[Solved, Magnets] Sudden poweroff/short when laptop touched Macbook Pro

While working on my Framework while on battery power, the corner of the laptop touched an active Macbook Pro (16-in, 2019) that was plugged in to its charger. My Framework immediately shut off.

The device did not respond to the power button for a few minutes after this sudden shutdown, and appeared dead/fried. The device then started by itself and booted into Windows without issue. however, for several seconds the power button/light remained off, despite the device being on. The keyboard was also unresponsive. After a few more seconds, the light came on and the keyboard started working again.

I’m still testing functionality, but I think things are back to normal without permanent damage.

(1) I want to send this report in case others encounter the same problem. Hopefully Framework can do some verification on their end, as I don’t want to test to see if this issue was repeatable.

(2) Does anyone know what might have happened? Why did things start back up in this staggered manner?

(3) What are some diagnostics I can run to make sure everything is alright?

(4) What can be done to avoid this issue in the future?

This sounds very similar to an issue described in another thread. The magnets in the MacBook were triggering the lid sensor on the Framework. It’s a short thread, so it’s probably worth reading:

It could also be a combination of improper grounding on Apple’s part, as well as insufficient shielding on Framework’s part.

… or Framework could just be allergic to apples.

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The magnets in the MacBook were triggering the lid sensor on the Framework.

Huh, very interesting. In this case though, Windows reported a sudden unclean shutdown so I’m not 100% sure what happened. I guess it’s possible I force-reset the device when trying to get it to ‘boot’ back up.

EDIT: It was the lid sensor issue.

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