Just had to remove my battery from my AMD Ryzen 7040 series Framework 13. It had become swollen and was pushing up the keyboard plate (and I suspect is also the root of some touchpad clicking issues I’ve had for some time now).
It’s a shame, but at least I’m able to replace it, which is I guess me finally getting the value of the product.
Not entirely sure what caused the swelling. Aside from just factors such as time, the only possible thing I can think of is a bad power adapter. But I’ve got no real way to confirm that.
Anyway, bummed, but the new battery is on the way now I guess. Better than a whole new laptop or some crazy battery replacement service charge.
There were many reports of swollen battery especially related to the higher capacity batteries. that’s main reason why framework add option in BIOS to extend battery life by reducing max charge % if laptop is connected to power source for X days.
Personally I set charge limit to 85% and disabled battery life extender.
Hmm, interesting. I hadn’t kept up with the Framework world after a couple months of owning the machine. Will have to look into the BIOS settings (plus an update probably). I largely keep this connected to power
I have exactly the same issue. I just opened up my framework to find my battery was so swollen that I could hardly click anymore using my trackpad. The battery was so swollen that I though my laptop must have fallen since the part around the keeyboard was being popped up.
I hardly ever used the battery and am frankly disappointment that standard settings lead to me losing an expensive battery in less than 1 year, not what I expected from a high end laptop . Should this not be covered under the warranty?
I have to be hones, I am a bit disappointed in Framework for not preventing this from happening using sensible default bios settings and not charging a battery when it is basically full. I have to reconsider buying a framework laptop for my wife now.
The factors that matter most to battery degradation at storage are time x SOC x heat. In active cycling its depth of discharge and rate.
The power adapter has no control over either of those. It may be the limiting factor on “rate”, but the other management on the main board is ultimately responsible for rate, if the adapter offers too much wattage.
That’s good to know. I’ve misplaced the Framework adapter that came with the laptop, and I’ve been using an older (~2017 or 2018) MacBook Pro power adapter that I had lying around.
It may have some effect. If the power adapter is underpowered, the battery is used to absorb peak power usage, causing it to charge/discharge more often
For transparency, I contacted Framework support a while ago for my swollen battery issue and they replaced it quickly after sending some photo’s. Since it is a framework laptop, replacing the battery was done in a jiff and very easy .
I upgrade my bios and drivers and set maximum charging levels to 90% to avoid it from happening again. So all in all, I am still happy with my framework laptop.
I would however advice them for their next iteration to go for more battery life saving settings to begin with, giving people a free battery replacement is great for us customers but it does cut significantly in their profit margins.
The embedded controller (EC) is responsible for charging and managing the health of the battery.
The EC code had a bug in it that actually caused the battery to age and swell.
This is why FW do replace the battery on some models, even if past their normal warranty period.
The EC code is fixed now. It gets updated when you update the BIOS.
This is why FW ask you to update the BIOS before using the new replacement battery.
For those curious, the swollen battery problem was caused by a combination of:
leaving the battery at 100% charged.
mini charge cycling while at 100%
So, the recommendation is that if you spend most of the time with the psu plugged in, set the charge limit to between 65% and 90%. I leave mine at 70%.
. Should this not be covered under the warranty?
.