An update, support has already shipped me a new screen.
I provided one more round of photos of the case and bezel area for their assessment and they quickly agreed that the screen should be replaced and have shipped me a new one.
I am glad that this has been resolved so quickly.
I am hoping that the next screen is more reliable and that this was just a one off.
My replacement screen has now failed in the same way, but on the right hand side instead of the left. I have contacted support and will begin the “take many photos” dance, but I suspect there’s something going on here. I will be inquiring about replacing the top case and/or bezel and not simply the panel this time. If they aren’t willing to entertain these ideas, I may simply inquire about a full return/refund. User repairable is an amazing and wonderful thing, but having repeated panel failures makes me very nervous. Having the option to self-repair, I strongly endorse, having a need to self-repair frequently makes me very, very uneasy.
that post was from 2 years ago… while there is another small increase in support response times lately, what we saw two years ago was Framework support beginning to fall behind, then hiring and training more employees to handle the increase in demand. This is likely what will happen again, there will be a small lag from when support starts to fall behind in responses, which will be the time that they are hiring and training new support team members, then a catch-up and control once that has been completed.
FW support escalated my request and the escalation tech offered “send it in for service”. Since that would replace this defective matte LCD with yet another likely defective matte LCD, I have declined. I’ll share any response.
Welp, they are investigating with their manufacturing partner, and sending me another replacement matte LCD. I think I’ll probably order the 2.8K screen as soon as it’s in stock, as a more permanent fix.
Glad to hear they are sending you a new screen. Could just be bad luck in screens. I am amazed with how delicate LCD panels are that they are not more defective. This technology has come a long way, but the laws of physics will always rule. Thin fragile things will always crack easily.
Well, funny you should mention that, because my failures didn’t show any screen damage. It’s all the wiring at the bottom that died. I tested my first failed panel and am currently testing the second one, and it looks like the wire runs between the controller board and the LCD proper are what’s failing in both cases. The original glossy panels have the same physical layout, and my Chromebook has the same top panel/bezel design, but the glossy panel in it is going on two years now, IIRC, and no issues. I think there’s something to be found/fixed, but my gut read is that FW will just throw replacements until the bad panels finish filtering through the market. Might be another reason they’re pushing the 2.8K panel pretty hard, too. Different OEM, no defect.
The same issue just occurred to me as well. I used the laptop in the morning, with the display having no problem. When I opened it in the evening I noticed the vertical strips running across the display. It hasn’t been touched from morning until evening. This is quite shocking. I’m glad however that I’m not the only one with this problem. I’ll contact support and update along the way.
Hi! I have fw13 with a matte display and the AMD 7640U cpu. I bought it around March this year, but only started to properly use it last week. Before that, I only played around with it for a couple of hours every now and then.
Wanted to chime in: this is the second time this year I’ve had this happen. Last time was four months ago and they sent me another screen. This afternoon it happened again randomly. No physical damage whatsoever; just suddenly stopped working.
There’s clearly some manufacturing problem going on with these screens.
An update on this. I am currently arranging shipping of a replacement display, which is taking a bit of back and forth because I am not currently based in a supported country, but it’s getting resolved. Overall I am quite satisfied with support. They were very prompt to respond, evaluating the situation and confirming the need for a replacement (after providing all photos) in about 4 hours. I sent in two rounds of photos as follows:
Round 1:
external display
issue on a white background
bios with no bezel
motherboard with display connector detached
display connector
photo with connector reseated and display cable rerouted
photos around the laptop (top, bottom and all 4 lateral sides)
Round 2:
a couple more photos of a full white background without the bezel
I hope this helps. I also honestly hope that I will not be back here after a number of months.
As a general note, I ended up replacing the screens in my AMD FW13 and my Chromebook FW13 with the 2.8K panels. The curved corners aren’t bad, and the increased res/refresh is quite nice. Obviously I can’t say “and these won’t fail”, since we don’t know why the matte 2K screens were failing, but I have a good gut feeling. The Chromebook also looks really nice at the higher res and 120Hz.
My AMD FW13 screen is malfunctioning similarly, and support has thus far refused the warranty claim, insisting it’s customer-induced damage. They highlighted this section of my screen:
Implying that the artifact indicates physical damage, but it’s 100% digital, there are no indications whatsoever of physical damage. They also chided me for lightly touching the bottom of the screen (which induces a horizontal flickering), further implying I was compounding the damage (?!!)
Reading through these other reports, I’m crossing the line from being upset about a questionable warranty refusal to suspecting a systemic defect that Framework is not acknowledging. Either their screens are of poor quality, or their hardware design readily allows internal damage during normal use that other laptops do not suffer.
As it stands, I recommend against anyone purchasing a Framework device.
Yours does have some differences, but if support won’t replace your panel, I’d jump straight to the final solution I went with; the 2.8K panel. It doesn’t seem to have the same issues, and it’s not expensive. If you want to swear off FW forever, that’s your business, but I’ll just note I’ve seen this kind of failure from other OEMs, and they did not offer warranty service nor parts.
If Framework’s warranty excluded displays due to reasonable concerns about distinguishing customer damage, I suspect I’d feel somewhat differently. But between being refused warranty replacement in my case and seeing many other cases of similarly frustrated customers, I just don’t believe the company is behaving ethically here, and I’m reluctant to increase the magnitude of my bet.
If we do think the issue is isolated to the matte displays, it wouldn’t seem unreasonable for Framework to offer glossy displays as free replacements, or to offer the 2.8K panel discounted by the cost of the matte display.