Display Replacement Guide

@ahappykittycat I wish that I had read your comment before I undertook this…

IMPORTANT: If you plan to install your existing mainboard in a CoolerMaster case, make sure to boot into the BIOS and enable standalone mode before continuing.

Pretty sure you might want to include a reminder to backup the bitlocker recovery key if it is enabled. The system will definitely boot to the bitlocker recovery screen since it will be a different TPM.

It could be helpful to give the bash terminal command to shutdown such as

sudo shutdown -h now

Bottom left*

(I had formerly left a long comment here about how you guys 'forgot' to have a bit about removing the expansion cards...and while some official guide on this is probably a good idea to have, it's...not actually necessary to remove them! Even though in the build guide, they go in last, they don't actually need to come out in order to replace the screen! Heh.)

It would be super nice if the lower-left screw were circled in red as the text indicates!

Thank you for writing the specific detail on the lower left corner screw.

I thought something was not working correct until re-read this guide.

Important: Pull the Input Cover off carefully as it is still attached to the Mainboard via the Touchpad Cable. You don't need to disconnect this cable to do most repairs. You can just flip the Input Cover over. If you do want to disconnect it though, make sure to disconnect the Mainboard side using the finger loop over the orange label.

While that’s true for most repairs, it’s pretty much essential to disconnect that cable for this repair, so I think the guide should probably amend this boilerplate!

You should flip the keyboard around the x-axis (so that the back edge comes towards you as you flip) and not the z-axis (resulting in the left edge rotating to the right). I started to do the z-axis and the touchpad cable was getting twisted. I am capable of messing up all instructions. This is my anti-super-power... or joker power in the Wild Cards universe.

Once the Bezel starts peeling off towards the bottom of the Display, lift it up using caution. You might feel a little resistance due to the adhesive at the bottom of the display.

This is NOT true in my last screen replacement process, the bezel adhesive stuck to the display firmly and I used quite amount of wiggling to successfully separate the bezel and the (supposed to be fragile) bottom part of the display. The original display thankfully didn't end up damaged because of it, however, please be careful.

Before installing the display, should mention to detach the display cable from where it is taped to the back of the new panel, being careful to not damage the permanent connector at the panel end.

The directions talk about images for this step, but at least for me on mobile there is only a video which does not show how to use the silver grounding tape which was attached with the default display

@Maxr1998 I believe the tape that was used to secure the cable on the backside of the panel wasn't used during assembly and should be peeled off and discarded.

The display panel peel must be removed before replacing the bezel.

Maybe the image from step 7 should be added on this step, too. Also, I noticed a piece of tape on the cable, which is probably used to secure it to the top cover, but it isn't mentioned in this guide. How to attach it properly?

Applying the bezel on the display can take multiple tries, especially if you encounter the problem(s) mentioned in the previous and the next section. Just in case you get worried about the glue drying or whatever, I placed and removed the bezel multiple times, as well as letting it sit for a good while with the adhesive covers removed, and nothing bad happened.

It seems almost all of the comments here belong in the next section about actually installing the bezel - only a few of them (if any?) are pertinent to removing the liner pieces to expose the adhesive on the bezel, which is the only action taken here. It's a bit bonkers there's 17 comments before mine in this section about removing liner pieces and only 4 comments at the time of writing in the next section about bezel installation, the latter of which is clearly an order of magnitude more difficult it seems.

There should be some mention of the removable plastic on the switches at the top of the input cover for (en/dis)abling the camera and microphone.

My bezel seemed to install well but the lower left hand corner ended up becoming quite stuck and warped for some reason (perhaps how a particular cable was positioned near the microphone).

It jammed and was almost impossible to open. I have had to detach the lower hinge of the bezel for now and will need a replacement.

Not the best experience.

