Top of fastener screw for primary ssd broke off

Community Support
44

Hey, thanks for letting me know about this. Receiving your laptop and facing an issue right away is definitely not ideal, and I’m sorry you experienced this.

I understand that you have some feedback about the wording of the automated support email you received. Thank you for sharing that as well.

" Framework Support is currently experiencing a high volume of contacts due to the start of batch processing for the Framework Laptop 16. Responses will be delayed. We are working as quickly as possible to respond to inquiries in the order they were received. Thank you for your patience. "

We have a dedicated support team for customer issues, separate from the team focusing on new orders. The message meant to convey that we have been receiving more tickets related to Framework Laptop 16 orders (cancellations, order modifications, or issues such as the one you reported), which sometimes causes us to fall behind our SLA. The support team usually replies within 1 business day, but it can take longer due to high volumes. We are in the process of expanding our support team to provide better service and definitely appreciate your feedback.

I double-checked your support case and see that you contacted the team on Monday and received the automated response on the same day. However, I also see that support replied to you on June 6th, asking for pictures of the mainboard and the broken screw, and they have been waiting for your reply since then. If you have not received this email (make sure to check your spam folder and other inboxes), please let me know.

Thank you.

6 Likes
46

I will be waiting for your response then!

It looks like the email from the support was sent on the 6th of June, hope this helps.

1 Like
47

Great. The screw of the primary SSD of my Framework 16 just broke off. I’ve now got an expensive brick. :frowning:

I turned all the screws with great care.

Framework has some very good concepts., but I am very disappointed in the production quality of the laptop. Actually I’m not only disappointed, but also angry. When looking at the forums, I can only get the impression, that Framework is well aware that they are shipping very flawed products.

48

Dear Framework.

The screw that’s supposed to hold the primary SSD in place broke. The head just came off and now it is impossible for me to get the rest out. One more case.
I was very careful when I screwed it in. After I looked at the head and how it broke, it is no surprise. The quality and/or choice of these screws is very bad.

This is the head:

cap
cap1026×1273 53.5 KB

This is the rest of the screw in the hole:

screw_in_hole
screw_in_hole1640×2016 389 KB

Sorry for the mediocre lighting.

I’ve been assembling computers for over 25 years now, but this never happened to me.

I wrote to the support, but nobody answered.
I wrote into another thread about the same topic, but nobody seems to care.
I can’t get the screw out without risking to damage the MB.

After taking a look at the forums, it seems that there is so much wrong with the production including QA of this laptop. There are so many issues.
I am very disappointed in Framework.
You have good ideas and good concepts, but the implementation is not good at all.
I regret to have bought this laptop. It is nice to have a repairable product, but it is awful that I have to repair it right from the start.
I’ve got the impression that you know about the problems, which leads me to the conclusion that you are either out of your depth or you just don’t care.

I can understand if you think me unfair for drawing these conclusions and/or for writing these words.

I’m stopping to write now, because I’m getting too angry.

49

Return it, get your money back, and move on. Or accept that there are some bumps with the rollout, work with the company to get them resolved, and move on.

Whatever choice you make, be well, have a good day, and best of luck.

3 Likes
50

There have been issues with the SSD screw but I have found Framework to have dealt with these problems promptly and fairly when they have cropped up.
There have been some complaints around the alignment of the tracker spacer pads but generally things seem to me to have gone really well.

2 Likes
51

Hey Local,

I’m sorry to hear about the issue you’ve experienced with your laptop. I can imagine how frustrating it must be to encounter problems shortly after receiving it.

This issue has been noted in our community and support reports, and our engineers have been actively tracking and addressing it. Initially, there were more reports from previous batches, but we’ve seen a significant decrease recently. Transparency is important to us, and I’ve personally communicated about this on our community platforms many times, mentioning our efforts to resolve it. While our engineering and quality teams work on solutions, our support and part replacement teams have collaborated to swiftly assist affected customers by providing mainboard replacements.

One challenge we face in both community and support environments is that people often don’t report when they receive a laptop without any issues. They are understandably more likely to share their experiences when they encounter problems, as you have done. While some exceptional Framework community members do share positive feedback about their laptops and the service they have received (as you can see from here, here, here or here, all from the past 7 days), it’s common for community platforms to mainly highlight issues and complaints. This doesn’t necessarily reflect a widespread product flaw; rather, it’s a natural consequence of the support-seeking nature of these environments.

Similarly, in support environments, constant exposure to customer issues can sometimes create the perception that the product itself is flawed. However, this perception doesn’t always align with reality. It simply reflects the nature of support interactions, where problems are naturally more visible.

I want to assure you that I’m not downplaying your experience or feelings. Your frustration is valid, and receiving a faulty product is far from ideal. Please know that we genuinely care about resolving your issue and ensuring your satisfaction as a valued community member. Once we’ve addressed your current concern, I’m committed to understanding what caused your dissatisfaction and taking necessary actions to prevent similar experiences for others.

I’ve reviewed your support cases and noticed you’ve already contacted us for another issue before the problem with the SSD screw.

