What batch am I? (Is it even relevant anymore?)

Framework Laptop 13
1

I bought my Framework just at the end of Jan (2022), and it shipped a few days later. Nobody ever said anything about a batch number in emails. It’s like batch numbers used to be a big thing with people, but now they’re not told to any new buyers at all (at least not for me).

Nothing in the box or papers ever said a batch number either.

And, with all that, mine has the Tempo audio chip (no driver - “High Definition Audio Device” and that’s it - and no I’m not dumb, the driver pack is the first thing I installed), shipped with BIOS 3.07, and a handful of weird Windows power plan firmware glitches (like hibernate set to 20 minutes by default, and no CPU power options at all except The Slider). and dear god this PixArt touchpad :neutral_face:

Anyway, I feel “homeless” as I don’t belong to any batch thread :sob: Is there actually a home for me I just don’t know about? And if so, maybe some revision to the order fulfillment/packaging/communications is in order?

2 Likes
2

Hello there!
I’ve had the same question myself. I can’t seem to find the batch number anywhere. I have noticed some users refer to their date of manufacturing as a point of reference. I got my computer on March 10 with a manufacturing date of Feb 16, 2022. I think there was a revision to invoices where now it does not list it.

1 Like
3

On your order page on the frame.work website, under “Orders” you should have a Delivery Batch number if they are still doing batches.

Batch numbers were part of the excitement of waiting for the preorders. They were also a partial indicator of where one stood “in line”. Once you do not have to wait “in line” more than a week for your laptop to arrive, batch numbers become irrelevant.

The Valve Steam Deck is the next big thing for batch numbers, with the 2nd Quarter batch(es) due out in a couple of weeks.

3 Likes
4

lol nope! Just checked…

image
image1299×872 81.7 KB

image
image1350×498 71.4 KB

And nothing under the configuration regarding batch either.

They’re irrelevant for places in line, I know - but it seems they delineate revisions as well! So that’s where they’re relevant post-shipment - we can kinda find a “home” with other users that have the same revision. Seems there’s Batch 8, Batch 9, and Batch 10, all of which around my order date (wow, more than one a month? Maybe? Hmm), and each with their own thread and revisions :sleepy:

5

They are no longer shipping in batches by the likes… that’s GOOD news!

6

The batch numbers are currently for European orders, if you’re in the U.S. or Canada they are being shipped continuously from stock.

6 Likes
7

So only European folks get to know what revision they have :upside_down_face:

A bit bittersweet… means that supply has met demand. Weird place to be - it has its pros and cons.

So is there even a way to know what batch I have? (It’s still an open question :sweat_smile:) I really would like to be able to see if others have the same issues I have with my revision, with others of the same. That’s the point of having a batch number, or at least it was…

10

thanks for repeating the same idea for now the 3rd time in different phrasing. (does anyone read past replies anymore?)

tell that to all the people starting “batch 8, batch 9, batch 10” threads.

this thread is a dumpster fire and I really am not getting any useful replies. :persevere:

11

Hey, no need to get nasty here.

1 Like
13

The differences between batches have gotten fewer and fewer, so much so as to get irrelevant.

There were differences in the first few batches, but ever since the Tempo sound chip was introduced (Batch 6?) there have been no changes noted.

They’re all the same laptops at this point. Any problems are either random or common to all of these laptops. They’re not restricted to a specific batch.

15

Can you see how frustrating this thread has been up to this point with unhelpful replies? The most helpful reply has been yours - but that was below this unwarranted “be nice” dig at me. Could’ve at least contributed that along with chastising me for reacting to the useless blame-the-user responses I’ve had so far.

So, if it’s all the same, why, when I talk about issues with my laptop related to power management or the lack of a Tempo audio driver, do I get a look like I’m a Martian? I’ve been looking for some reason to explain why what I’m typing on, in front of me, is somehow different than what you’re (most likely) typing on, in front of you, bearing all the same visual similarities.

It’d’ve been wise to at least put some kind of revision info along with the batches of the past, so people weren’t so tied to identifying revisions by batches. Maybe the Tempo audio driver thing is by design but people just don’t know… and maybe the power management stuff (almost entirely empty Windows power profile settings - e.g. entirely no “processor power management” settings whatsoever) is some esoteric issue related to production programming?

I would love to ask these things, instead, in the thread relevant to my computer’s revision, but alas, we are now here.

Maybe the correct way forward is a thread for “The Batchless Guild”.

16

@Matt_Falcon, have you checked to see what the motherboard model number is under MSINFO32?

Windows + R → “msinfo32.exe” → System Summary → Baseboard Product

Linux has ‘dmidecode’ which lists a SKU Number and Family, but I am not sure if either is a 1:1.

On Linux I am looking at a FRANBMCP## number, mine being 0B, and the serial number having a FRANBMCP## prefix but with AB instead of 0B.

I have not yet researched these, but if yours are different then it may help?

Are you needing support with the items you mentioned in the top of the thread?

Were you able to adjust the Hibernation settings? What level of the power options have you tried? Adjusting the Slider? Power under the Settings app? Classic Control Panel Power Options? Windows Mobility Center? PowerCFG from PowerShell?

17

I’ve got FRANBMCP0B as well there. :thinking:

Well, kinda, but not really. It’s just something I’ve lumped in with “annoyances of so-called ‘modern’ laptops” that includes things like button-less touchpads (I stuck a strip of VHB tape that blocks touch and emulates a button - works pretty well but the touchpad still slide-clicks like jank far more than it should), the lack of real sleep (“modern standby”), WiFi issues after waking, aaaand these little odd ones I can’t seem to find any consolation with.

Of course - I was just noting that the default option was set to 20 minutes, which struck me as insanely aggressive. Something in firmware seems to have told it to do that, but when I say that, I don’t see any agreement - it’s like I’m the only one with a computer that did that.

This is the only option I have - and the power slider is independent of Windows’ classic controls. However, this slider doesn’t work as well as needed, sometimes, in rare occasions when I need LESS performance to conserve battery. In those cases, I would normally go to “Processor Power Management” and tweak things there.

image
image686×851 32.9 KB

That’s it, that’s the entire page. A bit unusual, no? It was here that I saw the default setting for hibernate was 20 minutes (Sleep->Hibernate after->On battery = 20 minutes). Of course, I set that to never. Thanks to the drain of Modern Standby, I use hibernate (Win+R, shutdown -h) when I know I’m not going to use the computer for several hours (e.g. end of the day) or need to conserve the last few percent (at 20%, say).

Settings app power options page always has been useless :wink: Mobility Center is a Win7 thing. powercfg is a cmd utility (screw PowerShell, lol) that I only break-out when I get REALLY desperate trying to change/fix something. :wink:

18

2022 Tempo audio Framework for a designation?

I am not sure when they switched to the Tempo chip. I’m using a Batch 5 which Linux lists as using an Intel PCH HD Audio device, so I would not be able to pull the VEN or PID from device manager for the Tempo device.

(Edit 4/1/2022): Rebooted into Windows, and my Framework has VEN_111D&DEV_7695.
The driver utility detects Tempo audio. No sign of a Realtek device.
VEN8086&DEV_2812 is shown as not attached.

Windows + R → mblctr

A Windows 7 thing sure, but it is still around in Windows 11.

Not really, Microsoft has been shrinking that page down with every subsequent release on my Surface Pro 4. I have been forced to switch to PowerCFG in order to mitigate flickergate as Microsoft has also dropped a lot of the registry keys for that page as well.

I’ll have to load Windows 11 on my spare drive again and see what it shows. In my research I came across something that indicates the sleep modes are chained together, and that the hibernate timer might not be 20 minutes from idle, but 20 minutes from modern standby or so, and thus necessitating a more aggressive setting.

1 Like
19

Oh, but no, this isn’t to do with the page itself - you can use the same install media, and install it on two different computers, and get each of those results. These are, actually, using the same version of Windows. That’s where I say - hell, try it! When you deal with many different computer models, these sorts of things start to really jump out at you. Something in/about the computer is making Windows choose not to show those options. Probably the same suite of stuff that comprises :open_hands: modern standby :open_hands:

Just not with Windows 11 :joy: ewww. No, Windows 10 at least until MS walks back the “it’s broken but yolo ship it” style of Windows 11…

22

Maybe. My first thought is that Windows appears to pull some default values from system firmware somehow. I don’t know the mechanism (most likely ACPI, which is made for that purpose), but in particular note, over history it seems every laptop model has had its own Goldilocks settings for “reserve battery level” and “critical battery level” (low battery is almost always 20%). Low at 10%, critical at 5%… low at 7%, critical at 3%, low at 5% and critical at 1%? All up to the manufacturer.

Thus, why I immediately jumped to concluding that system firmware also put the default value for hibernate in there - though it’s increasingly likely that’s just one of many “adaptations” Windows makes when it sees that the system is “modern standby” capable (i.e. removing settings, abstracting stuff, making things more “modern” which is to say “you don’t have any control anymore”). So, that could just be a side effect of Modern Standby.

But counter to that hypothesis, others report having “Processor Power Management” options available, as well as giving me a look of weirdness when I say “hibernate was set to 20 minutes”. Then again, the same folks in the same breath also say “hibernate hasn’t been a thing since like 2010”, to which I can only laugh and no longer be sure if they even know what’s going on :joy:

I guess it is, thus, an open question as to whether it’s one of many settings Windows silently “gives to you” during Setup if it detects a “modern computer” (god I feel a little sick calling it modern - like this is just the new normal), and that setting is the same for any computer it detects Modern Standby support for, vs. legacy computers (like my 2013 Dell Latitude E7440 which has been in actual “suspend-to-RAM” with power LED pulsing, for 4 straight days now and only went from 55% battery to 40% battery - tell me that needed improvement?).

Oof, I’m ranty. So many things about computers past that I just wish were improved, but instead, … we got clickpads and Modern Standby (idling and hibernate in a trenchcoat).

(you can tell I love the Framework’s keyboard, though. I’ll reserve my one minor gripe and just say it’s a pure win :slight_smile: )

25

@Matt_Falcon - replying here so as not to continue to hijack the batch 10 thread - @moderators, is it possible to move the relevant posts from that thread (here: Batch 10 Guild - #19 by Matt_Falcon) into this one?

Batch 1 i7-1165G7 Windows 10:
Capture

Batch 6 i5-1135G7 Windows 11:
Screenshot 2022-03-26 124415

1 Like
26

Poking my head in here because I am DEEPLY frustrated with the useless responses I’m getting in my other thread…

Batch numbers have been obsolete (for US shipments at least) since before this thread (regarding a US shipment) was even started. How are any of you (US users) even seeing anything regarding a batch number? There simply IS no batch number shown anywhere on any of my correspondence with Framework, nowhere on the site, nowhere except the forum. It’s like I bought it from an entirely different company (thought it was this very website).

(I already have my laptop - but my concern is with finding community in other people with the same revision… mine was shipped first week of Feb 2022 and used it daily ever since)

It’s really frustrating being “batch-homeless” as there’s nobody I can find that has the same build revision I have, to talk about issues with/experiences with.

27

@Matt_Falcon - it’s possible that they stopped them after my order, but when I check my orders on my account, the one that I ordered just before the EOY holidays indicates: “Delivery Batch 6”

Perhaps once they had sufficient stock to fulfill orders immediately the batching was discontinued in the US.

2 Likes
28

Yeah, I’ve heard that quite a few times lately (it’s the frustrating non-answer I keep getting). Batches determined revision numbers, though, it seems. It’s just that batches were, for lack of a more clear designation of revision number, a way to indicate what revision you had.

Now, it’s more like Apple - on the outside it’s just printed “Framework” (like “iPhone”), and you’ve got to dig in or have external knowledge as to whether it’s a 6, 7, 8, etc. But so far, I haven’t been able to find any distinction between revisions outside of batch number - to which I don’t know what mine is, because some group of folks at Framework didn’t think it was useful for US shipments anymore :sob: