My Framework Laptop (Intel 12th Gen Intel® Core™) is not powering on

July 19 2022 6:45pm • Est. Read Time: 3 MIN

If your power button doesn't light up when pressed

Double check the Touchpad Cable that goes between the Touchpad and the Mainboard. Sometimes this can get pulled out slightly when disassembling and assembling the laptop or setting up the DIY Edition, causing no connection.  You should check that both sides of this cable are properly inserted.  You can follow the step by step instructions on the Input Cover Replacement Guide to do that.  Make sure the cable is fully inserted before powering on.


If your power button lights up briefly but then turns off

Double check that the Battery connector is plugged into the Mainboard.  If not, follow the step here to plug it in, being careful to avoid bending the pins.

If the Battery connector is plugged in, double check that it is straight and fully inserted.  If it looks like it is not fully inserted, first pull the connector out, avoiding twisting or bending it, and then look into the connector to make sure none of the pins are bent.

If your power button lights up, but you don't see the screen come on, and the side LEDs are solid

On the first boot after installing new memory, the side LEDs will stay green for a period of time (up to a couple of minutes) to do memory training.  If the LEDs remain a solid color for more than five minutes, try powering off and reseating the memory modules or trying them out one at a time in each memory socket.


If your power button lights up, but you don't see the screen come on, and the side LEDs are blinking

If the laptop does not successfully exit the BIOS after 20 seconds, the side LEDs next to the Expansion Cards will blink out a code with the status of various subsystems/boot initialization steps.


Note: If you enter the BIOS menu, pause the boot process, or have no OS installed, you may see this diagnostic blink sequence triggered even when there are no hardware issues preventing the system from booting.


The code will blink white, then 12 blinks that are red or green, then orange, then 8 blinks that are blue or green. If the flash is green, then the check for that specific item passed.  


Blink

Description

White

Start of diagnosis

1 Red/Green

Battery connected check

2  Red/Green

Power Good 3V5V supply

3  Red/Green

Power Good VCCIN_AUX

4  Red/Green

CPU deassert sleep S4

5  Red/Green

Power boot core VR

6  Red/Green

Touchpad detected

7  Red/Green

Audio board Detected

8  Red/Green

Thermal sensor detected

9  Red/Green

Fan detected and spins up

10  Red/Green

CPU reached S0 state

11  Red/Green

DDR initialized OK

12  Red/Green

Internal display initialized OK

Orange

Start of post code section

Post code bit  0

Blue=1, Green=0

Post code bit  1

Blue=1, Green=0

Post code bit  2

Blue=1, Green=0

Post code bit 3

Blue=1, Green=0

Post code bit  4

Blue=1, Green=0

Post code bit  5

Blue=1, Green=0

Post code bit  6

Blue=1, Green=0

Post code bit  7

Blue=1, Green=0


Resolving "DDR initialized OK" error codes

If the side LEDs blink out a code with the 11th blink red, that indicates a potential error with memory.  Please try the following:

  1. If you have two sticks of RAM, test them out one at a time.
  2. Test if one of the two memory sockets isn't working by trying one socket at a time.
  3. If you have other DDR4 SO-DIMMs on hand to try, test those out.

Resolving error codes blinking out or side LEDs not coming on at all

In the event you're seeing the side LEDs blink out a code where other blinks are red or the side LEDs don't come on at all, you can follow this guide to fully reset the state of the mainboard