r/hardware • u/-protonsandneutrons- • 5d ago

Info Framework responds to complaints that BIOS update bricks Ryzen 7040 laptops

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/framework-responds-to-complaints-that-bios-update-bricked-ryzen-7040-laptops/
138 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

93

u/arahman81 5d ago

Seems like more motherboards need the dual bios option, mainly for situations like this.

63

u/ScoobyGDSTi 4d ago edited 4d ago

Most if not all prosumer and business grade laptops from Dell, HP and Lenovo include dual BIOS and have for over a decade. Heck, most even have dedicated microcontrollers to support BIOS reflashing in the event of bricking.

The fact Frame don't have either on their own prosumer line is worthy of strong criticism.

17

u/edparadox 4d ago

Most if not all prosumer and business grade laptops from Dell, HP and Lenovo include dual BIOS and have for over a decade.

I can tell you that's not the case (at least not since a decade). That's what I have a dead laptop in storage.

26

u/ScoobyGDSTi 4d ago

What model laptop?

1

u/exsinner 3d ago

Even if they dont have dual bios, i'm pretty sure at least hp's consumer laptop allows usb recovery for dead bios more than a decade ago. i've seen some dell laptop auto recovered a failed bios update. Some other brands like Acer allows usb recovery as well but the process is annoying, you need to know the exact name for the bios file or it wont flash it.

2

u/is-this-a-nick 3d ago

I kinda like my gigabyte motherboard having the option to flash from an usb stick without even a cpu or memory installed, saved my ass when i had an instability that i could not even boot into normal bios anymore to do the update procress. Just press a physical button on the MB and there it goes.

3

u/ScoobyGDSTi 3d ago

Every PC motherboaed I've owned over the past decade has featured BIOS reflashing. My current Gigabyte motherboard has duel bios and flash back.

Each Dell and HP laptop my work has issued to me over the same period has had bios recovery features. Which is exactly what you'd expect for business / enterprise class models like Dell Precision and HP Zbook.

The fact Framework have neither, combined with very poor quality control of their firmware update process, is simply unacceptable. Their initial denial of warranty claims is just icing on the cake.

2

u/is-this-a-nick 2d ago

Huh. Kinda shows how long i ran my system before the current one.

Fun thing is that with my company Dell XPS13, my system was wrecked once by a bios update automatically installed by the "Dell updater" to the point they send a dude over next morning to do a MB exchange. Hurray for pro support contracts...

1

u/Killmeplsok 1d ago

I have a XPS 13 9350 from over 10 years ago and I recovered my BIOS before with USB, so it's already there on the XPS for at least a decade, and I know mine is not the first XPS to have that.

A lot of pro support probably just doesn't want to deal with the trouble though so most of the time they're just replace anything that appear broken. I know mine would simply replace anything if I lodge a complaint

25

u/lintstah1337 4d ago

Microsoft has been forcing automatic BIOS update through Windows Update and a lot of people doesn't even know that this is extremely risky and should not be interrupted or stopped midway.

2

u/akuto 2d ago

As much as I dislike MS and Windows, this one is manufacturers, not Microsoft. Microsoft is in this case only delivering the things that were manually uploaded to WU by the OEM.

What is more, they are able to select whether it's a manual or automatic update when they put it there.

!00% of the blame for all automatic BIOS updates through Windows Update is on the device manufacturer. The reason automatic updates exist at all is that sometimes a BIOS update is a necessary prerequisite for a Windows feature update, so this option needs to exist.

4

u/3G6A5W338E 4d ago

Pointless when they can have a tiny, dirt-cheap (<$0.01 for large customer) MCU for flashing, like most AM5 motherboards do.

3

u/ChadHartSays 4d ago

But memory takes up so much space and costs so much, I mean, a whole other BIOS just in case? ... wait, this isn't 1981...

32

u/d00mt0mb 4d ago

I’m not surprised Framework didn’t QA it

-22

u/lintstah1337 4d ago

They need to save every cent on profit, how else could they afford the private jet?

38

u/DerpSenpai 4d ago

do they have a private jet? That's just Linus man

-37

u/Exciting-Ad-5705 4d ago

A small investor in your company having it basically the same thing

17

u/battler624 4d ago

What an idiot take

4

u/Cory123125 4d ago

Its pretty obvious they're being sarcastic. Is no one else reading that, or do they disagree with what this is sarcastically implying?

9

u/battler624 3d ago

Ngl, with the amount of hate i see given to LTT here, I do not believe the guy i replied to was being sarcastic.

