Silly question, but does the mainboard have to be removed to get a photo of the serial number? Just curious how much time to allot myself when I go to get the information needed to submit a support ticket to get this battery elimination solution.
Rework Instructions for 11th Gen Mainboards to enable powering the RTC circuit from the main battery
No. It’s that section / sticker between the two RAM slots.
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Thanks! Couldn’t be a more visible spot than that.
Louis Rossmann posted a video of the mod installation:
I specifically like this video because it also shows you what to do when you break the RTC battery clip.
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I was planning to make a video of the install when my kit arrived. I guess that’s pointless now, lol.
Edit: I just watched it. Maybe I’ll still make one, ha!
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Looks like the video has been removed?
Shows the same for me. I watched a couple minutes earlier, but never got to watch the rest.
I did it. It is not looking like a good job but it works and im really exausted i have not done somthing this small and it took me over 120 minutes.
But i also had to replace the Battery Holder since it broke.
So just putting the replacement in and soldering the wirrer takes about 20 to 30 minutes and it you have a helping hand it should go pretty smoth.
I wonder if he found out that his “fix” of the battery holder by soldering the substitute board in didn’t work because it wasn’t making connection with the contact on the side? I mean, he soldered the board to one of the contacts, but there is a second contact on the side of the holder that didn’t snap off. I was wondering if the little battery replacement board wasn’t making contact with it.
Also, he kept calling the board a “battery,” but that’s a simple enough mistake. I wonder if he’ll make a follow-up or anything.
Edit: Honestly, after seeing how he repaired the battery holder, that’s when I updated my previous post and said maybe I’d still make a video of me installing it, lol. Granted, I’ve never even done board level repair and it may go even worse when I attempt it. We’ll see.
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Hi All - I just installed mine and it actually wasn’t bad at all - took about 10-15 mins (I was lazy and took the risk so I did it without removing the board and just did it in place). By far the hardest part is putting the thing in the RTC battery holder - it took me multiple tries and each time I was sure I was going to break it. The soldering went well (I have some experience but i’m not used to parts this small) and as far as I can tell all is fine.
I am glad I read all the posts above before I did it.
Hope you all have as easy a time as possible installing it.
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I watched Rossmann’s video before he pulled it, and I’ve seen way worse Mickey Mouse bodge jobs than that. I won’t speculate on why it was pulled, but probably for the best so anyone else who manages to wreck their holder doesn’t get any ideas about how to patch it up. Most likely it’ll result in more harm than good for people who don’t have prior rework experience.
For the record, Louis (most likely) broke the holder because he was being impatient and decided to do it without a thin spudger/SIM card eject tool (his own words), so word to the wise: follow the Framework guide, be patient, don’t cut corners.
And please consider paying someone else to do it if you don’t have experience doing board-level repairs on tiny SMD components like these.
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I went into this being over-prepared as the last time I did any soldering was more than 10 years ago, and never did anything with SMD.
Tools I used:
- A soldering iron (of course) Hakko FX888D
- 1.6mm soldering tip (T18D16P)
- Solder (Weller 0.5mm)
- Kapton tape
- SIM card eject tool
- FW screwdriver (of course)
- Flush wire cutter (Knipex)
- Soldering iron thermometer (a fake hakko will do)…calibrate the tip temp
- Good light source
- A helping hand with magnifier
- 800-1000 grit sandpaper
The sandpaper…for rounding the edge on the top side of the RTC substitute. OOTB, it’s too square. To me, I noticed tolerance was a tad too tight (with the tape on top of the RTC substitute) with the battery clip. So, by rounding the top side edge, it would mimic the physical profile of the RTC battery slightly better.
Wire direction is identical to how Ian_Thomas has his (but getting around the Gigadevice IC). I didn’t tape the wire to the grey blocks though, but instead, taped it to the board with an inverted T-shaped cutout. Reason for this: The black cover has double sided tape that goes onto the grey blocks. In the future, if I had kapton tape like Ian has, then it’s not deterministic as to which tape would be stickier at the time of lifting up the black cover. i.e. it might try to lift the kapton tape, and pull / agitate the wire with it. (Mind you, the top side of the kapton tape is fairly non-stick…I just tend to worry)
Used one of the jumper (?) / PJ1003 spots to test out the factory solder temperature requirement as well.
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James,
Well, this senior is about to attempt to solder this battery replacement tomorrow. Wish my 76 year old hands luck, as I have never soldered anything before. Got an estimate here in NYC at 100 from a kid and 160 from a shop (the latter did not provide a guarantee, so why would I use them?)
You got this, Nicholas!
Please please please don’t make it your very first solder. Find a bunch of junk electronics in your closet or at a thrift shop and practice on them -a lot- before you risk your very-valuable board. Make sure you watch a few videos so you know what good technique is and make sure that you’re using the right iron tip, solder, flux and wire for the job.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!
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When you said that you can’t afford a new laptop, did you mean that you can’t afford a new mainboard?
If so, it’s a very bad idea to make this your first attempt at soldering surface mounted components. In my opinion.
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Hi, I agree with the others, please do practice on something else, maybe you have a broken bit of electronics somewhere you can use? And watch some youtube soldering videos.
I found that getting the thing in the holder was hard, I eventually put one side in and as I pushed down on the other I lifted the tiny plastic lug up a mm or so to get it to go in. I backed off multiple times as it seemed close to breaking.
Soldering, clean before and after with isopropyl alcohol. That helps solder flow and flux do its part, and with the right temp it only takes 2 seconds to make the join.
Tl:dr try and find a friend or relative to do it, or if you have to go it alone do a lot of practice first.
Good luck!
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Are there any technical differences between the original fix (two resistors & Schottky Diode) and the fake coin cell?
I believe the original solution allowed the RTC battery to charge from the laptop battery, rather than only from charger power via the USB-C power input. This would prevent the RTC battery from dying when the computer was left unplugged for an extended period of time.
The new battery substitute module gets rid of the coin cell all together and simply powers the RTC circuit directly from the laptop’s battery. This means the RTC will reset any time the laptop battery is disconnected/removed, but it also means there is no RTC battery to fail and it’s an easier fix.
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Thanks. I’ll stay with the original solution then, just for the tiny advantage of not having to reset the clock. 
Technically, your OS should auto-correct the clock as soon as you connect to the internet, but hey, and advantage is an advantage, lol. If you already performed the original fix, I certainly wouldn’t bother with the battery substitute board.