Successful mainboard transplant!

Hey, it’s me again, the guy who accidentally disconnected the antenna from the WiFi module and had a minor meltdown trying to reattach it. That only happened because the laptop wouldn’t turn on with a RAM module in Slot 0.

After a bit of back and forth with Support we noticed a defect on one of the pins on Slot 0, so they sent me a new mainboard, and I’ll be honest: I was putting off installing it because if I struggled with the WiFi adapter then surely this was going to be super-hard.

Wrong! Thanks to an incredibly clear set of instructions and some solid design choices, I have successfully replaced the mainboard and put everything back together and as far as I can tell it all works. And both RAM slots are working too!

The fiddliest bit to detach and reattach was the fingerprint reader ribbon, but extreme magnification and the spudger end of the Framework screwdriver helped.

Of course, I managed to disconnect the WiFi antenna again - those MHF4 connectors are the worst - but thanks to my previous experience it only took about 10 minutes of fiddling to get them reconnected and the card screwed down.

I’d like to thank Support for all their help. It took a while because they’re super busy and so am I, but we got there in the end. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Oh, one important thing that the Guide didn’t mention: make sure you’ve got your Bitlocker Recovery Key before replacing the mainboard. Fortunately I remembered, would have been quite annoying otherwise.

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They sent me a completely new laptop for a stripped thread on the SSD standoff. I’d have happily changed the motherboard.

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Hmmm so what we all need is a dummy laptop to practice on before we get our real on :slight_smile:

Weird, they sent me a new mainboard. What batch were you in?

Batch 6