While trying to screw down the primary ssd the top of the screw snapped off as I was tightening. This means that not only is the ssd not secured, but the shaft of the screw is blocking the hole and can’t be removed; so I can’t even replace the screw.
Why are the screws so flimsy that the slightest pressure can break them? 
This does not speak well to the survivablity of these laptops.
Sorry to hear that you have experienced this, please contact our support team so they can assist you with the replacement parts.
I was really worried because this happened to me with the exact same screw !
Did that. Given that this seems to be a common problem, maybe tell us what size the screw is, because it might be better for people to just preemptively replace all screws of this type with sturdier versions bought elsewhere instead of risking them breaking your flimsy ones when they try to screw them back in.
Even better if you send out an email recommending this. It would save you time and money; since there doesn’t seem to be a way to extract the broken screw shaft from the hole.
Hi @Ryn_Win,
Others have had the issue where the screw was ok; it was the thread on the motherboard that was stripped upon opening it up to assemble it.
Barely tightening the SSD screws is more than enough to hold them down.
Not saying you did anything wrong. Lots of people overtighten this probably more than any other screw and it is pretty delicate.
Not sure what the reports of thread being stripped has to do with this issue; there was no unusual resistance in either direction that would have required me to exert unusual torque with my frail little girly hands.
I’ve disassembled and reassembled multiple laptops over the last twenty some-odd years, including unscrewing and rescrewing the same SSD restraint screw on my previous laptop several times over the seven years I’ve used it. I have NEVER had any screw snap like that, never mind a brand new one. Just because it didn’t break for everyone, or even most people, does not mean it’s not substandard garbage.
For me it was the included bit of the screwdriver that broke when I tried to unscrew the ssd screw
So anybody knows a way to remove the part from the hole ? Or did we really… screwed up ?
Thanks for the information; I have a kit that contains a range common computer screw sizes, and I’m quite sure the tops of those screws wouldn’t easily snap off.
I don’t see how the problem will be fixed without either returning the computer for repair or getting a replacement board - it’s not our responsibility to figure this out since it was defective out of the box.
please do not take any actions that are not suggested by the support team.
That is not fair on anyone. Having had a screw manufacturer as a customer when I was doing computer support, I can attest that there will be a percentage of screws that come off the automatic machines with defects - it is a fact of life. The assemblers won’t neccessarily identify a faulty screw when fitting it, and that results in the unfortunate situation you have. If you haven’t already, get a support case open, and let them deal with things. I suspect that if you had a support request in you would have it fixed with a replacement unit about now, if you don’t have a support request then you have doubled the time your laptop is going to be down.
I put one in right away and haven’t heard a thing yet.
I believe we presumed it was the Framework 16 since that is the only one that has more than one SSD slot. I think the culprits were all the screws for the 2280 slots I remember people having issues with.
I recall unscrewing mine on the FW16 and it felt a little strange like it had been overtightened. I was careful to not tighten it back that tight after installing my 2230 and 2280 modules.
The screws for the FW16 are in the Marketplace.
Here is the list:
Display fasteners (Black):
M 2.0mm fastener with a T5 head, which is 4.5mm diameter and 0.5mm thick (x19)
Camera and Mainboard fasteners (Black):
M 1.5mm fastener with a T5 head, which is 5.5mm diameter and 0.6mm thick (x9)
Touchpad and Fingerprint Reader fasteners (Black):
M2 1.8mm fastener with a Philips #0 head, which is 4.0mm diameter and 0.4 mm thick (x17)
Input Connector Board and small Input Module fasteners (Silver):
M 1.0mm fastener with a Phillip #0 head, which is 3.5mm diameter and 0.25mm thick (x24)
Expansion Bay Shell and Graphics Module fasteners (Gold):
M 3.0mm fastener with a T5 head, which is 4.5mm diameter and 0.7mm thick (x13)
Hinge fasteners (Black):
M 3.5mm fastener with a T5 head, which is 4.5mm diameter and 0.5mm thick (x9)
Bottom Cover fasteners (Black):
M 2.8mm fastener with a T5 head, which is 5.5mm diameter and 0.8mm thick (x8)
Storage fasteners (Gold):
M 1.4mm fastener with a T5 head, which is 4.5mm diameter and 0.6mm thick (x7)"
Screws are usually designed (or should be) that they fail first. This means rather damage the screw like the threading inside. Issue is when they are a bit over engineered…
Also, shouldn’t there be spare screws?
So for the record, the support proposed to send a replacing mainboard for that issue
Yes that has happened now, and really there wouldn’t be another solution. Pretty expensive price for them to pay for cheaping out on screws though. (never seen a screw break like that, and it being as frequent as it seems to be out of a relatively small production volume suggests bad design or bad materials, not just a reasonable expectation that “well, some itty bitty percent are going to fail”)
This is also one of if not THE most transparent laptop build process from both the manufacturer and the customer side since we have this nice little community forum. So though one’s personal experience has NEVER had a screw break like this, we don’t really know if this does or does not happen within the same “percentage of error” for other laptop manufacturers. And given the issue with the macro pad suppliers earlier, we can see that even when Framework takes all of the right steps to get parts for their laptops, ultimately they could have paid for high quality screws, and the supplier sent out a bad batch. Especially since these screws are miniscule, there might be one box that fits in one hand with the SSD screws for a few thousand FW16s, and if that’s a bad batch, That doesn’t mean Framework cheaped out, but they may be having a discussion with their screw supplier in the near future.
Same here, so frustrating. I’m waiting for supports response…
Hm, tried several photos of the broken srew head, but no matter which one I upload they are all like this…
But it looks exactly like the one from the post from amoun just above mine. [edit: initially wrong quoted photo]
I am eager to try to get it out, but I’m also afraid ob breaking at it’s neck, what would make it comletely impossible to remove, at least for me 0.o