Framework Laptop Repair, RTC Battery Substitute Module Install 

Even out of warranty!

Nice!

If you have never soldered before I would recommend practicing on something else first. Something that doesn’t matter. Also, if you let too much heat build up in the components they can be damaged or simply desolder from the board. If you struggle to get it soldered, stop and let things cool, then start again. A big thing to take time and be careful with is the plastic battery holder on the board. It’s easy to break. Good luck!

@@bigtb1717thank you :) I have a couple questions, if you don’t mind: 1. What temperature should the iron be? 2. instructions from Frameworks, unless I’m confused, said to take out the whole main board? But it looks like you just took out the battery (which looks easier to me) Basically, I’m just unclear on what I should remove/disconnect before starting the soldering lol

Nevermind on my second question; I just rewatched that part and it answered it 👍

I normally run my iron at 650-700 F. It will depend a bit on the temperature of the solder you use. The way I see it, if I set it too hot, the flux burns more and the tip doesn't stay as clean. But if I set it too cold, it will take longer to heat up a part enough to actually melt the solder. It may seem counterintuitive, but a colder iron may actually put more "heat" into the component. You want to melt the solder fast and then take the iron away. If you have to hold the iron in place for a long time, you will be pumping heat into the component longer. If you have an iron with an adjustable temp, I would start in that range and practice a bit. Then see if it seems like you need to adjust. Takes forever to melt the solder? Maybe turn the temp up a bit. Solder melts fast, but the flux turns black and crusty right away? Maybe turn it down a bit. I know you said never mind on the second question, but I'll explain a bit. It may technically be "safer" to remove the board, so I'm sure that's why the official guide directs people to do that, but I didn't bother. I removed the battery, just to be safe, and just left the board in place.

@@bigtb1717 would my laptop turn on after I was finished, when I pushed the power button(without plugging the charger in), if I did it incorrectly?

Yeah, I just "tinned" the tip of the soldering iron, which just means I put a bit of fresh solder on the tip, then I did the same to the wire. Putting a dab of flux on the capacitor is important because the solder will want to flow and wick, but FAR better if there is a bit of flux. So once the capacitor heats up enough for the solder to wick over to it from the wire and iron, that should be enough, especially for a connection this tiny. You probably won't need any additional solder. Most electrical solder is "rosin core" which just means it has flux inside. Sometimes some additional solder can help ensure the joint gets connected and adding it generally adds additional flux (because of the flux in the solder). So this can sometimes help. But in this case, I wanted to heat up the component as little as possible and there was plenty of solder on the iron and wire already in order to make the joint work since there was already a coating of flux on the capacitor. Adding additional solder puts additional heat into the component and increases the chance for a solder blob to fall and bridge something you don't want bridged. Honestly, with components this tiny, I really can't imagine trying to add additional solder without ending up with too much. But everyone has their own techniques that work for them. I'm not going to say my way is definitely the best. If you are new to soldering, I strongly recommend you practice on something else first. Get a feel for watching the component heat up until the solder flows. Get a feel for how comfortable you are and how confident you are that you can do this without issue. If you damage and short the capacitor, knock it loose, short something else, etc., how confident you are that you could fix it. Just make sure you are comfortable before getting started on your computer.

@@bigtb1717 Awesome! Thanks so much for the tips. And yes, I will definitely work on some other components first, just to test it out. Much appreciated!

Unfortunately, I don't believe they have any of the "re-work" done to eliminate the RTC battery or have it charge differently. So you will still have to either replace the RTC battery if it stops holding a charge, or do the modification. However, I can't say 100% that later versions of the board weren't updated from the factory. You could reach out to Framework support if you want to find out for sure.

Unfortunately, no. This was an issue on all the 11th gen mainboards in the original Framework 13 laptops. It's a two-fold issue. First, the RTC battery only recharges when the laptop is connected to the charger and there is enough draw on the RTC battery such that it will fully drain after a couple weeks to a month of not being connected to a charger. So if someone goes a couple weeks or more without using their laptop and it wasn't connected to a charger during that time, the RTC battery will fully drain. The second problem was an issue with Intel's configuration of the chipset (I believe) that meant it wouldn't simply lose the time if the RTC dies, it actually won't boot at all. This meant you would have to plug the laptop in and let the RTC charge for a moment before the laptop would turn on. Making matters worse, after multiple deep discharges like this, the RTC battery would degrade and would stop holding a charge. This meant that after even a short time turned off and not plugged in, the RTC battery would die and the laptop wouldn't turn on. Framework was initially (and possibly still is) offering free, replacement RTC batteries to anyone who asked. Eventually they came up with a complicated re-work to allow the RTC battery to be re-charged from the main laptop battery, not just when it was plugged in. Then they came up with this little RTC substitute module, which eliminates the RTC battery entirely, and just has the laptop battery power the RTC circuit. In newer mainboards, some still have the RTC battery, some don't. But the most important change is that on the newer mainboards, if the RTC circuit is not powered for some reason, the laptop will still boot fine. The time will simply be wrong until you re-set it or until the laptop connects to the internet, at which point it will automatically set itself.

@@bigtb1717 I see. I have Asus Tuf gaming laptop just sitting because I use Infinity and I had to disconnect battery on it to stop it dropping to 0% and possibly getting destroyed as the 1st time I let it sit for 2 months and battery dropped from 80% to 2% so I disconnected battery and then checked 6 months after and the main battery this time lost ony 1% of charge but what I noticed when I plugged it back in was that windows clock stopped around the time I disconnected the main battery from mb and what's interesting is that the laptop also has small button RTC battery so I don't understand why laptop's RTC battery couldn't keep the windows clock up to date or just update windows time from bios clock?

If the time was incorrect when the computer started up, it's likely that the RTC battery did die (and not all are rechargeable). The difference being that it didn't prevent the laptop from booting, it just lost the time.

@@bigtb1717 obviously there is something very wrong with modern laptops since in old days that button cell RTC battery would keep the bios clock working for years like in desktop PCs. Anyway that Asus Tuf is intel i5-10300h CPU and my other Infinity laptop is AMD ryzen 5 4600h and that ryzen Infinity I can leave off for a whole month and no problem the battery charge doesn't even drop 1% 😌

The skin is from dbrand. They still offer skins for the Framework laptop, but I don't think the wood grain pattern is still available. Technically, this "fix" isn't strictly necessary. I could have just replaced the RTC battery (or kept plugging it in to turn it on), and they do offer replacement batteries for free. But, for people with a use case that results in the RTC battery dying a lot and who also don't want to have to periodically replace the RTC battery, they offer this substitute module. From what I understand, at least some of the issue was due to Intel's handling of the RTC circuit, resulting in draining the battery too fast and not booting when it's dead. But I don't know all the details. I just know some people have said Intel shares some of the "blame," as it were. Still, I do understand people's frustration with the issue. For me, it wasn't a big deal as I already have soldering tools/supplies. I literally didn't have to buy anything to do this. I already had everything needed. But not everyone does and if they have a use case that results in the RTC battery dying often and don't have the skills and/or tools/supplies to do this repair, I can definitely understand the frustration with this issue.

@@bigtb1717do you know if they fixed the problem for current models?

@@lor7780 Yes, it is fixed. This issue only affected the 11th gen Intel boards. 12th and 13th gen Intel boards and the new AMD boards don't have any issues with the RTC.

@@bigtb1717 ok thank you