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Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
261–270 of 311 posts
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basic hallucinated information...
Just ask for citations by forcing the LLM to provide a verbatim quote from a linked source. If the LLM is incapable of doing so without hallucinating (cough, Gemini, cough) use a better one. I don't get the LLM hate on this site sometimes. Just because it is easy to use an LLM irresponsibly doesn't mean all LLM usage has to be irresponsible.
I think the problem is that the original recommendation here was "just use an LLM" not "use an LLM [in this responsible manner]".
As an anecdote: I know people currently preparing to file suit against a former roommate who decided to leave mid lease and stop paying because they had an LLM convince them that they could just do that (they definitely can't, it's not even close under local tenancy laws).
Which fits with my general impression that LLMs are extremely inclined to validate that you can do whatever you want to even when that's not how the law works and my expectation that using them naively for legal matters is a really bad idea.
And applied to this specific case I can easily imagine an LLM picking up on the commenters outrage and supporting them that they're right, when I tend to agree with the actual author's comment that it doesn't seem like they have any actual damages since they fixed it for $20 (not that I'm a lawyer).
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
"talk with an LLM to follow the correct steps" Or, if you need legal advice, go to a lawyer, not an LLM.
Consulting a lawyer would most likely be more expensive than whatever small claims compensation one would potentially be entitled to.
Read the court's forms and instructions then. LLMs are notoriously inaccurate regarding the law and conflating every legal system. Going in blind is better than going in misled by an "AI".
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#264A bit off-topic, but kind of relevant. I firmly believe that if installing custom firmware voids the warranty of a device, installing official updates should extend the warranty. I'm tired of sloppy updates or change of behavior that mess with how I use MY device. At this point, I'm convinced Google is doing this on purpose. My Google TV has become slow since the Gemini update, which I wasn't asked if I wanted it. My…
Google seems to have "directives from high" where they shoehorn the latest fad into all their existing devices, regardless of whether it works or not, on a tight schedule. Gemini is the latest one. I had Google WiFi points that worked fine, and then there was a directive to merge them into Google Home. They didn't show up correctly in the Home app for a year or so.
This is literally the case, and it's not just with products that get shipped externally.
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#265Framework 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.
Actually, they do. I'm not sure if it's officially supported, but the 7550 (10th gen) and 7560 (11th gen) have the same motherboard layout, and users have reported swapping successfully in other models. You also see reports of users putting the 7560's Ampere-series graphics cards in a 7550, which only ships with Turing.
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#266Framework 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…
> Planned obsolescence
How is this supposed to work exactly? The company builds a product that fails quickly, so that people will buy another one? I'm highly skeptical that this works on consumers. Almost nobody will buy the same brand after the first one craps out. And I'm certain that it doesn't work on companies who will track failure rates for the product across a large fleet.
Cheap products exist because of a race to the bottom. Some consumers care a lot about quality, but there is also a market for $150 Best Buy laptops for broke college students. These companies make both high- and low-end devices, cutting corners as necessary to meet that price point while still competing on quality and features. They're not building products worse on purpose, because that doesn't work in a competitive marketplace.
Framework benefits from the same halo effect as Apple: They only make high-end devices, and so they don't get judged for the cheap crap they make. It doesn't mean either company's products are actually better than mainstream offerings at the same price point.
Even if I'm wrong, and planned obsolescence is actually very lucrative: how long do you think Framework's "core values" will hold up against market incentives? Fortunately, we don't need to rely on that. Manufacturers make good products because consumers pay for them; that applies to Apple and Framework, but also high-end laptops from many other manufacturers. If they weren't more reliable and more repairable than the low-end laptops, then IT departments would just buy the consumer devices costing 5x less.
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#267Framework 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…
In today's blog post, we are all studying the enshittification of the BIOS. In general, I agree with you that the bigger laptop makers can repair laptops and do an amazing job. What we're all here for though is 2026. No big company is coming to fix your machines, even big companies are waiting 30+ days for parts availability from the big company bros they bought from. If you're a consumer, forget about it. "Many of t…
https://ubuntu.com/certified
This is how I define "many." Dell in particular seems to certify lots of laptops for Ubuntu support, even if they don't sell them with Ubuntu. It's not just their enterprise offerings, either; I see lots of consumer models.
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#268Great write up. This is a frustrating issue and I would have expected Framework to better. Most people can't flash a BIOS chip, they would be up a creek. Even as someone who writes software, flashing a BIOS chip would be outside of the realm of things I'm comfortable doing.
Only semi related but I would like to give MSI credit here, a few years ago I was dealing with a bad graphics card and as part of diagnosing it I tried to update the BIOS. I botched it and bricked the mobo (which to be fair was under warranty so a different case to this). I called MSI and RMA'd the motherboard even though it was my fault. Still using the replacement Z-97 PC mate today.
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#269this is disappointing. I need a new machine soon but I am not interested in Framework if they are going to play the usual games. Is thinkpad really it? I wasn't wildly excited about that one either.
FWIW I bricked a ThinkPad motherboard not that long ago by toggling the wrong BIOS options. Wasn't even a BIOS update (although ironically that would've fixed it), just toggling setting in the F2 Setup Menu. The target configuration was supported, but apparently there was a BIOS bug where if you toggled two different settings without rebooting inbetween, it bricked the motherboard (technically people online found some solutions that involved resoldering chips on the mobo but that's a little outside of my comfort zone). I believe it was Quiet Boot and... some sort of Thunderbolt controller mode? But I don't remember exactly.
Re: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Australia consumer laws are also famously strong. One question: That Dutch law is not zero-cost. Does Framework Laptop charger higher prices compared to the US due to this consumer protection laws? My point: We can presume that Dutch buyers will make more (valid/accepted) warranty claims than those in the United States (with comparatively much weaker consumer laws).
Yeah, the ACL is fantastic. I have an AMD Framework 13 that had a fan bearing fail, which caused the fan to scream and spin up/down erratically. I had a long back-and-forth with Framwework support where they told me what I already knew (the fan bearing failed and the fan needed replacing) and that it was out of warranty (yeah nah, not in Australia). As soon as I mentioned the consumer guarantees under the ACL, I was…
Legendary story. Thank you to share. Another win for ACL! BTW: Loved this part: "yeah nah".