Also had issues with the left corner of the bezel. What happened was I was trying to route the left corner cable below the hinge! That was stupid of me, but it seemed like the appropriate place for the cable to go without much knowledge of laptop bezels. I did fully read and follow the guide, and had the right cable properly fitted; but for some reason it seemed the left cable was supposed to fit under the hinge.

For anyone who might run into the same problem like I did, here is a picture of how the left cable is supposed to be properly seated:

https://imgur.com/a/3JcA0xh

Also, to be fair, the cable was already a bit seated under the hinge when I first opened the laptop, which led me to assume that was how it was supposed to be.

the guide says "the ezel" instead of "the bezel" at the end of the 4th bullet point.

For me this was really simple and took about 30 seconds.

installed the bezel carefully, or so i thought, when i was finished closed the lid (top cover still off) and the captive screws levered the screen which caused the hinge cover at the bottom of the bezel to just shear off - awesome...i had to re-separate the bezel completely and install from the hinge cover first and then tip the laptop so the captive screws didn't catch in order to check the function again, working now but i've also got half a hinge cover separated from the bezel. Kind of took the shine off my laptop i've been waiting 4 months for

Surprisingly, the bezel was by far the hardest item to install for me. I found that it's easier if done without the top cover, however, be very careful to keep the screws fully seated in when moving the hinge - they can lodge themselves in the wrong spot and cause damage otherwise. This was also pointed out in a comment below, but it should really be a warning at the top of each guide.

As many have noted, the difficult part is getting the lower corners to sit flush. After a lot of tries the best technique I found is:

- release tension from the cables by taking them out from some of their holding brackets

- route them so that, with the laptop sitting flat and horizontal, their highest point is no higher than the hinge's. The picture in the guide shows how to do that - the hinge edges are skinnier than the rest, and you're trying to wrap around that tiny bit of space that they leave.

Even then it's not perfect and my bottom right corner wants to sit a hair higher than the others.

I also had an issue when placing the bottom left of the bezel onto the screen. A cable connecting to the display was causing the the bezel to just not sit flush once it was closed. If you opened it with the cable misaligned it would cause the bottom left side of the bezel to jut out and really look like it would snap. If this guide could provide a picture on how the wiring of the bottom left should look it would be super helpful.

I managed to figure out how to position it after some troubleshooting, I just removed the bezel and kept closing the lid with the cable in a new spot. When the cable didn't pop out the back I tried it with the bezel installed, then closed the lid, then checked the back of the casing. I still noticed the bezel wasn't flush but after just pushing it up against the case it managed to snap into position and now seems to work fine after opening/closing the lid.

I had problems with the cable on the left side which caused the lower left corner of the bezel to slightly stick out. You should definitely show a picture of how the left cable should be aligned. Similar to the picture for the Antenna and Camera.

If the corners are not aligned. carefully lift up the part of the ezel and guide it into place.

Can I get a comma and a "b" please... ;)

If the new bezel being aligned was not black it would more clearly demonstrate how to attach the new bezel.

I incurred two problems.

When installing my new purple bezel, I removed the left adhesive completely from the bottom of the Bezel when removing the liner piece. I was able to REapply it as it was sticky both sides.

I had more issues with the left hinge, in fact it snapped when I initially closed it. I was terrified but was thankfully able to dislodge it. I bloody well hope this will not effect the performance.

Very poor quality indeed, cheap flimsy plastic.

I did not trust myself to continue setting up my Framework Laptop 13 (13th Gen Intel Core) and put it away until I had more confidence.

The bezel is cheap plastic and will break easy… if it happens to break it will start to cause issues. Will update with a pic, bezel definitely needs to be redesigned or done already assembled.

Same issue here, it somehow fixed itself after pressing the bezel a bit. It does click when I open the lid, though. I think the wire might need some tape?

I was having issues as well. Check the wires that are tucked in on each side and make sure they are flush with the hinge. There was some tension with the wires and you can use the flat chisel side of the screwdriver tool to gently press the wires down into the chassis grooves.

