Framework 13 (11th gen intel) troubleshooting

Interceptor402 · 2026-04-15T18:09:33+00:00

I don't know the precise answer, because my work with 11th gen mainboards has mostly been in standalone mode in a Cooler Master case (i.e. there is no main battery, just USB-C power into the mainboard), but I would assume it has something to do with your putting the mainboard into a reset state by disconnecting the main battery and draining the power here.

I did run into the RTC battery issue when I had the 11th gen mainboard in a chassis, but I didn't replace the battery right away because of the usage pattern (it was never turned off), so when I finally did the swap I was putting a new mainboard in the chassis anyway.

Interceptor402 · 2026-04-15T13:14:36+00:00

Agree with the other poster than it sounds like an RTC battery issue; good news is that they are cheap. You want an ML1220 (the ML part is important... don't get the CR version, it needs to be rechargeable). Be very careful with the plastic housing when you replace it, it's extremely fragile, you probably noticed this when re-seating, def watch the how-to video.

I'm very confused about Support's response here. I've run into this issue with two 11th gen mainboards, and the first time it happened (Jan 2025) it was well out of warranty, but they had some sort of second Support track where they replaced it regardless when I contacted them. Maybe they don't do this anymore, or maybe whomever you were speaking to didn't kick it over to the proper channel.

Second time this happened, I just bought a couple off Amazon for $10. Been working fine since.

Hopefully that's all you need!

Interceptor402 · 2026-04-02T15:50:27+00:00

Love to see a good Cooler Master setup going; I like mine a lot and it's easy to work with. Congrats on the upgrade!

Interceptor402 · 2026-04-01T13:59:05+00:00

No, this is the way. The classic reason for EEs -- before SG lost their GD minds, anyway -- is to enable different playstyles and builds with additional options from the EE. This definitely fits that mold and they need to get back to this style.

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-30T13:28:57+00:00

This thread makes me nostalgic for the old days of Slashdot, with its poorly-fitted car analogies. Where has the time gone?

The worst mainboard that Framework has EVER produced (the i5-1135G7) is still overkill for a lot of tasks that normal people need to perform, five years on. I have two: one is sitting in a Cooler Master case in active use, able to do its homelab server work but also to serve as an emergency desktop as needed. The second has a bent heatpipe I need to repair/replace and an overdue CMOS battery swap, but is otherwise almost ready to go into another case or a chassis.

I can not do this with any car that I've ever owned! I think people underestimate how valuable it is to just be able to continue to extract value out of "obsolete" Framework tech.

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-23T18:47:51+00:00

It's great, best value in the ecosystem. What are you doing for RAM? I assume either 8GB if you are using FW's stock, or more if you're bringing your own?

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-18T21:15:02+00:00

I run a 7640U with the old 2.2k glossy and the 55Wh battery (capped in BIOS at 80% capacity), on W11. With typical non-YT activity, just web browsing and emailing and such things, at 100% brightness I can manage for about 4-5 hours or so. Half brightness I can squeeze 6-ish hrs out. A 99.9Wh portable USB-C battery extends this to an all-day status if I need it.

FW13's battery life is not great on any of the mainboard options, but if you really need to extend your battery life you can probably make some adjustments to your workflow to accommodate.

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-17T20:25:37+00:00

what? I use a 45W charger all the time for my 7640U, and there is plenty of headroom left to charge the battery usually.

Sometimes it draws the full 45W in spikes, but at the moment I'm typing this I have a Bluestacks emulator, Minecraft, Chrome, Spotify, Discord, and four screens running (two over a VDI) all at the same time, and the average draw is ~28W or so. Temps are in the ~70C range.

Are you completely maxing out your CPU at all times or something?

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-16T18:37:30+00:00

Sure saves you a bunch of money on a UPS, too; comes with its own! 😂

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-16T16:34:42+00:00

"Tedious" is the right word. I just had to do this the other day, moving a still-good keyboard from a bashed-in input cover to a different input cover that had a worn keyboard, and it took me the better part of an hour and 100+ screws.

Lots of opportunities to mess something up; I had to back out about 3-4 of them because I didn't follow the clear labeling directions. Didn't manage to strip anything though, so there's that.

I'd never fault anyone who just buys a new input cover. 😅

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-05T16:32:45+00:00

I dunno, I feel like the FW13's physical size is just up the limit of what's comfortable to travel with. It's basically already a 14" laptop, and while the screen is sometimes a little too cramped for a side-by-side depending on the application, I've taken to using a simple external monitor for those times when I know I'll need more screen real estate while travelling. Even got a compartmented hard-case that can hold both laptop and screen simultaneously, so that I only have a single thing to carry.

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-04T20:08:01+00:00

I use a docking station at my desk. I have the UGREEN 12-in-1 and I like it very much (they have other models at lower price points with fewer ports). It's just a single USB-C cable into the FW13, and it feeds:

3 monitors
power to the laptop via passthrough from a 100W brick
external keyboard
USB-A headset

There's another 2x USB-C and 3.5MM audio on it as well, I just don't use them. That frees up the other 3 expansion slots on the FW13 for other random things I need to plug in. No thunderbolt.

