Framework says it’s addressing a BIOS update that bricked some of its older laptops

Some Framework Laptop 13 owners with last-gen AMD chips have reported that a recent BIOS update is bricking their laptops on both Windows and Linux. The BIOS update causing this issue is version 3.20 for Ryzen 7040-series mainboards, released back in July and still available on Framework’s site at the time of this writing. Upon running the update, some users reported their laptops getting stuck on the update screen.

While some users on Framework’s community forums reported that the company was sending them replacement mainboards under the one-year warranty, several with out-of-warranty boards said they were told they’d have to buy new ones. A few were able to take matters into their own hands with external BIOS programming equipment.

When The Verge reached out to Framework for comment, founder Nirav Patel shared this statement:

We’ve received reports of a small percentage of Framework Laptop 13 7040 Series BIOS updates resulting in non-bootable boards and are investigating the root cause of the issue. In the meantime, in addition to replacing in-warranty Mainboards, we are making exceptions for out-of-warranty replacements where we can confirm a stable-release BIOS update caused the board to become non-bootable.

In parallel to this, we’re introducing “Crisis Recovery Mode” BIOS functionality to enable a path for failed updates to be directly recoverable. Our latest Framework Desktop BIOS release includes this functionality, and we are actively bringing it to Framework Laptop 12, 13, and 16 in our upcoming BIOS release cycles for each.

The Verge asked Framework what percentage of Laptop 13s were affected, and if there’s a timeline for the Crisis Recovery Mode coming to future BIOS updates. Framework’s external PR rep Jim Redner reiterated it is a “small percentage” and added, “They are targeting releasing that functionality before the end of year for each product line.”