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Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

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Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#71

Post by bluedino »

whateverboat wrote: post #40
fwipsy wrote: post #33

Framework seems pretty popular here in general, but nobody really seems to talk about how repairable enterprise laptops are. Some laptops have clips around the edge of the bottom panel to hold it in place, which frequently break. On my brother's T480s, those clips were made out of metal and held in with screws, meaning they were themselves replaceable. More recently I worked on a Dell Precision 7550 laptop, and if yo…

> Framework really caught everyone's attention with the fun DIY repair angle, but Dell/Lenovo/HP have been selling repairable laptops to IT departments for decades. Yeah, but does Dell allow you to change your laptop's mainboard for another mainboard with time? That is such a quantum leap. You do not have to adjust your self to a new keyboard just because you wanted a new processor.

Are there many laptop mainboards available and what is the price like?

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#72

Post by chermi »

cryo32 wrote: post #66
QwenGlazer9000 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my experience they have been getting less repairable. Look at recent thinkpads. My headcannon is that the only reason the T14G7 is as repairable as it is, is due to the whole right to repair movement, including framework.

The recent thinkpads are shit. They market high tech materials in the T14s machines but the bottom for a huge amount of the line is aluminium with plastic mounts glued to it. Those are fragile and break off. So really the whole magnesium alloy thing is performative. I preferred the older plastic coated Mg chassis ones. At least they were honest about the materials. Personally I avoid laptops now since the T430 line.…

I thought the very recent ones were going toward repairability? Like this year

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#73

Post by guerby »

fwipsy wrote: post #33

Framework seems pretty popular here in general, but nobody really seems to talk about how repairable enterprise laptops are. Some laptops have clips around the edge of the bottom panel to hold it in place, which frequently break. On my brother's T480s, those clips were made out of metal and held in with screws, meaning they were themselves replaceable. More recently I worked on a Dell Precision 7550 laptop, and if yo…

Dell latitude 7480.

usb-c port is now dead, it is soldered.

Not going to happen to my https://frame.work laptop, 10 eur part, no soldering, not even a screwdriver, and good as new

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#74

Post by guerby »

pudgywalsh wrote: post #70
whateverboat wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Framework really caught everyone's attention with the fun DIY repair angle, but Dell/Lenovo/HP have been selling repairable laptops to IT departments for decades. Yeah, but does Dell allow you to change your laptop's mainboard for another mainboard with time? That is such a quantum leap. You do not have to adjust your self to a new keyboard just because you wanted a new processor.

> but does Dell allow you to change your laptop's mainboard for another mainboard with time Business laptops are swapped out every few years. Reusable chassis? Literally no one asked for this, it makes no sense outside of a very, very small community of enthusiasts who think it's cool. Restricting yourself to no mechanical changes/improvements in perpetuity is not the flex you think it is. Keyboards wear out, the cha…

Old frame.work mainboards make fantastic proxmox home servers: 3 watt idle 8 cores 64 GB RAM.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#75

Post by 47635274172635 »

I recommend people who have a soldering iron to start experimenting with enameled wire. It's easily sourced from any random coil/inductor/switching transformer/broken speaker even. Dip the tip of the wire in some flux and keep it on the tip of the iron for a bit so enamel clears away and tins the wire.

This way you can solder the thin wires in crammed places, don't have to stress about them shorting out anything they touch, easily routable and they don't put stress on the solder joint, like a regular thicker wire would.

Working with this type of wire made things easier for me in these sorts of situations. And it's perfectly adequate for signal (withing reason, if not very high speed), and even some power, few mA needed for these kinds of chips is no issue.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#76

Post by artisinal »

whateverboat wrote: post #40
fwipsy wrote: post #33

Framework seems pretty popular here in general, but nobody really seems to talk about how repairable enterprise laptops are. Some laptops have clips around the edge of the bottom panel to hold it in place, which frequently break. On my brother's T480s, those clips were made out of metal and held in with screws, meaning they were themselves replaceable. More recently I worked on a Dell Precision 7550 laptop, and if yo…

> Framework really caught everyone's attention with the fun DIY repair angle, but Dell/Lenovo/HP have been selling repairable laptops to IT departments for decades. Yeah, but does Dell allow you to change your laptop's mainboard for another mainboard with time? That is such a quantum leap. You do not have to adjust your self to a new keyboard just because you wanted a new processor.

