Introduction
If you're a Framework Laptop 13 (11th Gen Intel® Core™) system or Mainboard owner, have run into needing to reset your Mainboard, and have familiarity with soldering, you can request a free RTC Battery Substitute module through Support and follow this guide. To make the request process go smoothly, enter the email address that you ordered the 11th Gen product on and/or include photos of the system and Mainboard serial numbers.
Framework Laptop 13 (11th Gen Intel® Core™) requires an RTC battery (also known as a CMOS battery) to be present in order to boot the system. If the RTC battery voltage falls below a certain level, on some systems, the CPU can enter a bad state. This requires resetting the Mainboard and recharging the RTC battery. If the RTC battery repeatedly gets drained, the capacity will degrade, requiring the coin cell to be replaced.
As an alternative to this, we've created an RTC Battery Substitute module that can be inserted in place of the coin cell, allowing the RTC circuit to remain powered whenever either the main battery or external power is present. We've released the design files for this on GitHub as well for reference.
Note that some intermediate level of soldering skill is required for this. Only one side of one wire needs to be soldered, but it is being soldered to a fairly valuable Mainboard. We don't recommend taking this on unless you are confident in your soldering skills and have the necessary equipment.
Note that on 12th Gen and later systems, the RTC battery is not required, so this guide is only relevant for 11th Gen.
Tools
Parts
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Before soldering, you should remove the Mainboard from the system, following the Mainboard guide up to Step 16.
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Using a SIM Eject tool or another small pin (such as a paperclip), carefully insert the pin into the hole at the bottom edge of the coin cell receptacle, and tilt it down to eject the coin cell battery. Please use caution here as improper removal can potentially result in damage to the RTC cradle.
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Peel back and remove the black mylar cover that is to the right of the coin cell socket. Set it aside, as you will need to re-use it later.
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Carefully insert the RTC Battery Substitute into the coin cell socket. Start with the top side, and very carefully push it into place, using the SIM eject tool or pin from earlier to gently tilt the socket open if needed. Note that the socket is fragile, so be extra careful to not use too much force here.
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You'll now solder the wire to the 17.6V rail on the Mainboard. Get your soldering iron warmed up, and get some lead-free solder to use. Note that a fine chisel tip is the best shape to use if you have one available for your soldering iron.
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Bend the wire into place so that it is near the right side of the capacitor that is above the PL331 marking. Don't worry if it touches the smaller capacitor that is above that, as that capacitor is connected to the same circuit.
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Using your soldering iron and a very small amount of solder, solder the wire onto the right side of the capacitor. Use a magnifying glass or microscope to check that the solder connection is good and that there isn't excess solder bridging to a different area.
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Once you are sure the wire is good, you can put the black mylar cover back into place.
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Once you're done, you can follow the instructions in the Mainboard guide starting at Step 17 to put the Mainboard back into the system. Note that since there is no longer a real RTC battery, disconnecting the main battery will result in the clock being reset. When you reboot, the OS will pull the correct time off of a network time server.
Once you're done, you can follow the instructions in the Mainboard guide starting at Step 17 to put the Mainboard back into the system. Note that since there is no longer a real RTC battery, disconnecting the main battery will result in the clock being reset. When you reboot, the OS will pull the correct time off of a network time server.
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2 Comments
Had a painless experience fixing the RTC battery issue once I reached out to support. Got support what info they needed, they got me the part I needed free of charge. It's nice that they minimized the amount of soldering required - it is a board rework to fix a board problem so some soldering is reasonable. Framework did just about all I would personally expect from a reputable company, and earned some customer favor by succeeding in making the process painless. If I never leave another comment, then the substitution works as intended.
I just did this replacement and it went pretty OK I'd say. I got the replacement module from Nirav at LTX 2023 with a disclaimer that it was one of the prototypes and slightly larger than the production version. I first couldn't fit it into the socket, so I tried filing the edges where the PCB was broken off, since it was sticking out a bit. This helped, but in the end, I still broke one of the clips on the battery socket. It's not too big of a deal, since with three of them, it still sits pretty securely and I doubt I could have gotten it in without one breaking.
The soldering part after that was pretty straightforward and easy, even with a $@$*!& cheap soldering iron and mediocre soldering skills at best. Laptop booted normally after reconnecting everything, now the only thing left to see is how much it'll impact long-term battery life when the laptop is shut down, although I doubt it's significant unless you leave it lying around for months.
I'd rate this 7/10 diff if they solve the size on the new version.