Hi,
I’ve had a USB-C cable for like a year and it’s starting to degrade, I’ve also seen a couple of posts stating that their framework adapter’s C-cable is starting to split and because (thank god) it’s removable; would framework make the cable available just stand-alone instead of having to buy a third-party one / the entire charger again.
Thanks!
My personal ones are degrading near the ends, I’ve seen a picture of a framework cable that has split near the right-angled connector.
(With my cables i mean non-framework ones because it’s not yet available in my country, just planning ahead)
Also just natural mechanical damage like accidentally cutting it or bending the connectors.
It’d be cool to see a framework cable on the marketplace cause otherwise I have to source one via a third party.
Yeah, those are amazing options. I’ve yet to find a good magnetic cable though. I was just hoping that framework made the cable separately buyable if possible of course.
I see that fairphone did that so that’d be cool of framework to do as well.
The people they manufacture with might only bundle the cables with the actual charging brick, if so that’s fine. I’d love some insight from the framework team.
In the meanwhile I’ll look into the suggestions you gave, thanks!
Be careful if you go with a magnetic cable. I’ve been tempted, but it’s just not worth the risk to me. They are not up to USB Type-C spec and under the right circumstances could damage/fry your laptop.
More importantly, the lid-closed detector in the framework is magnetic: if you put a magnet against the right hand side of a framework laptop, it will interpret that as a lid-close. In most configurations, that means it will turn off the screen and suspend.
If your charge cable has magnets in it, it will be much more likely you’ll trigger this “feature” accidentally.
I know there is quite a large thread of people building an expansion card with a magnetic port built in, but they’re all accepting the risk. The main reason that I’m aware of is that the unprotected pins can easily cause a short due to static electricity. The exposed pins on your laptop are now an exposed point that can conduct static electricity directly to your internal components. Source
I also believe there’s some risk involved with the fact that all of the connections (power & data) are made all at once. In USB Type-C cables that are up to spec the ground pin is connected before anything else makes connections. This helps prevent any accidental electricity, static or otherwise, from frying your device. This does not happen when you just snap together all of the pins all at once on a magnetic connector. Source
So, I feel that the possibility of risk may be small, but it has a lot of opportunity to damage the device, hence why I don’t do it and why I caution others to do it. If the convenience is worth the risk to you, by all means, go for it. It’s a very cool concept, just not one that I’m willing to risk at this time.
I had personally contacted USB-IF and they did indeed say that magnetic cables pose a risk to your device and highly discourage using them. I do not care about what a manufacturer says they just want money.
Writing a reply to report that I am now encountering the same problem. System is only 6 months old and I also have a longitudinal tear on the sleeve. May be a design flaw or quality control issue if there have been reports of similar wear patterns. The tear is also getting longer as time goes by.
I concede there is no official recourse for me as I’m in an unsupported country. Likely will also be cheaper to just replace the thing locally.
I had a similar pattern of breakage only 3 months into normal use. Pretty disappointing but after contacting support, they were pretty prompt about offering a replacement. I hope this issue gets addressed though, would be annoying to have to deal with this every few months
Anyone else have trouble with fraying charger cable ends? My friend wrapped up both ends of my charger cable with jute!
Note that folks who are seeing the cable fray after normal usage within the warranty period, you should reach out to Framework Support for a replacement cable. We’ve root caused this with our cable supplier and believe that there was a limited number of cables where molding of the sleeve wasn’t done at the optimal temperature. They’ve since adjusted the manufacturing process to resolve this.
It is still normal TPE-jacketed cable though, so over heavy use over time, there is risk of the jacket wearing at stress points. This is part of the reason we designed the USB-C cable to be detachable and replaceable. Much cheaper and less wasteful to replace a cable than a whole power adapter!
I hate the 90 degree turn so I also flipped the cable to connect that side to the brick. That might have contributed to the extensive splitting I got.
About to get a 3rd party cable as replacement.
I’ve always used my charging cable with a magnetic clip. Saved my bacon a couple of times.
Noticed today that the cable has split
Yet if I’m not mistaken, Frame.Work forces us to buy the entire power adapter set to replace one cable? How is that not wasteful and cheaper?
So 2 weeks after the warranty expired my power cable has split apart. The thing is, this laptop just sits there. I’ve coiled/uncoiled the cable at most 3-5 times in the year that I’ve had it. I have 10 year old laptops with cables I’ve abused far more that haven’t split apart.
I hate to say this but if a “repair-friendly” laptop = cheap parts that you HAVE TO replace often with the added expense of time and stress, this’ll be my last repair-friendly product.
EDIT: holy smokes…and this repair-friendly company forces you to buy the entire adapter set of three items for $49 + shipping when I just need to repair the one cable? That’s pretty bad…for me…for the planet…
The good news is you can get a high quality cable elsewhere.
I know your warranty is up, but I would still contact support. It seems like a lot of people are having issues with the charging cable, and support is doing their best to replace just the cable for free.
I’m just guessing but there may have been was a manufacturing flaw with the early cables.
EDIT: I completely forgot that Nirav mentioned an actual manufacturing defect. For anyone coming to this thread in the future, please contact support if you are seeing fraying issues with your charging cable! (thanks to @GhostLegion for the reminder)
NRP said there was a manufacturing defect above in the thread.
aha! I completely forgot that he had said this! It is no longer a guess!
To their credit, Framework appears to have decided my cable was part of a bad batch and is sending a replacement free of cost. So there’s that.