The bottom right corner of my bezel is not fully pressed down along the display. It's only 1 or 2 mm raised, but it is noticeable when looking at the display from a side view.

Do not be alarmed if this happens to you as it seems others have experienced something similar based on posts in the community. I spent way too long repeatedly taking off and placing off the bezel to try and resolve it. All other edges of the bezel lay perfectly.

Even after dealing with the cable thing, the bezel would give me problems. Very often it would bulge on the center or the right of the bottom side, especially when bringing the display to a 90degree angle. I found that it is kind of flexible, meaning that, with the other corners fit, i gently dragged it like a rubberband towards the last corner, forcing it to stay flat on its sides while snapping. It takes multiple tries and patience, just be very careful not to drag it too hard because I can tell from other people that it breaks fairly easily.

If the bottom right corner of the bezel won't click into place for you, or pops out of place when you open/close the lid, use the spudger end of your FW screwdriver to lift the webcam cable connecter over the righthand hinge, like this image. Don't worry about damaging the webcam cable, it's flexible, just be gentle.

Just echoing the comments of David P and others below that a diagram and checkpoint on the display cable routing would be helpful here, as the cable routing arriving neat but passing the wrong side of the left hinge (ie on the input side of the hinge instead of the display side) ended up splitting the bezel on trying to close the laptop lid.

Second the cable routing check. Ours came with a bit of adhesive sticker on it, we removed and stuck it down behind the hinge.

If you have trouble getting the bezel to fit flush all the way around:

If there's a consistent place the bezel is usually unable to sit flush, try seating that point first and working your way around the rest of the bezel. Be gentle, but don't be afraid to take the bezel off and try again (it took a good number of attempts for mine to seat nicely). Gentle force is okay, but if it's not seating take it off and try again

NOTE regarding clicking while closing:

if the screws on the underside of the laptop, closest to the hinge, are held captive by the laptop body but dangling loose, when you try to close the laptop you may hear a crunchy click sort of sound as the bottom edge face of the bezel interferes with the screws. For me, picking up the laptop and orienting it so that the screws weren't dangling and sat more flush allowed me to close the laptop without issue, confirming this seemed to be my issue. You may also be able to screw in those screws ever so slightly so they're held more flush with the laptop body before putting the bezel on, but inspect the laptop and make sure you're not causing any problems before attempting, as this is not the recommend order of operations in the guide. You may not want to close the laptop all the way if you do this as the bezel may help to protect the screen

I think adding a clear picture of how the bottom cables should be dressed, or a diagram, would be helpful. With black cables on a black frame, it's hard to see what is supposed to happen and you can break your bezel easily.

Before installing the bezel, check the display cable is routed correctly as per this picture.

At the left hinge, the cable seems to belong on the side closer to the display. Mine was on the opposite side, causing the bezel not to fit well, and after closing and reopening the lid, the bezel tore in this corner. It took a lot of wiggling and adjusting to free the bezel and move the cable to its correct position before the lid could be closed and opened easily.

I feel it's easier to start with the top of the bezel. It's easier to feel the corner with fingers and let the bezel snap into place, than having it taped to bottom first and potentially having misalignment at the top later.

"Starting with the bottom of the Bezel which covers the hinges and cables, align the corners of the Bezel to the display and place it down. The Bezel is attached by magnets and should easily click into place."

But the "bottom of the Bezel which covers the hinges and cables" is the bent/angled, part with the "framework" logo on it, no?

And be careful to not accidentally pull out the other end of the Touchpad Cable, the one you just plugged in in the previous step!

Once I got the Input Cover and Bezel mounted and fastened the screws, I neither felt nor heard any clicking when closing my laptop. Opening and closing the laptop was smooth and noiseless. I didn't get it right the first time, so I had to disassemble in reverse order and ensure the end of the Bezel near the hinge was fully seated, maybe to get out of the way of the display cable.

Should I hear clicking when closing the laptop?