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.
Rework Instructions for 11th Gen Mainboards to enable powering the RTC circuit from the main battery
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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You should never measure continuity across a capacitor, so either you bridged both sides or you damaged those capacitors somehow. If you feel brave, you could unsolder both capacitors, clean the pads, check if the short is still on the board or in one of the removed capacitors and then resolder/replace the capacitors. You might have to ask support for which capacitors they use there.
However this is more a job for a repair shop specialized in PCB repair.
Most multimeters beep (in continuity mode) at around 150-200 ohms, and often the resistance will start low and increase to a non-short, and I’ve had power rails on laptops only measure 10-20 ohms to ground when working.
Without charger and with charger I have the short. However, I also disconnected the battery. I measure 0.2 Ohms, stable, so it is not the typical “capacitor” behaviour described by @Jonathan_Haas .
With the charger connected I also don’t measure the 17,4 Volt that should be there. But that might be due to the fact I disconnected the battery?! As “ground” I used the outside of a USB connector as I simply assumed the ground is common…
Would be great if you could measure if you see a short across the capacitor as well.
In my case I disconnected battery as well as the replacement module.
I’ll check that and check for voltage as well. Honestly, I probably won’t pull the module out of the holder, because it was a REALLY tight fit and I don’t want to push my luck at breaking the holder. But I’ll disconnect the battery.
Edit: I’ve got a lot going on today, so it will probably be this evening.
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I take anything 
if you take measurements with module installed, I’ll re-install mine. Thanks
No problem. Sorry for the late response. I did take all the following measurements with the module installed.
From the right side of the capacitor (where the wire for the battery replacement module gets soldered) to ground, 8-ish Meg. Ohms. From the left side of the capacitor to ground, 0.3 Ohms. Across the capacitor, 8-ish Meg. Ohms. So it definitely sounds like you have a shorted capacitor. Is it possible that there is just some stray solder bridging the gap? Probably not, since it worked temporarily, but worth checking for.
With the battery connected, no charger, I get 16.8V on the right side of the capacitor (where the wire from the module is connected). With the battery disconnected and the charger plugged in I get 17.6V.
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Thank you! That is very helpful! Guess I’ll try to find a board level repair. Problem is that most only repair Apple.
The guy that developed the calibration device for the angle sensor is actually quite close.
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Unfortunately my search for a board level repair has not really been successful. They all seem to focus on Apple.
I managed to de-solder the capacitor in question. Unfortunately the short remains. Seems like something else broke. Whatever it was, might have also killed the battery. I measure zero volts across BAT+ and GND.
I guess that is what must have happened: the KVM drained the battery to zero and when I then put the charger on the current was so high something broke (maybe the charging chip?). But better a chip than the battery exploding. Don’t think I should use that one again. Then again, I would assume that the charging chip also prevents the battery from being discharged too low.