I’m just going to buy another board later this year. Will be quicker and easier most likely.
I’ll sell the 11th gen on somewhere.
Rework Instructions for 11th Gen Mainboards to enable powering the RTC circuit from the main battery
MJ1,
I was replying generally to the other posters who wondered when Support was going to be up and running on this. So I checked. Not yet was the response and that is what I posted, nothing more.
Jason,
I thought about that, but am unwilling to foist this unreliable laptop on an unsuspecting buyer.
Jason, is this the board you are looking at?
Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7
Selling for 400 bucks and I would assume it is a drop in replacement, not sure of course.
Yeah I have the 1165G7 currently. Would get a 12th or 13th gen equivalent later this year.
Someone will be more than happy to buy the old board for a project I’m sure.
If you have an 11th Gen system or Mainboard, you can now reach out to support to request a free RTC Battery Substitute module. To make the request process go smoothly, enter the email address that you ordered the 11th Gen product on and/or include photos of the system and Mainboard serial numbers.
Note that there are no constraints making this request other than being an 11th Gen system or Mainboard owner (whether or not you are in warranty). We ask that you really make sure you are comfortable with performing soldering on expensive electronics items before performing the installation, as we won’t be able to provide advice or support around soldering or provide fixes for failed soldering attempts. We also ask that you only make the request if you’ve faced needing to perform a Mainboard reset, as we want to avoid waste.
14 Likes
Thank you @nrp - I really appreciate that a solution has been found - I look forward to a bit of soldering. For those of us who have a station what temp do you advise for the soldering - I did not see that in the rework instructions.
1 Like
Great news! Thanks for considering the worries that people had about jumping thru hoops – it feels like your asks are totally fair.
1 Like
To add to this, you will receive an automated reply with a lot of great troubleshooting information. You may or may not have received this previously, but this is the gateway message into the specific queue dedicated to triaging these requests. Please understand that the message is sent to everyone entering this queue (which is noted at the top of this automated message in italics and bold). Once in the queue, we will be triaging these requests separately from our normal queues and will work with our repair center partners to fulfill requests. We ask for your patience while we continue to streamline this process over time. Responses may be delayed, and we will be queueing up requests and communicating in batches to our partner. Fulfillment will begin next week.
Also, while we understand this has been a frustrating experience for some of you, we kindly ask that you enter the queue with a collaborative mindset as our agents are just trying to assist in fulfilling requests. Aggressive/abusive messages will be ignored.
Thank you for your patience while our entire team worked diligently to deliver these new options.
6 Likes
I have entered a request for the modules for my two machines. For full transparency, I have not needed to reset the mainboard on either machine, but I have run into the need to attach to power before the laptop will boot. To work around that, I keep both machines on power most of the time, with a charging limit. I would like to perform the work on the machines to avoid running into the issue in the future. I would be hesitant to hand off either machine in the current state to someone who does not possess solid technical skills - the RTC holder for example, is extremely fragile, and removing the battery from it is necessary to reset the board. I’m not a superstar technically, but I am ok, and fiddling with the RTC battery gives me pause whenever I have to do it (which thankfully has only been a couple of times).
I’m comfortable doing the work, having done the HDMI card rework on one of my cards. I also am ok being later in the queue than those who have run into the issue. I do feel that doing this work is necessary for me to get the boards to a state where the machines can be handed to anyone to use.
I am thankful that you have provided the means to rework the boards.
Finally, to anyone who made it this far, congratulations, and have a great day.
1 Like
It doesn’t take a lot of power to solder to this, as it’s only an 0805 capacitor being soldered to that isn’t being sunk into a large plane or anything. The temperature should just be what you would use for the solder type you’re using.
1 Like
I am in the same boat. After sitting for more than a day or so it won’t turn on unless I plug it in, even if the main battery is charged. I’d like to request a kit, but I’d hate to think I was getting it before someone with worse symptoms. Maybe I’ll wait a month or something.
1 Like
You should both make the request. That sounds reasonably likely to be a worn out RTC battery.
4 Likes
I also started running into this a week or so ago after almost two years, so this is fantastic timing! Submitted my request.
1 Like
I thought I was affected by this issue but now I’m not sure reading the above post. My issue is that after a relatively short period of time unplugged (2 weeks or so) the laptop won’t boot without mains power, and the BIOS settings have reset. This is evidenced by the time in the BIOS going back to 1 Jan 2021 (or thereabouts) and the charge limit (the only other setting I routinely change) returning to 100. So it seems that the coin cell completely discharging does result in the BIOS settings being lost? I’ll also add if the time is wrong beyond a significant duration, about four days or so, Windows will not automatically synchronise it (as evidenced by messages in the event log).
In summary, although I haven’t had to reset my mainboard, I honestly do dread turning on my laptop now if it’s been some time since I last used it, in case I have to go through the whole rigmarole of setting up my BIOS again and changing the clock manually to what it should be so Windows will properly sync it. Would this RTC Battery Substitution module solve the above issue by keeping the RTC circuit powered thus enabling the BIOS to retain custom settings (and the correct time)?
@sando simply swapping the RTC battery for a new one will solve the issue. Had the same problem. You can buy one for about 10 USD or ask support to send one for free - the latter option will require you to wait for a few weeks though.
It seems to me once you have the issue, swapping the battery makes little difference. I’m now on my third battery in 18 months! They just don’t work for long if you are not a regular daily driver with your Framework.
Intel bug aside, the battery chosen was a poor choice.
I feel this topic has been debated at length now.
3 Likes
Thanks all, it wasn’t my intention to reignite any kind of debate on this, just to gather some more intel on what route to go down with regards to my issue (and clear up a misconception earlier on in the thread re: clock resync). I have the info I need I think, so thanks again 
When can we expect to hear back from support once we’ve contacted them regarding the coin cell replacement?
I got the confirmation I’m in the ‘appropriate queue’ 17 days ago and have not yet gotten an update.