As we have announced here today, we have a bit of a backlog with our support team and our responses are a bit delayed ( We wanted to announce this as well to set expectations with our customers, no one likes contacting support and not knowing when to expect an answer) Our support agents will be with you shortly and assist you with the part replacement.

If you prefer to return your laptop rather than proceed with a part replacement, you can find our return policy here.

Please feel free to share any additional feedback or questions you may have.

Thank you.

7 Likes
52

Hello @Destroya ,
thank you for replying, acknowledging my issues and taking the time to stating your position.

From your response I understand that at least the issue with the screws was raised before and it was mitigated. May I ask what the changes were and from which batch onward it got better? I glady take a link to a blog post as an answer to this if one already exists.
The screws still appear to be too weak to me.

I know there is generally a great bias for giving feedback when there are issues and maybe we see more “support cases” in public in these forums. And I think it’s fair to assume that you get more support requests than we can see here in public, also.
I’m still under the impression, that the number and variety of issues with the laptops and parts are plenty.
We appear to be in disagreement here, which is fine for me.

I appreciate that this community is so helpful and most people seem polite and nice. (Ignoring I should just “move on”)
Since I was trying to have a rather particular setup (Windows 11 pro, hardware disk encryption, yubikey) and ran into trouble on the Windows side of things, I even wanted to write a guide about it. I was looking forward into participating.
But I didn’t buy the laptop to be part of the community, but to use it.

You stated:

I’ve reviewed your support cases and noticed you’ve already contacted us for another issue before the problem with the SSD screw.

I’m curious how this relates to my issue at hand.

You also said that the support team is very overloaded. Doesn’t this make my point that you don’t have the capacity to run the business as you intended to? That’s what I meant when I speculated if you were “out of your depth”.
I didn’t mean that you are bad engineers, communicators, etc… Especially not individually, you are a proof of that.
But as an organization you seem to be at this time. The response delay is “3-5 business days”, so up to a calendar week and you say it is “a bit delayed”.

As for the “return of the product” vs “replacement”.
Returning it is complicated, because I’ve bought the SSDs and RAM seperately. I know, this is not your concern, but I was expecting a product that works.
So I want a replacement, because I want my laptop to work. I really wasn’t expecting to have to invest so much time into being able to use it.
Now I will have to wait for the response and for a replacement. After that time I will not be able to return the laptop, although I didn’t have the chance to evaluate it.
And even if I would return it now, it might not get my money back fully, since there is “functional damage” (the broken screw).

So now I can only hope that someone will respond some day, that I will get a replacement some day this year, I will not be on vacation when it arrives, so it’s not getting shipped back.

Thanks for reading. Take care.

53

so looking at this, the question that comes to mind for me is: is there a replacement procedure for the insert? if this happens, say, 13 months down the road, is there an end-user plausible process for recovery, or is it going to absolutely require a mainboard replacement?

54

Looking through the thrad her it seems like there is problem with the construction or manufacture process of the screw.

When looking at these pictures it seems like there is not enough area for the head to attach to the thread of the screw.
Either the T5 is pressed (or how ever it is manufactured) to deep int the head that it is almost at the level where the head goes into the thread. Or the head is just to thin for the T5 receptacle.

2 Likes
55

I think so, too. Framework does not seem to agree as far as I understood.

It appears the screw cannot be made wider, due to the given insert.
It also cannot be made higher/longer with more material in the junction between shank and head, because there is no space left.
One option could be, to give it an external hex head or something. That way the dimensions can be kept, but the junction can have more material. That would mean that Framework would have to add another tool to the package. But I think it’s less costly and more environmentally friendly than having to replace these parts.

I am currently in the support process for this. I have no idea when it is going to be resolved and what the outcome will be. Once I know, I will post it here.

2 Likes
56

The just taping down the ssd instead option is always on the table.

I honestly don’t quite understand why they didn’t go with one of the plethora of toolless mounting options. Not like that ssd has to be held down all that tight.

1 Like
57

It’s not common on laptops (in fact, I haven’t seen a laptop use a toolless SSD mounting method). I have previously suggested that the team could explore this for future revisions though.

1 Like
58

Same, however I have also not seen many laptops actively endorsing for the user to install the ssd themselves.

The rubber plunger mount (that is used on a bunch of external ssd cases) would probably already work with the current mainboards if you could remove the insert. or hell just a simple plastic clip.

1 Like
59

The rubber plunger would work but isn’t that great (have a ssd enclosure that uses one) but I have suggested the rotating clip one.

60

I don’t overly like those XD.

But probably anything would help.

61

Is this the screw for the long or short nvme card slot?
Mine has not broken, but I wish to know which one if I ever need to remove my nvme card.
Also, what size is the screw? Maybe using a philips/PH0 head screw would be stronger?

62

Hi

'tis in the title ‘primary’ :slight_smile:

Finding any alternative that has the same dimensions, including height of the top could work.

63

I think this is the solution here!

Just use these dimensions and put a PH0 on there. This would use less area and therefore provide more area for the head to thread connection.

64

Do we know the dimensions? Or can framework submit the dimensions? Mine is not broken but if I knew the dimensions, I would replace it for the phillips one.