Rework Instructions for 11th Gen Mainboards to enable powering the RTC circuit from the main battery

[MJ1]

@Nicholas_C_DeBord

Have we heard anything about how this fix is going to be distributed yet?

Posts here by Nrp and the Framework team have been our source of information. They haven’t said.

[Nicholas_C_DeBord]

Well, from the sound of things, they’re steadily working on it, so patience, grasshopper.

Tks

[SodaStream]

@Usernames

[quoted message removed by moderators]

Or it’s two issues that contribute to one symptom that affects people who’s use-case includes “Stuff it in a drawer for a week”. It’s unfortunate, but asking what happens if someone doesn’t use their computer for a week doesn’t seem like an intuitive usecase.

That’s not to say that not using a computer is a fault of the user; it’s reasonable and possible that it happens in retrospect, and it’s clearly affected a segment of owners. But there are elegant solutions on the way.

I speak as an 11th gen user who has never let the battery run down and who uses their computer daily. I’m not thrilled that I could be affected, and I look forward to mitigating the possibility of it happening. But I’m also happy that the issue is being acknowledged, explained, and addressed, and that this is the show-stopping problem specific to my first-gen “1.0” notebook device.

[Second_Coming]

@SodaStream

but asking what happens if someone doesn’t use their computer for a week doesn’t seem like an intuitive usecase.

To me, it sounds like a reasonable use case…if you also consider how much we fit that notion into other use cases:

1. What happens if I don’t turn on the TV for a week? Will it lose my TV settings?
2. What happens if I don’t drink that milk in a week? Will it go bad?
3. If I don’t water my plants for a week, what will happen to them.
4. What happen if I leave my kitchen life in the sink, with water, for a week?
5. If I don’t call my girlfriend for a week, will she call the police to find me?

Mentally, we have some degree of assumption / expectation when it comes to ‘in-storage stability’ / expiration characteristics / rate of change of objects.

In fact, the notion is so intuitive that you don’t usually think about it, to ask about it.

[Usernames]

@SodaStream

Or it’s two issues that contribute to one symptom

I don’t think so. AFAIK there are two issues with similar symptoms, they are related and both caused by a flat RTC battery. A flat RTC battery has nothing to do with Intel…

Sorry I’m not really interested to debate how significant of an issue this is I just wanted to clear up what I see as misinformation.

[Morpheus636]

There have already been two threads rehashing the cause of the RTC bug, both of which have been closed for becoming unproductive and toxic.

This thread is for discussion of the multiple available and upcoming fixes. Please do not continue to derail this thread or we will be forced to remove posts or close the thread – something we would really rather avoid since this discussion, if it stayed on topic, would be a great resource.

[Tarick_Welling]

@nrp

We received the latest batch of these prototypes, and they are a much better fit in the socket. Slightly snug, so we will very slightly reduce the dimensions next time, but functional. We’re providing a few currently to our volunteer moderators for additional testing.

please please please, communicate this proactively when it is released. My feelings towards the 11th gen have been souring a lot because of this little design mistake. But that replacement board would be a godsend.

I have great soldering skills and many of the tools but the original solutions still is out of reach for me. This however, seems like attaching a single wire and should be very manageable.

[Simon_Nienhaus]

The way I understand this fix is that it replaces the coin cell and takes the energy from the battery. Is that correct? Because it would still mean that the issue can occur in the unlikely case the main battery is drained.

I’m also eagerly awaiting this fix. Had it once I received my frame.work and now I have it again, even though I charged it for 24 hours last weekend…

[Morpheus636]

@Simon_Nienhaus

even though I charged it for 24 hours last weekend…

If this is the case you should contact support. It means the cell was deep-cycled to the point that it no longer holds a charge. They will send you a free replacement RTC battery regardless of warranty status.

[Second_Coming]

@Simon_Nienhaus

I’m also eagerly awaiting this fix. Had it once I received my frame.work and now I have it again, even though I charged it for 24 hours last weekend…

Eager indeed. For more than a year now, I have it parked in the corner, plugged in on a timer, to power up the adapter for 1 hour every day. Keep-alive.

[lukeiamyourfather]

@nrp

We’re providing a few currently to our volunteer moderators for additional testing.

As a first generation owner that has experienced RTC battery issues I would love to see this come to fruition. It’s a clever solution!

[Richard_Lees]

Looks like a couple of weeks without an update – would be appreciated.
Started having this problem myself now so no longer just academic…
I could get a replacement battery from FW but if there’s hope that we can buy a bypass solution sometime soon it would be a lot better to just wait.

[Jonathan_Haas]

@Simon_Nienhaus

Because it would still mean that the issue can occur in the unlikely case the main battery is drained.

I expect that the getting stuck issue is caused by the RTC battery supplying a too low but still above zero voltage. With Framework’s new circuit I expect a stable voltage, even if the battery is almost empty. Only when the battery is completely gone, you might lose the BIOS settings, but then the RTC circuit should be turned completely off (and back on when connected to a charger), just like when you’d replace the RTC battery completely.

[Harpert_Wouters]

Rework Instructions for 11th Gen Mainboards to enable powering the RTC circuit from the main battery

We received the latest batch of these prototypes, and they are a much better fit in the socket. Slightly snug, so we will very slightly reduce the dimensions next time, but functional. We’re providing a few currently to our volunteer moderators for additional testing. [image]

Where could I leave my email address, so you could send me a mail to inform me and notice that this solution is available and that I can order it ?
Thanks

[Richard_Lees]

I’m certain that they’ll post in this thread when a final solution is complete … you could bookmark it and check back periodically?

Or set Tracking to notify you of every post … although that will undoubtedly be noisy.

[Simon_Nienhaus]

@Morpheus636

If this is the case you should contact support. It means the cell was deep-cycled to the point that it no longer holds a charge. They will send you a free replacement RTC battery regardless of warranty status.

You’re right. They’re sending a replacement.

I’ve found a “bodge”: I just left the battery out… Now when I put it on the charger I can start the laptop. It always charges to 100% because none of the BIOS settings stick, but better than nothing.

[Richard_Lees]

Throw us a bone with some kind of update, guys?
If we’re not getting close then I’ll contact Support about a replacement battery.
If there’s hope that we’re getting close I’ll just wait for the final workaround solution.

[Azure]

@Richard_Lees

some kind of update

Framework updates us when they have news. I would reach out to support for an extra battery, maybe if they are days away from releasing this they will tell you to hold off.

[Jason_Dagless]

Just quicker to order yourself a new battery and have it next day or so than wait for Framework.