I had written a letter some 8 months ago but kept with this thread thinking I will modify my letter. Luckily some of my queries have been answered
First let me thank you for the
we will provide you with a free replacement RTC battery, even if you are outside of your warranty period. We will continue to do this for as long as we are able to get supply of these cells.
That is the honourable thing to do
On the modification.
I was planning to do something when the warranty expired.
I was going to add a small dc to dc converter between the main battery to supply 3v to the ML1220. Now it looks like I wonāt have to. Back in the 60ās I was a radio electrician and hopefully my fingers are still nimble enough.
This is all very good news
Thank you again
All the best
It may be a good idea to put it a the top as a sticky and put a link to the above post.
While Iām waiting for the replacement mainboard for the replacement mainboard (hasnāt shipped yet, confirmed on the 4th butā¦ crickets, still just āconfirmedā, not sent. Initially figured it might be chinese holidays, but Iāve seen reports of people ordering laptops after that and already having them), I have a question: does this mean it might be a good idea to remove the coin cell in case a longer time away from wall power is expected? (Eg. if replacing the 11th gen with a 12th, but intending to use the 11th gen board for something else āwhenever you get timeā. In my case, it would probably become a Proxmox box to replace my raspberry pi stack, but no time for that now.)
Throughout my support experience, itās been a bit weird to be told to be extremely careful with replacing the cell because the cradle is fragile - but letās have you take it out for the 5th time as part of troubleshooting.
If that is the case, this might be good to document somewhere. Since the 10-12 times can be reached fairly fast for a board you use in learning projects.
Figured Iād check in since recent developments in this topic: As promised, support was understanding and ready to send a replacement ML1220. The FDK battery from Amazon continues to work well, but I feel putting the manufacturer sourced cell in is the best option in the long run. Once itās arrived, installed, and charged, Iāll check back in.
I promise I wonāt blow up your forum notifications anymore, but thanks again to @nrp and @TheTwistgibber for your attention here. Sincerely appreciated.
@TheTwistgibber a question. I just got my ticket escalated to logistics, since the replacement for the replacement isnāt shipping, itās just stuck in āconfirmedā. Given that support previously was under guidance that cell replacement is not a thing and mainboard replacements are what does it. (And appear restricted in their ability to give anything but the copy-paste answers to questions.)
Then the replacement mainboard was a desktop. Then the replacement for the replacement doesnāt end up shipping at allā¦ Guidance seems to now have changed after my case started back in November, so is this a situation where the ācorrectā option for my original issue is actually to just get my original board one of the replacement cells and letās be done with it? (Iād otherwise have been tempted to request an annulment of the whole purchase.)
At this point I am really at a loss of words because this crap is taking so darn long to reach any kind of conclusion, but luckily for Framework Iāve grown fond of the 3:2 screen ratio (great with a vertical split in vim while coding) and thereās a dearth of options in that form factor that arenāt soldered down.
Given the information shared recently, it really seems like my case could have been solved all the way back then. But not knowing whether this recent change affects the whole āwe looked at your pictures of the RTC cradle and will replace the mainboardā Iāve gotten twiceā¦
Yay! This kind of honest and open communication about this issue is I think what most people were looking for here. Excited to see the bypass work instruction and fire up my Pinecil!
Your ticket has already been escalated to our Logistics team for review as the order is in the proper state, we have the inventory in Taiwan, but for whatever reason, it hasnāt transitioned to shipped. Our Logistics team will be reaching out to our 3PL partner in Taiwan to understand why it hasnāt shipped.
RTC Battery replacement, per Niravās post, is currently not available for European countries as we do not yet have stock of those batteries in our repair center in Germany. We only have a small number of batteries at our US repair center for United States and Canada at this time. Per his post, we have to ask for patience as these batteries are considered hazardous materials, international regulations require special handling, and we have to navigate all of this after we have inventory sourced and ready to ship.
I understand you are frustrated, but the latest information from Nirav is indeed the most recent guidance. Weāre working on figuring out why your mainboard didnāt ship, but unfortunately this requires coordination with multiple 3rd parties as we donāt own the pipeline, we have partners.
@Daniel_Agorander I just received word that there was a labeling issue at our 3rd Party Logistics partner which has just been corrected, and your mainboard should ship out on Monday.
The amount of times Iāve read that line these last two monthsā¦
But well, I was more curious about the aspect of ācould it have beenā. That is: IF there was stock in Germany, would it potentially have been the correct option? Or in other words: is it possible that the findings that led to a decision to replace the mainboard would now (if stocks were in place in the relevant region) instead be handled through issue of a new coin cell?
(Basically trying to understand whatās going on, since initially there was a āreplace coin cell is not recommendedā, and replacement decisions seemed to coincide with best-effort photos taken with my unfortunately quite shitty Nokia phone camera, but Iām nowhere near qualified to understand if my situation is even relevant to the whole coin replacement thing or if I was just that one guy that had really shitty luck with the coin cradles. )
Thatās good news. Fingers crossed for that board and thanks!
We were given guidance since the beginning to not go down the replacement RTC battery route given the spec for our mainboard, the inconsistency in batteries that exist globally, and the possibility that someone could do real damage to the mainboard via a bad replacement battery (or even installing one that isnāt rechargeable given that would be very bad). This is why we are now sourcing verified compatible ML1220 batteries and providing them once the proper troubleshooting has ruled out all other possible root causes. This was a cross-functional discussion internally that led to this course of action, and Nirav, our CEO/Founder gave the approval to execute. While it may seem that something is simple from the outside, unfortunately, it couldnāt be further from the truth.
So I guess my only remaining question is: if we do expect to not use a board for a while, is removing the coin cell an option we might consider? Mainly due to the below:
If I were to upgrade to 12th gen, and therefore stash my 11th gen for whenever I have time to turn it into a Proxmox box, is removing the coin cell a good option to this guidance? Iād assume yes, butā¦ just in case. (I do code, not electronics, soā¦ )
Anyway, thanks for the information and for looking into my issue.
@Daniel_Agorander Yes, you can remove the battery, it will just default to requiring the AC adapter to be plugged in as the RTC battery is required in order for the laptop to know which power path to accept (main battery or ac adapter). Before you do though, make sure you perform the reset.
Had the laptop 25 hours on charge. It powered up. It powered up the next day and was put away. Powered up the second day okay. Left it over the weekend and went to power it on.
No go. Something is adrift. Also the BIOS settings were wiped which proves it.
Iāve ordered a new VARTA 1220 battery and will test that.
Yes a dead battery after 4 or 5 days indicates either a poorly connected battery, hence the idea to contact official support before changing battery or
You have expired the battery by letting it discharge maybe 90% a dozen times i.e. nit used it a dozen times for over two weeks or let it discharge 99% a few times.
100% means not having it plugged in for three weeks with a new battery or two weeks as it ages.
i.e. it is not viable to leave the laptop not connected to power for more than a week.
But again if you swap the battery without contacting support, later it could be deemed you did not follow āofficialā forum advice so you could have made the warranty void.
Easily repairable is another issue.
A self repair whilst under warranty is not the same. Unless directed to do so I would say self attempts to fix a definitely voids the warranty ~ makes absolute sense.
Well I have a workstation that I do all my heavy lifting on. The laptop is just for holiday and remote use when on site. Which is once or twice a month. I went and pushed the Ā£1200 budget because as a IT Support and repair guy this was initially a good thing to get behind. But not so sure now. A larger company would probably have done a product recall. The gamble has not paid off for me I guess.
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