[RESOLVED] Is it normal that my 12th-gen laptop has a v3.05 BIOS?

I was discussing issues with thunderbolt docks on a separate topic, when I realized that my BIOS version 3.05 is not the latest stable one (should be v3.04).

Anybody else has a 12th-gen with a 3.05 BIOS?

One more question: how could I downgrade to 3.04 (from Linux)?

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No 3.05 is not normal, that should be an internal use beta BIOS. I imagine other users would be curious to find out what might be in that BIOS that other users do not have. When did you get your laptop? It might be that you just got 3.05 before they released it. Why would you want to downgrade?

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I received my laptop in France on October 18th.
As I live in both Japan and France, but was not in France when it arrived, I had to wait for my parents to send it to me, and I started to use it only from this week-end.

I immediately noticed that my thunderbolt dock was not working anymore. But, weirdly enough, my thunderbolt eGPU still works.

Here is where I found another user with the same laptop and thunderbolt dock as mine, on Linux too, but who had no problem using it:

So, my conclusion was that I ought to try the v3.04 BIOS…

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@Mapleleaf I imagine downgrading works the same as upgrading, just follow the instructions on the knowledge base article

It may not work however, it depends on if Framework implemented fuses to prevent such downgrading for security reasons. Like to prevent an attacker from downgrading to exploit a vulnerability. I would think it would just error out and not brick your device if that were the case

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Yes, but right now I checked and saw that there was no “EFI shell update” provided for Linux, on this knowledgebase page, like there was for the 12th-gen… :

Of couse I don’t want to install Windows…
I may switch SDDs with a Windows Framework laptop of a family member, as a last recourse.

I also contacted Support, so hopefully they will guide me to resolution!

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I think that would be the only way for you to get the BIOS file at this point

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This is very interesting my Framework Laptop also shipped with 3.05, and I am guessing the one I ordered soon after and have yet to assemble also has 3.05 on it. Guess I will find out Friday when I set that one up. If I need to I will boot it up in a Windows Live envirnonment and update it/downgrade it, since I have also been experiencing weird thunderbolt issues with a dock that on several other machines has been very stable. I have also shot off a support request. If as suggested elsewhere that 3.05 is still in Beta, and that it was tested and found to have vulnerabilities this is pretty bad. We need an immediate response in this case not a delayed response. i.e. are downgrades supported? and where can we obtain the correct BIOS as this page does not offer any guidance on this scenario, nor any links to the existing BIOS version if is needed reflashed.

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@nadb Very interesting!! Thank you.
Could you tell me a bit more about your thunderbolt dock issues?

Mostly power delivery issues that I never had before. In this instance the dock will power the device for a short period of time and then it starts using battery and does not charge. At first I thought that the dock was negotiating this on 15v and that has known potential issues, but this made me look into it a little deeper and I discovered that it is in fact using 20v for power delivery. So…this made me look at my BIOS and it is 3.05.

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@nadb Ok, thank you.
Then it is quite different from my issue, where the PD from the dock works perfectly, but every other function of the dock is broken: no USB, no Ethernet (green light is up but no internet), … and probably others, I haven’t tried all the ports.

Version 3.05 here, release date 08/23/2022 … very new.

I don’t have any thunderbolt equipment. The only thing I’m noticing here is I don’t seem to be getting turbo boost under loads, it maxes out at about 3.3 GHz. Nowhere near the 4.7 GHz maximum possible. That could be heat related though with the climate and building I’m in.

I’m set up to re-paste the CPU with some thermal grizzly kryonaut and check if the performance improves. It will be at least a few more days before I get to re-pasting so I’ll keep an eye on this thread for a while before going ahead. I didn’t realize that I had the 3.05 BIOS till I checked after reading this thread.
Edit: Batch 4 (to Australia), arrived 13th October.

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So I’m in the 3.05 club as well. Same batch as yetiman_64. Only major problem I’ve had is the crash during sleep/hibernation Windows 11 issue, which seems resolved after applying workarounds.

That’ll teach me to go looking at random threads - would have been blissfully unaware but no, had to go looking for trouble :worried:

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Although, I am not saying at all that the BIOS v3.05 is causing problems!!
It’s just that I have TB dock problems, and another user with the same laptop and the same dock had not such problems, and as their BIOS was v3.04 I spotted it as a possible root cause to investigate…

Maybe it’s just my mainboard that is faulty! Or an other problem I haven’t imagined at all. I really don’t know.

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Completely understandable. I assumed I was on 3.04 as that was what is listed as the current stable BIOS. If I had done my due diligence and double checked I would have realized I was on 3.05 and then that would have been an avenue for additional troubleshooting. While many of the issues on the forums are more likely kernel or driver issues, thunderbolt issues tend to by and large be a firmware issue. Now I am wondering if any of my very minor issues are actually realted to this and not something else. So in short thank you.

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I received a 12th gen mainboard in early October, it’s running the 3.05 BIOS from the factory. No issues here though.

It looks like 12th gen is shipping with the 3.05 BIOS, at least ones shipped in October.

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Interesting. The 3.04 is reported for the 12 gen.

Which is why we are even asking.

My Batch 3 12th Gen also is running 3.05, I wonder if that is why I am having problems with a portable projector over HDMI that works with every other laptop that I have (11th Gen HP from work, and my older 4th Gen laptop).

The silence on the matter is a little telling. @Matt_Hartley since this is going to impact Linux users, any chance of an update regarding LVFS, or at least if it will be available directly as a cab file for local install without having to use a WIndows related workaround?

Hey everyone, it’s been a very busy Monday, so I appreciate everyone’s patience. Looks like this thread was created 14 hours ago, so anytime there is a weekend (PST time) - it will take me bit to catch up to any future Sat and Sunday posts. :slight_smile:

When it comes to rolling back BIOS to 3.04, I would ask you to create a support ticket as tracking this would be very helpful. If it came with 3.05 from the factory, then it means it was tested working with this and unless there is a clear reason to change this, I’d keep it there. But if you’re seeing issues relating to the BIOS, please open a ticket so we can better assist.

While we continue to dial in our LVFS support, the above linked guide has a method for Linux users in the near-term.

Now the guide is still marked as 3.04. I expect this to reflect any upcoming changes from the appropriate team.

Which distro, Wayland vs Xorg and have you run xandar to see what the Framework “sees”? I can tell you that each of things can affects the outcome. Additionally, we can have you open a support ticket and gather logs to see what is failing where as well.

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