though the fan spins up, the background noise is mostly not the fan): Boot Loop - Google Drive
EDIT: I do not know what triggered it. I think it was plugged in and sleeping or shut down overnight the second time, and I do not recall the trigger the first time, though it occurred the day I was trying to perform the bios/firmware update.
EDIT 2: I may have gotten the code wrong. This seems more likely: