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, select "Problem with my Framework Laptop" as the category and enter the email address that you ordered the 11th Gen product on. If you don't have access to that email, include photos of the system and Mainboard serial numbers. The Mainboard serial number is located on the label between the Memory slots, while the system serial is located in the bottom right Expansion Card slot (when the system is upside down), and you can attach the photos to the email response that you receive from the support system.
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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7 Comments
I would love to see step one rewritten to cover how to correctly made the request for the free RTC Battery Substitute module through Support.
Article is vague on how to achieve this. As it mentions:
"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."
This can be improved by:
- Mentioning on which options to fill in the support form to request the free RTC Battery Substitute module.
- Or even better to prefill all fields related to ordering the free RTC Battery Substitute module when clicking on the link.
- Allowing the support form to have attachments for the photo of serial numbers.
- Showing where is located the serial number for the mainboard/motherboard. Might be obvious for some but not for all people.
- Making this request process it's own article.
Hope this is improved soon. Thanks in advance.
Followed this guide to the letter. Still can't turn on the laptop without plugging in to power, and my keyboard has even stopped working after only a short time of being turned on.
For me upgrading to BIOS 3.19 seemed to fix the issue.
I had the same issue too, but it looks like I was able to resolve it. Try rotating the RTC Battery Substitute to the position as seen in Step 3, Image 2. No problems with the keyboard so far.
Thank you very much for a fix for this issue! I was able to solder in the new component and everything seems to be working again. Time will tell but I appreciate Framework taking responsibility for the issue and coming up with a workaround. The experience definitely made me feel more confident in purchasing future products but I hope this is the last time I will need to be a rank amateur soldering something to a $500 motherboard. :-)
Thanks again!
