There are reports of users having problems with BIOS upgrades on Ryzen 7040-based Framework Laptop 13 devices going back to at least March 2025.
After the most recent BIOS update, some users reported that Framework support told them they needed a new motherboard, but Framework wouldn’t provide it for free because the customer was past warranty.
Framework’s statement to Ars says:
… 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.
Framework is also introducing a “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,” Framework said.
We won’t be sure of the source of the problems until Framework provides more information. Blogger Guanzhong Chen, however, wrote a detailed blog post this week about their purported experience with their motherboard breaking and suggested the problem stems from “some bug with the software that caused it to display what appears to be random memory on the screen, especially when this has happened before to other people for other BIOS versions.”
The software developer, who was ultimately able to flash the firmware onto their motherboard after a support representative reportedly told him to buy a new one, added:
“At the same time, it somehow flashes the BIOS slower in regular operation than a cheap 15 MHz programmer over pogo pins, which really makes you wonder what it’s doing under the hood.”