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Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

quantum5.ca

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Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#81

Post by pudgywalsh »

guerby wrote: post #73
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

You mean the dongles?

The actual USB-C port on a Framework is soldered to the motherboard. If you destroy the port electrically it is the same thing.

If you are inserting/removing cables like a gorilla, then buy a 3" dongle (aka magic Framework module) for your other laptop.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#82

Post by craftkiller »

bluedino wrote: post #71
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.

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

Yeah, I started with their first laptop (11th gen Intel DDR4 ram) and upgraded to the 7040 AMD board with DDR5 ram. Now there's even newer boards available with desirable features like LPCAMM. Framework has absolutely delivered on the "upgradable mainboard" promise.

There's also 3rd party ARM and RISC-V mainboards, but I'd recommend the average user sticks to the x86_64 boards.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#83

Post by artisinal »

guerby wrote: post #73
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

Arent the USB ports on the framework also soldered on? I’m looking at a picture of the motherboard right now. Unlike my MacBook it doesn’t use a daughter board for the ports. It’s straight on the main board. Seems less repairable than my MacBook.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#84

Post by cryo32 »

chermi wrote: post #72
cryo32 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's a complete overstatement. The USB-C ports are still soldered onto the motherboard and their parts supply chain is shit.

I don't trust iFixit's quite frank "press handjob" because they're giving higher repairability rankings for that junk compared to Apple who have replaceable ports and a good supply chain available to the end user. Also they were all over selling battery kits for Pixel phones which are a complete pain to replace the batteries in compared to an iPhone.

Not that Apple are the bastion of repairability, just their claims are less insane than both Lenovo's and iFixit's.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#85

Post by lopis »

thisislife2 wrote: post #45
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…

You make a good point. And they do have the industrial knowledge / experience to create higher quality parts than Framework. But note that the value difference between Framework's offering and the others you cited is that repairability is today a lower priority for them (due to prioritising planned obsolescence), where as it is the core value around which the Framework business is built. Why aren't we seeing more mod…

Each new Fairphone has pushed the boundaries of what a modular and repairable phone can be, but people must accept that it comes with a very significantly higher price (although in their case that's not only because it's modular, but also fairer wages, more ethical metals, etc). The average person is not willing to pay twice as much for a repairable phone.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#86

Post by quantum5 »

drdexebtjl wrote: post #69
jorvi wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible they're thinking of certain OC editions of GPUs. Some of them have 2 BIOSes you can switch between with a little slider. Some even 3.

Isn’t that just a gimmick? I was under the impression that GPU overclocking, overvoltage and fan curve settings were not persistent across reboots.

It's not a gimmick when the serious overclocking people do custom VBIOSes. Similarly for miners. That's when you need the recovery switch if things go wrong.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#87

Post by darthcloud »

I had the same thing happen to me with my Thinkpad Nano, and researching how to fix this made me realize pc manufacturer really don't care. PC bricked from BIOS update are still ultra common.

I uploaded a dump of the flash [1] in the bad state and they somehow analyzed it and made a fix. Great for others I guess, but I'm still mindblown that the regular path would have been that this perfectly working laptop to this day become ewaste.

Being an embedded dev, I don't understand why there isn't a special USB-C protocol to recover bios over SDU/CC pins. Or some DFU mode you can boot into.

[1] https://github.com/fwupd/firmware-lenovo/issues/484

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#88

Post by anthonj »

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

I see your point, but what i'm talking about is the company generating a strong incentive to people to buy upgrades or replacements.

This whole submission is about a user going extra length to recover a perfectly functioning main board (with price between 400 and 800 eur depending on model) after an official update went wrong and was suggested to buy a new one.

Mind that I am planning to buy one as well, so I don't have a bias against it. But those suspicious "features" pulled me away from the 16" model for example.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#89

Post by sgarman »

gnfargbl wrote: post #15

> Still, I was very disappointed that Framework chose to entrust sensitive information to a third-party who obviously couldn’t keep the data safe. Then you're going to be very disappointed a lot. When HIBP first came out, I worried over each incident. These days, breaches of non-payment data are so common that I don't even bother to sign up for notifications. When it comes to PII, we live in a de facto panopticon.

This was the only point I disagreed with the author on. They used metabase, a tool for their internal employees to manage the business and review their data. It's not some crazy 3rd party marketing tool or something, it's an internal BI tool that had a zero day. More zero days are coming.

Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop

#90

Post by craftkiller »

pudgywalsh wrote: post #81
guerby wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You mean the dongles? The actual USB-C port on a Framework is soldered to the motherboard. If you destroy the port electrically it is the same thing. If you are inserting/removing cables like a gorilla, then buy a 3" dongle (aka magic Framework module) for your other laptop.

> If you are inserting/removing cables like a gorilla

You've never moved your laptop without realizing it is still plugged in? I've done that a couple of times. My framework gives me peace of mind because I know the only port that will be damaged from that is the one on the $10 card because the card is firmly attached to the laptop body. Your suggestion of a 3" dongle doesn't have that benefit so yanking a plugged-in laptop could still cause a loose or broken port on your motherboard.

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