Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded!

Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by simpaticoder on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @12:00PM (#45028370)

I have a 1st gen Framework 13, Intel 11th gen CPU, running Ubuntu 24. It had a faulty design around the BIOS battery on the motherboard that I had to fix, and do some soldering on[1]. It's remarkable because they didn't say "Send the laptop in and we'll fix the design defect" they said, "First take a photo of the inside of the laptop to verify the serial number, then place an order, then do the repair yourself." This left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Additionally, and non-trivially, the laptop's battery life is not good, and it drains very quickly on suspend. I have taken to leaving it plugged in when not in use. This may be a Linux issue, but still.

I agree with you: the idea is a good one, but my experience with the company has been not good.

1 - https://guides.frame.work/Guide/RTC+Battery+Substitution+on+...

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by kibwen on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @12:16PM (#45028603)

> then do the repair yourself

This is awesome though, and exactly the sort of thing one buys a Framework for.

> the laptop's battery life is not good

Mine is great, I share a single USB-C cord among all my laptops (of which I have despairingly too many) and I often use my Framework all day while forgetting it's not plugged in. (Fedora, if the OS matters.)

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by bevr1337 on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @12:35PM (#45028910)

I'm going to assume soldering on the main board is far outside the ability of most users. They're not through hole, big green boards like I learned on.

It is certainly awesome for those that can, of course!

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by simpaticoder on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @01:00PM (#45029272)

It does not make sense to praise a company for selling defective products because some of the customers have the ability to repair the defect.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by yellowapple on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @08:23PM (#45033997)

It's a massive step up from the status quo of companies selling defective products without customers having the ability to repair the defect.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by simpaticoder on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @09:11AM (#45039205)

Well then, you live in the best of worlds because every laptop is repairable even at the chip level or individual capacitor/resistor/connector level. All you need is a workshop, a multimeter, oscilloscope, probes, a hot air gun, a microscope, a variety of soldering tools, a variety of solder, solder mask, access to schematics and donor boards, and a lifetime of experience. Here's a guy who repairs Dell laptops all day every day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDsP1--ttQc

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by yellowapple on Friday August 29, 2025 @12:17PM (#45066025)

That's all a massive step beyond "order a free part from the vendor with instructions on how to solder it on yourself".

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by simpaticoder on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @12:55PM (#45029196)

>This is awesome though

No, it's not awesome. Upgrading ram and disk or replacing a motherboard, screen or battery is great. Repairing a badly designed motherboard with a soldering iron is not great. In fact, it's bad. I think there's a good argument that it violates (warranty) law. If a car company sells to you based on "right to repair" and then it turns out there was a design defect in the engine, is it "awesome" if they tell you you need to pull the engine and rebuild it?

Glad your battery life is good. I notice you didn't mention it losing power when suspended. Curious.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by akho on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @10:30AM (#45040238)

> I notice you didn't mention it losing power when suspended. Curious.

Are you using a kernel > 6.8? It got (much) better.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by simpaticoder on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @09:48PM (#45047405)

Interesting. I'm not normally in the habit of upgrading the kernel independently of the distribution, but it's worth trying. Thanks for the tip.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by akho on Thursday August 28, 2025 @02:25AM (#45049061)

On earlier kernels, `acpi_osi="!Windows 2020"` was often recommended. Though I'm note sure what it does.

`nvme.noacpi=1` should be on, too, for all kernels.

(all derived from the nixos-hardware repo; I use that)

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by simpaticoder on Thursday August 28, 2025 @05:41PM (#45057376)

Thanks. I upgraded the kernel (had to turn off secure boot to do it), and set the nvme kernel option, too. So far no unwanted side-effects, but it's too soon to say if it fixed the problem.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by pcdoodle on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @01:11PM (#45029459)

You won't believe it but I can pull 30 hours at min brightness sitting at the windows desktop on the 11th gen 13 framework (Running Win10LTSC).

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by starkparker on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @01:14PM (#45029490)

> Additionally, and non-trivially, the laptop's battery life is not good, and it drains very quickly on suspend

Drain on suspend in particular has largely been resolved on newer mainboards, firmware, and kernel updates, though I don't have an 11th-gen Intel and haven't run Ubuntu for a long time.

Kernel updates fixed this on my 12th-gen, firmware updates fixed it on my 7040, and my Ultra 7 155H never experienced this issue.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by simpaticoder on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @01:35PM (#45029745)

I'd happily accept a replacement motherboard. They aren't offering that though ,but I'd be impressed if they did.

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Re:Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! by olejorgenb on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @05:40PM (#45032659)

Which kernel upgrade? I have a dell precision with 12th Generation Intel i5-12500H, and it can't suspend properly. The suspend is even flaky and fails to suspend at all half the time. I run fedora with a very new kernel. It has a Nvidia GPU though. But then again - it is "Ubuntu certified"...

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