I am posting this in the hope that someone finds this post useful. I have a framework 13 AMD series laptop for a little over a year. Over the last two days I found that my screen has a huge vertical bar right across the screen. It was sudden and I found that I wasn’t the only one and this has happened before. When I first bought Framework laptop I was inspired by the experience of many who did not want locked in ecosystems and laptops and desktops that cannot be repaired. I came from a place when repairing hardware was part of the ethos surrounding good technology. To say I am disappointed how Support handled it would be an understatement. For a company that wants to make this repairable shouldn’t mean you need to repair everything once every year. Also as a new user I could only post 2 pictures
I reached out to support who made me send a magnitude of pictures based on their requirements like this one and ran it through a gamut of test and trials they wanted me to do. Note that I had already mentioned to them that my laptop was slightly over a year old. After going all this I was told to reset my “mainboard” which by the way is confusing at best especially the instructions were not clear. After back and forth on this and with them escalating the ticket here is the final response. A pretty cold hey we think the product we gave you just a year back is fault here is a link to buy another one just in case our website is hard to navigate lets give you a link.
I have a lot of respect that companies that want to disrupt but more so for those who go above and beyond and trust their quality. On top of that just a thought, they give you additional warranty if you buy the laptop preassembled the screen is always pre assembled so isn’t some components preassembled to begin with and should carry more warranty?
I completely understand the frustration with needing to buy replacement parts, but I don’t see what you’re hoping to accomplish by posting this for community support. You have a diagnosis for a hardware problem and instructions for fixing it, so there is nothing further that the community can do to help. Framework products come with a 1-year warranty outside Europe, where longer warranties are legally required. That is clearly communicated on the product page, support knowledgebase and warranty terms. Configurations with extended, 3-year warranties are also available for a higher price.
Once outside of that period, support offers assistance with troubleshooting, but does not send free replacement parts. It sounds like that all happened correctly here.
Usually, the issue you’re seeing is caused by physical damage either to the display cable, the traces at the bottom of the panel, or the panel itself. Support may cover it under warranty if it is still within that period and they can’t be sure it was customer-induced damage, but the reality is that it’s usually caused by closing the laptop on something or otherwise by an impact to the display. This is among the most common failures in any laptop. The good news is that, because you bought a Framework, you’re able to fix it, unlike most manufaturers who glue on the bezel or don’t make parts available.
For what it’s worth, I have been using a Framework laptop for going on 3 years, and I have never needed to replace a single part.
Is the assumption that the damage is caused by the user? Physical damage that the user has caused please be mindful that they had asked for pictures to see any damange to the panels. the pins the laptop itself and otherwise and they verified that was not the case.
I am not questioning why you haven’t had any issues with your laptop for the last 3 years but I am also concerned if the screens themselves can fail after just a single year how that reflects on quality of the parts. I understand that post was not for everyone but I am hoping some people can still read about issues like this that happen. I am simply sharing my experience with the community. Hope that makes sense
Damage of this kind is often caused by the user. I can’t say for sure whether that happened here without having the device in my hands, but it is the most common cause of this failure. However, that question is not material when the warranty is expired. You have had the laptop for a year, so you no longer are entitled to warranty service.
Any part can fail. The vast majority of devices continue to work perfectly for years to come, but you will rarely see people saying so because very few people come to their laptop manufacturer’s community forum years after purchasing unless they experience a problem.
As you are not looking for help, I will recategorize this post to a feedback category rather than the community support one.
That’s fine I understand. And you are right most people do come to ask for help or register something when they have issues. I was simply sharing my experience
From reading this. I think FW support are being helpful, even with the expire warranty.
They are at least diagnosing and telling you which part to buy to fix it.
I guess, if you purchase the new part, it will have its own associated warranty.
I guess another interesting point here is that some countries FW sell to have a 3 year warranty, some have 2 year, some have 1 year. Why don’t FW sell extended warranties? So, if you would normally get 1 year, you could pay extra to get the 2 year one.
If you compare prices, someone purchasing a FW laptop in the EU, has to pay more for the laptop than someone purchasing it in the USA. My guess is the difference in price is to pay for that difference in warranty.
Edit/Correction: FW do Sell extended warranty. See below messages for details.
You misunderstand. Framework does sell extended warranties. 1 year is the default in the U.S. 2 year is the default in the EU as required. 3 year is available in either region by purchasing an “extended” pre-built configuration.
Over the years, from the forum posts (i.e. limited samples), there seems (to me) that some components are having questionable robustness issues. display panel / lid rigidity, key cap paint layer, battery (now addressed by BIOS?), screw caps (tearing). Maybe engineering might want to look into how to improve the in-service/field robustness of these components. Also, the alloy composition of the aluminium is rather ‘soft’ / malleable (to me, IMO).
Like, having a Toyota Corolla (highly repairable) doesn’t mean I want it to be in the shop every 3 months.
If this was the case, your thread here would not be the only one discussing this issue. Framework 13s have been out in the wild since 2021. Mine is from batch 1 from the very beginning. I’m typing this from that FW 13.
The honest truth is that from Framework’s perspective they have no idea what you have done while using the laptop, and your warranty is expired. I would suggest that getting a new display is still far more affordable than a whole new computer.
I do wonder what your purpose in this thread is?
Yes the limited reports here show some issues, but they are still far too isolated to be evidence of endemic failure with Framework products.
I own 2 Framework 13s. One purchased in 2021 and the other in 2022. Both are working perfectly today. 1 with the original 11th gen mainboard and one with the 12th gen mainboard. I have 3 other mainboards that are in use around the house. 1 11th gen has been running day and night for nearly 2 years as a VM server running several internet services. I also have a batch 1 Framework 12 that has no cracking plastic and has been used everyday since I bought it.
This is isolated for sure, but I mean, unless I am some kind of technology saint, I just don’t understand posts trying to push this relatively unfounded point.
It is a good thing to hold a company to task for quality products. In all of the cases on this forum there is a lack of transparency that is needed to be definitive with any kind of judgments as a result.
One could also say your positive experience is also isolated by you (as you’ve stated), the user / usage behaviour.
Without knowing the full scale of the tickets from support, it’s unknown which side the scale tips. The ‘benefit of the doubt’ is biased in nature, in any situation. That’s why I mentioned “limited samples”.
Not everything in the world that exist have to be understood by everyone that exists.
Found in those limited samples.
Also, note the wording of “questionable” and “improve” in my earlier post: Questionable because we don’t know the which side of the scale the reports tips toward. Toward it’s “good enough” or “bad enough”. Good enough that it’s acceptable (to whom). Or Bad enough that something needs to be done? “Improve” because even if / with 99.99% reliability over a 3 year period of all units produced…there’s always a question of “Room for improvement?”.
One should periodically review if something is good enough. It’s not a single point in time checkbox.
Like integration, as you approach infinity / perfection….you would get less and less reports / incidents. We just don’t know how far along that perfection progression we are.
Exactly…but you’re [just a tad, that’s all] ‘defending’/’defensive’(?) because you’ve interpreted it (the message) as such. Listing out few and far between reported issues do not indicate scale. That’s why the “maybe” (in my post).
I just happened to be pointing out the black dot on a piece of A0 paper.
I don’t work for Framework so I don’t sell extended warranties at all, but Framework only offers them at the time of purchase as part of an “extended” pre-built configuration.