A chassis is 10% of the cost of the laptop. Reusable chassis just to put new hardware in isn’t something the average consumer is interested in.

Also, buying a new mainboard every few years and putting the old mainboard on a shelf is a lot less sustainable than buying a complete new laptop and selling your old laptop to someone.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#77

Post by selectodude »

throwuxiytayq wrote: post #50
anthonj wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My conspiracy theory is that selling parts is pretty much their main business case. A modular gpu using a new standard that is form-factor specific for only a specific model? Matte panel released a few months after the first 13.5 model was released with glossy panel as only option? It sounds a bit fishy to me. But maybe I'm just a bit too cynical .

Manufacturer forces you to throw away previous device and buy a new one: it's a conspiracy to make money Manufacturer lets you replace each part separately: it's a conspiracy to make money

Every day I show up to work is a conspiracy between me and my mortgage lender to make money.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#78

Post by jorvi »

mchristen wrote: post #52
lejalv wrote: post #41

The entire USB-C situation with the Frameworks (I have both the original gen 11 and the AMD 7040) is a massive train wreck. They have clearly given up on fixing it. Only some of my ports work, and not reliably. Th EC controller is a bug fest. If you don't believe me, check their forums. I wish I could get back all the hours I spent debugging this, to no avail.

I'm lucky that I had no USBC issues with mine I guess. Unlike my ryzen desktop that hard locks when resuming from suspend sometimes when it goes to enumerate the USB devices. If I time a key press right I can get it to continue some times, but if I miss the window it just shuts down entirely. AMD has had several USB based issues on their 500 series chipsets, x570 etc. so part of me wonders how much of these problems…

If you're on Linux you might be able to use a combination of modprobe + udev + systemd unit files to hardcode a solution.

Either you hardcode your keyboard and mouse absolutely into kernel parameters, or you make two systemd unit files: one that runs with before suspend and one that runs 'before' resume.

You make the before suspend unit file manually temporarily disable USB enumeration. And the before resume unit file enables it again.

This trick at least works with Gigabyte Aorus 5XX motherboards that have an infamous suspend bug, where any used PCIe SSD slot would prevent the system from properly suspending and you have to disable the slot temporarily.

Also, always check the NixOS repo for stuff like this. In some ways it has started to rival or even surpass the Arch wiki for finding workarounds for hardware quirks.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#79

Post by petterroea »

fwipsy wrote: post #33

Framework seems pretty popular here in general, but nobody really seems to talk about how repairable enterprise laptops are. Some laptops have clips around the edge of the bottom panel to hold it in place, which frequently break. On my brother's T480s, those clips were made out of metal and held in with screws, meaning they were themselves replaceable. More recently I worked on a Dell Precision 7550 laptop, and if yo…

Most people I know don't own enterprise computers. They are pretty pricy and visually tame - not really made for consumers. To me, buying a framework is more about ideology than them being the best at everything. You can't expect them to be the best when starting out either. I am buying a future.

I don't think any framework owner seriously thinks they are buying the most repairable laptop in the world or the most cost effective laptop in the world.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#80

Post by doublepg23 »

vaylian wrote: post #54

I know that firmware (and software in general) has bugs. But I wonder why modern firmware for UEFI has to be so complex, that it needs updates on a regular basis. It would be nice to have a dead-simple hardware-initialisation system that doesn't need regular updates and that only has very limited attack surface.

SeaBIOS on a Coreboot laptop is pretty minimal. Paltry CPU speeds on anything that supports it nowadays, but fun for a beater system.
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