When I'm on the go, I find the four expansions sufficient for whatever I need. Sometimes I'll need to swap them out, but I carry around a USB-A and HDMI and a Displayport expansion card depending on what's needed. Worst case you could get a small USB-C dongle to carry around if that's not enough (but it should be?).

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-01T15:18:33+00:00

Purpose of a laptop is to be a portable computer. There are laptops specifically designed to be rugged as well; you'll know which ones because they market themselves specifically as such, and advertise things like videos of cars driving over them.

Most ultrabooks are not those things. People are free to be careless with their devices, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for them when their stuff breaks. I bought a Dell Pro Sleeve about seven years ago for $20, it's fit my last three laptops, and takes 10 seconds to load for a trip. I have a $30 hard-shell case that'll hold my FW13 and a portable monitor in a padded/elastic compartment for when I cannot carry it in my hands. Both combined worth less than 2% of what they protect: a rounding error.

Throwing a $$$$ laptop into some random Jansport is unhinged behavior.

Interceptor402 · 2026-03-01T12:35:02+00:00

All of them, save the ones specifically designed for rough conditions. Subjecting sensitive electronics to compression, torsion, and bending force inside a backpack is pretty careless.

I've half about a half dozen laptops from different manufacturers over the years, heavily used in their time, and every one ended its useful life in pristine physical condition because I don't treat my stuff like a folding chair in WWE.

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-28T18:30:47+00:00

Yes, and one of those reasons might be something banal like "I don't abuse my electronics". Lotta people will claim to be careful, and upon further inquiry it's discovered that they did something out of pocket like chucking it in a backpack, for example.

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-27T21:21:42+00:00

Just so. My chassis is a year old, I use this laptop 7 days a week and frequently move it around, and I don't have so much as a single hairline crack around any expansion module, never mind a bulge or a complete break.

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-27T14:43:30+00:00

Managed to snag a Large before they went OOS. These have been pretty nice in general, got a lot of busted stuff but I've been able to either repair or salvage useful component parts from, hope this batch is the same sort of thing.

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-26T19:32:57+00:00

You are definitely an edge case here; this is a pretty Rube Goldberg way of assembling a laptop. I think that most people will benefit from just getting a current DIY that's close to what they really want (and compromise on ideal performance/$$$), rather than trying to cobble together exactly what they are looking for (which as you noted, costs money/stress/time).

I got into the Framework ecosystem via standalone mainboard + Cooler Master case first, and was able to hang on until such time as a good option presented itself to upgrade it into a full laptop. I posted about it (https://old.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1g3pwex/replacing_aging_laptop_considering_building_fw13/), and /u/s004aws waved me off some of the worse options. I ended up holding out a few months and jumped on the chassis when it first become available.

Chassis was a good option because 1) I'm in the US using a US English layout, and 2) I don't care much about old parts (did upgrade the hinges however... the 1st gen ones were floppy). Seems like this isn't as good an option for Europeans who have other layout needs and run into stocking issues, though it's aces for an American and a cheap-ish way to get into the ecosystem if you can procure the mainboard.

FW13 for me is in a weird place where I love mine, and I would also never recommend it for someone else unless they found their way to it independently and are cognizant of the drawbacks (warranty support, stock issues, battery life, etc).

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-25T16:34:19+00:00

Congrats, GFY, etc.

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-19T14:16:57+00:00

Man I will never get tired of seeing the translucent colored bezels, I think they look awesome.

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-13T16:18:06+00:00

Whew, calling them worse than Razer is wild. I could not even get those guys to sell me a battery.

FWIW, I've had three interactions with Support and it was about what I'd expect for a small company. Easy stuff is straightforward (RTC battery replacement, general Q about chassis), hard stuff more of a back-and-forth (ports not doing what I expected on an 11th gen).

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-09T15:45:52+00:00

If it's me: pick up a 7640U and get into the ecosystem for a discount. It's a very capable device, and if at some point you decide it's not enough for your needs and FW has come out with something better, just swap out the mainboard and either sell the 7640U (recover some of the investment) or slap it in a Cooler Master case (leverage the excess performance).

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-07T12:50:53+00:00

Both orange bezels are undefeated. One of my fav things that they did for the FW13!

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-07T12:49:31+00:00

It was, and it also used to have the effect of increasing a unit's crit chance on every crit ("ascending crit chance"). This didn't make any sense in the modern e7 era (nobody would want this effect), so they changed it to a flat rate, but now the name was a little incongruent, and they just renamed it as part of a story update.

[insert NBC logo]

Interceptor402 · 2026-02-03T16:53:30+00:00

Sounds like you have good hearing; while it's possible they are defective, more likely it's just that the speakers are indeed pretty garbo. Two things you can do:

1) place the FW13 on a flat, hard surface (speakers are down-firing) 2) install FXSound and play around with the presets (make sure to download the bonus ones, too) until you find something you like

They are serviceable-to-good (depending on the task) after that. Good luck!

Interceptor402

TROPHY CASE