Thank you for making me feel better 
I also think it is this Aluminium wire. It was so crazy flexible.
P.S. also unplugged battery and left the Mainboard in.
Rework Instructions for 11th Gen Mainboards to enable powering the RTC circuit from the main battery
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I didn’t have any issues with the wire they use, but I suppose it’s not quite as easy to work with as solid magnet wire.
Here’s my video:
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Yes, you did a good job. (Of course the molten plastic wouldn’t have happened with a better wire).
For anyone who wants to try this in the future, I’d advise to grab with the tweezers closer to the end of the wire (i.e. closer to where you want to solder). You don’t have to worry about melting metal tweezers. You might even want to (carefully) rest the tweezers on the PCB or onto some component. This way you can keep it in place better, even with shaky hands.
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Yeah, keep in mind, I was trying to make sure I was leaving a view of what I was doing for the camera, so my video isn’t necessarily 1 for 1 on how you should do this or how it will necessarily go for you. Being comfortable and stable is going to make all the difference when doing work like this. If you can prop your hands and even, as mentioned, the tweezer, it can help a lot. I’m sure having the board out of the case would make that part easier as well, so you could wrest your wrists on the desk, instead of hovering them over the case.
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I installed the RTC substitute module today but the micro soldering was done perfectly by a local repair shop.
After reassembly, the laptop started and everything is fine.
I will be able to use my Framework without worrying that the battery will completely discharge.
Thanks to the whole Framework team 
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This looks pretty good. It doesn’t bog down too much into making a perfect solder with repeated reheating which risks desoldering the component and damage. If I were doing it, I’d also try to affix the wire to the board so that it touches the component in the right way without holding it. Then I could use my other hand for bringing solder straight into the joint which would make the soldering even easier.
Hi - not sure this is the right place to put this - I notice a trivial but confusing display issue now I have installed the fix. After the PC has gone to sleep and woken up the lock screen shows an empty battery - once unlocked it shows the real value. Bit of a surprise the first time - I wonder if there is a fix possible for this
(pls ignore the dust …)
Locked
Unlocked
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I’ve seen this behaviour before on my unmodded 11th gen, I believe its to do with the system drawing all its power from the wall rather than the battery when plugged in.
thx both - good to know
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Weirdly, my frame.work has stopped working. After the rework everything was working in order. I left it plugged to a KVM switch without external power, so I assume it was draining the battery. I tried resetting it by removing the battery (should be enough now) and after that didn’t work even removed the replacement module from the battery holder.
Still no dice. No LED is blinking at all.
Send a message to support mentioning this post. Someone may see it here, but they will definitely want to know more details.
haha…he found a loop hole around the warranty? (intentionally or not)
“as we won’t be able to provide advice or support around soldering or provide fixes for failed soldering attempts”
…by saying that it was working after the soldering attempt.
I just wanted to point out that I told Simon to reach out to support so that Framework could have the knowledge that a device with the fix worked for a period of time then stopped. I do not believe that Framework will choose to offer support, just that they should know so they can properly warn people of side effects in the future.
Apologies to Simon if this has bricked your computer, and I hope that you are able to find a solution to your problem, but this is a cautionary tale to anyone who looks to try this fix, Framework has made it clear that they are not providing additional support if you fail this fix or if the laptop fails after this fix, but they will want to know if doing this fix causes unexpected issues.
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I reached out support because I don’t think it has to do with my soldering. Nothing is sure, but it did work before. I asked support if there are things I can do or measure to identify a possible root cause.
Most likely the answer will be as you stated, that the soldering was under my own risk. If that happens then it is what it is. The new AMD frame.work should arrive soon, but it means I have to source a new Mainboard before I can give this one to my parents.
Support answered with their standard answer. But I finally found my multimeter and I measure continuity on both sides of the capacitor. So I guess either a chip is connecting these two and it is normal (i.e. if it is a voltage regulator), I damaged the capacitor and over time it ultimately broke, or something in parallel broke.
Does someone know if what I measure is normal? The official schematics are unfortunately more like functional diagrams…
@Simon_Nienhaus If with a dead board you may not have much to lose, is it worth trying the battery again to rule out a damaged/defective RTC replacement module?
I unplugged the RTC replacement module and I don’t get any blinking LEDs from a board reset. So I doubt removing the replacement module will solve the issue. Visually I don’t see any short with the cable.
With the multimeter I also verified that there is no short in the replacement module
I hate to ask such a simple question, but is the laptop connected to a charger when this happens, or will it only not power up if it’s not connected to a charger? In other words, will it not power up at all, even when plugged into a power supply/charger, or will it no longer power up when not connected to a charger, but still will when it is?
Just want to be clear about what is happening. If you need me to take some multimeter measurements of mine this evening, I can try to find time.
Wanted to chime in and say that I successfull added the RTC circuit to my wife’s 13. I found that tinning the cap and the wire was the easiest way for me. The needle nose solder tip was essential as well. I also did not remove the mainboard, but did unplug the battery.
Framework is awesome for even coming up with a fix when they are already 2 generations beyond this mainboard. A total fix as well. Thanks again and long live Framework!
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