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.
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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:
Summary
This kit contains:
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)"
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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?
I can see how it may make sense for the thread to go so that a new screw can be used, I have had that problem but
- If the screw is steel and the insert brass that surely won’t work
- It this case it’s the head that came off so replacing a damaged screw is the least of the worry as the the shaft is stuck in the insert
@pkunk Yes I did notice the word ‘primary’ was trying to make sure and of course the topic could have been, and still could be, under the 16" tag which I generally mute having only a 13" myself
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So for the record, the support proposed to send a replacing mainboard for that issue
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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”)
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Rather disingenuous don’t you think ? Do you really think they went for cheap screws ?
It does seem disturbing and sure finding how they got into the production line and why they were even made would be useful to Framework, but Framework didn’t actually do that and that they are taking responsibility by swapping boards shows they are not cheap skates.
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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.
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Well and truly screwed.
I imagine the torx hole in the head basically cuts into the shaft. Poor design as the slightest over torque will rip it off.
The mind boggles as how that isn’t likely to happen.
Thanks for the extra warning.
Copy of earlier post by @JosiahP with fingerprint blurred
Same here, so frustrating. I’m waiting for supports response…
Hi januen and welcome.
What’s that image? All I see is a stripped pale blue rectangle.
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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
a) I don’t see any image from Ryn_win in this topic ???
b) as far as your photo goes
i) is with a mobile phone and then transferred to your computer to upload or are you uploading from your phone etc.
ii) Regarding uploading are you using the [fat arrow] upload or just draging from the desktop to the post you are typing - the latter is my preferred option.
i.e. Phone > Bluetooth to laptop > drag from desktop to post.
a) fixed that, I mean your post just above mine.
b)transferred via nextcloud, so their shouldn’t be a problem there. Tried both, drag’n drop & upload button, same problem.
But still, it looks exactly the same as the only photo so far in this thread.
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Sounds terrible;
How did the image get onto nextcloud?
Back to the nutty screws.
I suppose the screw was already in position and you had to unscrew it and then screw it back in once you added your SSD.
If the prebuilds are OK and the screw was OK to begin with then clearly too much pressure or torque was used in the DIY action. This is not to suggest that the screws were hardly fit for purpose as I’ve not heard of it before.
With such fragile screws, size etc. then maybe the flat head with a hole all the way through it was a crappy choice.
It there is room for a similar screw with a more substantial head then that would be a better option.
If the top of the screw is proud of the bush then get some old end cutters (like electronics side cutters but with the cutting edges at right angles to the handles) and use those to grip the end of the screw while turning it.
If the screw is sub-flush with the top of the bush then sometimes it is possible to use a pointed object like the point of an old school compass to dig into one side of the screw while tapping the other end of the compass to make the screw turn.
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Sorry to hear that you are having issues. I will say that your assertion that “they’d rather spend their time on new orders instead of helping people who have already placed and paid for their orders but are having trouble” makes some assumptions which may be incorrect.
They will get back to you. Sending additional emails will not speed things up; in fact, it may slow it down. I am not a Framework employee, so I do not have inside knowledge, but it sounds like their system may use some sort of “timer” and additional emails reset that timer, One can argue about whether that is reasonable or not, but it seems to be how this system functions currently.
If you are uncomfortable with a product for which support is handled via email, then this may not be a good fit for you.
With all of that said, from what I have seen in the forum around this issue, it likely will involve a mainboard swap. That’s a pain for the consumer and for the company, so I expect that behind the scenes they are working to figure out what is causing this and put a stop to it. In the mean time, if you are comfortable doing so, you could tape down the nvme drive where the screw would go, so that you can use the system until you get things resolved.
Again, sorry to hear that you are having issues. Best of luck getting things resolved, whichever path you choose. Have a great day!
I don’t think threatening is ‘good’ behaviour nor necessary. Once you have lodged the compliant, even without a response you are safe.
- You have 30 days to return
- You are under warrantee
- You can still use the computer as you can hold the SSD down with a bit of tape and then put the cover on to hold it properly and ‘permanently’ This way you can use the laptop until you send it back for a replacement if you still want to use Framework.
Sure being upset isn’t nice but it wasn’t intentional that the screw broke and there are slow responses, however your threats are intentional and I hope you see that is not productive to an amicable solution.
I’m sure you will hear from someone soon.
Take care and all the best in whatever you decide to do.
Thank for your input. The assumption I made was based on the auto-generated email they send after you contact them. The wording they chose in the email makes it sound like they’re too busy to reply in a timely manner because they’re inundated with new orders. Perhaps they could word that differently since that’s what I took from it. And I haven’t emailed twice, I emailed once, and submitted a support ticket once. If those go to the same box and restart a counter, then I have no way of knowing that. And I do agree with you that perhaps this isnt a good fit for me. I am a very patient person and never complain about things. But not being able to get an answer quicker than a week does bother me a bit and makes me uneasy as to what kind of company I bought from. I was nervous to begin with because I had never heard of them before, but my son assured me they are legit. I agree also with taping it down, and my son thought of that, but I had no idea what they will want us to do, and I was afraid to do anything more with the laptop until I could speak with someone about it in case they would want us to send the entire thing back, unused. And additionally I shouldn’t have to tape up a brand new, out-of
-the-box, $1800 laptop.