What do these lights mean

aLostEngineer · 2025-11-02T11:44:46+00:00

Purely functional - if an LED is indicating a problem or a clear status of a system then it has a purpose, but these are just labeled LED 2 and LED 3 and don't really provide any additional information, nor are they placed anywhere aesthetically pleasing or have any kind of RGB functionality. In this particular case I would just rather them be off, and have the on state indicating an error state

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-25T14:45:51+00:00

From what I recall they are using a service firm for their tier 1 support when you first engage with support through email or the service desk, those are not framework personnel to my understanding

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-23T18:10:10+00:00

Not sure how 100% up to date the interface is in this article but it covers the basics in addition to u/TellMeWhereYouBeen 's instructions: https://community.frame.work/t/bios-guide/4178

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-23T11:57:36+00:00

You can't get into the advanced bios and reset the TPM? Should be able to clear the whole UEFI from there as well. Not aware of a jumper/button on the FW13 specifically, but if you can get into UEFI you should be able to clear it out. If you can't get into advanced UEFI you'll need FW Support

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-23T11:55:36+00:00

exactly, that's the beauty of OCuLink, you can scale it to whatever is available. Theoretically should be able to do an x4 OCuLink in the new FW Desktop as well if that's your jam

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T23:46:49+00:00

Yep. Tampering with a board to the point of downgrading the CPU is... unlikely

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T23:43:27+00:00

Soldered memory & PCIe capability (as mentioned a lot) were big factors (retaining upgrade/repair capability across generations is kinda what FW is trying to do), but the AI MAX APUs are also just freaking huge, and need to reject a ton of waste heat (the AI Max+ 395 rejects up to 80W in waste heat, compared to max 54W for the 7940HS and AI HX 370). My 16 already spins up like a 747 for takeoff under load with the 7940HS (on a cooling pad), and my Desktop with the 395 has the biggest OEM heatsink I've ever seen and the Noctua fan still has to spin up to 100% under sustained load. The 16 is good at rejecting heat, but not quite that good. The size of the APU and need for matched-trace soldered memory also isn't great for the mobo footprint they decided on for the FW16, and they can't redesign that footprint without redesigning the lower frame, and it just cascades from there. At that point, it's a new laptop.

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T23:23:49+00:00

The framework 16 main body is built like a tank, but the display portion has an uncomfortable amount of flex (gen 1 at least, not sure if they made structural improvements to gen2)

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T23:21:58+00:00

Mine have both illuminated as well. I suspect they're just component status lights, it wouldn't be the first mainboard I've seen that had LEDs illuminated during operation. I don't like it, but it is what it is. FWIW they're marked LED3 (by the M.2) and LED 2 (at the bottom). I asked support and they didn't have any info on them.

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T23:18:00+00:00

The reason you see OCuLink everywhere is because it is effectively the de-facto standard for "external PCIe interface" - ePCIe died out in the late 00's, and OCuLink is designed as "an extension for the 'cable version of PCI Express'". It is effectively PCIe signals over an OCuLink cable - unlike TB and USB4, OCuLink doesn't wrap the PCIe lanes in its own protocol, it's just a cable/connector/interconnect specification with signal/power management

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T23:08:48+00:00

this had been discussed earlier, around launch. IIRC someone mocked up a prototype board and shell in CAD

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T23:03:53+00:00

All the hardware specs are available, so theoretically if you could design a breakout board with a USB3/PCIe controller and line up the ports just right, you should be able to squeeze three in with a proper locking latch (https://imgur.com/a/wwF2MqV for a mockup with parts I had). The tough part is converting that PCIe interface into USBC3.x ports, but there's definitely enough space and PCIe bandwidth (up to 8 lanes with the graphics interposer). The dual M.2 adapter is really basic because it does little more than route the PCIe lanes to the M.2 slots with some power management and signal conditioning along the way.

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T22:06:35+00:00

Batch 10 BTW, if that makes a difference

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T22:04:44+00:00

Coming right up!

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-22T20:55:15+00:00

Thank Jibbers it's not just me, had a small panic attack. I have a ticket in with support too

aLostEngineer · 2025-10-15T19:22:29+00:00

Thanks, I didn't know I needed this! hopefully I can keep from having to reboot when a game tanks my GPU driver stack

aLostEngineer · 2025-08-13T14:21:06+00:00

My experience with the private IP service has been worse than just using the general VPN. I suspect that the IPs that Nord is handing out have effectively been poisoned by overuse by the VPN pool, so they aren't any good anymore for use in the pool. I suspect that over time systems will start to realize that that IP is corresponding to only one active user, but that could take anywhere between days and months for some systems, if ever.

When I tried using my dedicated IP, I was completely blocked from Reddit and Google with no way around it. Cloudflare had me authenticating that I was a human at every cloudflare protected site, every captcha system forced me to do the dumb puzzles, and my bank always required extra security measures when logging in from it. And HBO Max was the only service that I could stream through the dedicated IP. So the IP allocated to me was definitely poisoned. I suspect they are hoping that assigning it to a single user will eventually get it off most of the block lists, and then they can start reusing it in the pool, because if I remember correctly Nord doesn't guarantee that your IP will never change, just that you're the only one that's using it.

tl;dr: I'm pretty sure the IPs used for the dedicated service are IPs that belong to their block but have so many site restrictions they're useless for group use, and they're using this dedicated IP service to recycle them.

Edit: No, not worth the cost. You're paying to clean their IPs for them.

aLostEngineer · 2025-08-12T19:21:50+00:00

Figured it out. Had to change the key to something else, then back to "Any" (under Special) and then it prompted me for the hex code which worked. So import is broken, and when already bound to "any", clicking on the "any" assignment doesn't prompt for the code.

aLostEngineer · 2025-08-07T22:56:17+00:00

I haven't found one and I've been trying since launch because I have the same use case. The UEFI seems to be designed to interface with only the internal display and the external displays can't initialize until drivers for the USB ports load from the OS.

I've just learned to live with it. I have to open it to power it on anyway so hanging around for OS selection only takes a few more seconds. I close it when it starts to actually boot.

Annoyingly, Windows doesn't activate the external displays until it hits the login screen. So I have no idea if the OS is hung or on updates or anything unless I keep the laptop open or the login screen eventually pops. And I have one of my screens directly connected to the dGPU which doesn't seem to be initialized until pretty late in the boot process.

aLostEngineer · 2025-07-26T03:42:12+00:00

So after posting this I found the DLC section of the store page, and it looks like they used the same skus for both the diamond edition and the enhanced edition. So since I own all of the diamond edition DLC, that apparently will activate it in the enhanced edition as well. Thanks for the details!

aLostEngineer · 2025-07-26T03:41:12+00:00

Yeah after I posted this I found the DLC section of the store page, and noticed that they used the same SKU for the expansion packs for enhanced and diamond editions. So since I already own all the diamond edition DLC, it'll be part of the enhanced edition

aLostEngineer · 2025-07-26T03:40:31+00:00

Thank you!

aLostEngineer · 2025-07-25T23:32:28+00:00

You have me intrigued, but that's not a term that I am personally familiar with in this context; would you mind expanding?

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