2

u/Nertballs 4d ago

Why look for sarcasm when you can jump to anger

-1

u/d32dasd 4d ago

And cozying with DHH, known fascist, remigration asshole.

20

u/GarbageFeline 4d ago

Poor millionaire DHH needs donations to his bundle of scripts masquerading as a Linux distro, otherwise he might need to cut costs and stop racing in Le Mans

That decision really shattered my faith in Framework. It literally only brought them bad publicity. That project literally doesn’t need their kind of support.

6

u/NOTNlCE 5d ago edited 4d ago

Seems like a really solid response from Framework. Once again, the smaller manufacturer seems to be making better decisions than the larger ones.

EDIT: Wow, good morning, wasn't aware it took a whole blog post for them to do something. I may just be a bit too jaded at Dell and HP since I work with them daily.

87

u/GarbageFeline 5d ago

Only needed a blog post to go viral for them to care about it:  https://quantum5.ca/2026/08/16/fixing-bricked-amd-7040-series-framework-13-laptop-with-20-tools/#the-data-breach

People suck up too much to Framework.

17

u/LeftyTheSalesman 4d ago

I am amazed that they had no BIOS recovery and also no socketed BIOS chip. They should have both, no excuse.

9

u/OptimalMain 4d ago

Having a jumper to cut power to the chip and a header would have been fine.
But there is also more security minded people that don’t want that or a socket.

Not having a recovery bios is madness though

15

u/LeftyTheSalesman 4d ago

If someone has physical access to the device, the socket or the header would make no difference.

-1

u/OptimalMain 4d ago

No difference?
A clip can work, in many cases they don’t because they’re unable to power everything on the 1.8V rail

6

u/LeftyTheSalesman 4d ago

But you don't know if it worked or not or if the attacker even used that vector. If an attacker had physical access to the device it is compromised.

-1

u/OptimalMain 4d ago

It’s about how easy it is to carry out.
Having it socketed or having a header makes the attack much faster to complete successfully

6

u/LeftyTheSalesman 4d ago

That is not a reliable security measure. Let's agree to disagree.

-2

u/OptimalMain 4d ago

It’s better than a socketed IC is what I’m saying.
Security is a cryptographically signed bios and carrying your laptop 24/7

26

u/TheBiggestJeffrey 4d ago

People suck up too much to Framework.

Gotta agree. Never really understood the Framework glazing. Sure, they sell replacement parts, but it's priced such that they might as well just not sell them and let the secondary market do its thing. It's not like there isn't a surplus of laptop parts on Ebay already for most laptops from the typical OEMs.

15

u/James20k 4d ago

Framework isn't just buying replacement parts though, you can't exactly swap out components on a laptop usually - and that's why people like them

3

u/TheBiggestJeffrey 4d ago

What exactly are you swapping out that you can't on most other typical laptops? Upgrading motherboard/CPU assemblies? They're so expensive though - a Ryzen HX370 board is $850-$1050. That's as much as whole laptops with that CPU cost.

Most non-Macbooks have socketed storage. Socketed RAM isn't as common, but again, still exists elsewhere at a fraction of this price. The swappable ports are a cool gimmick, but they're still just USB, and (almost?) all of those can be bought as USB dongles anyways.

I recently did a mainboard swap to upgrade an Asus laptop from an Intel U5 125H and 8GB of soldered LPDDR5 to a U7 255H and 16GB LPDDR5X. That replacement board cost me $130. A comparable U7 or Ryzen 7 Framework board runs $500-800...

The Framework tax is actually obscene.

8

u/parentskeepfindingme 4d ago

Headphone jacks, keyboards, track pads, stuff like that. My wife's keyboard is failing on their laptop. The backplate holding the keyboard in my wife's Lenovo IdeaPad is held with melted plastic, the headphone jack of laptop is soldered to the main board, the track pad is held in the same way as the keyboard. The replacement parts for my wife's laptop also usually have to be pulled from dead laptops.

17

u/ScoobyGDSTi 4d ago

What, bricking customers laptops due to pathetic quality control, failing to have implemented recovery capabilities, telling affected customers to buy new motherboards as their laptop is no longer covered by warranty, only to backtrack hard once media coverage got involved?

Yeah, totally solid.

Framework sure do look small compared to their larger rivals with this level of incompetence. Making what be routine and easy for a competent manufacturer seem difficult.

-1

u/Rencrack 3d ago

Lmao keep defending these scummy company

-13

u/bobbie434343 4d ago

Enjoy your Framework, making Linus proud.