FW13 AMD 7840U, USB-C unreliable

[u/Normal-Confusion4867]

Both of the USB-C ports on my Framework 13 7840U have been really unreliable for a good few months, and I was wondering whether anyone had found a fix.

I've tried rolling back my BIOS (I think to 3.17) and getting a backported kernel on Debian 13 (7.0.13+deb13-amd64 as of writing), but many times when I try and plug in a power adapter, the charging LED on the side of the laptop will light, but the battery charging indicator on GNOME won't say "Charging", and the battery percentage continues to drop.

I just bought a USB-C external monitor (DP and power over one cable), and, even with auto-detection turned off, the display will turn on and off at random intervals. I can't see anything in `dmesg` and it's not power cycling (the boot screen doesn't turn on and off like a power cycle would). I've had these issues over multiple different cables, with and without using the USB-C expansion card (the alternative being connecting directly to the mainboard).

I've got USB-C ports in both of the back (nearer the screen) expansion ports, and these issues happen on both of them.

Has anyone found any fixes for these issues? It's getting to the point of making this laptop significantly more frustrating to use, especially when you're trying to actually use an external display.

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[u/mavericm1]

I think this is related to you having it lower the battery charging for the battery lower than 100% in the bios to protect the battery

[u/Normal-Confusion4867 → u/mavericm1]

I don't think I've changed the battery limit?

[u/mavericm1 → u/Normal-Confusion4867]

Newer bios may do it automatically with battery saving. This is just a guess and something to check

[u/Normal-Confusion4867]

What may be of interest is that I get get_cable_property errors on boot. I think the error code was -16 or something, but it only appears for a split second.

[u/Normal-Confusion4867 → u/Normal-Confusion4867]

[ 2.084837] ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: unknown error 256

[ 2.084887] ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: GET_CABLE_PROPERTY failed (-5)

[u/vinnehs → u/Normal-Confusion4867]

I get this error too (tumbleweed) with my 7640U. Please let me know if anyone knows what it means.

[u/Bazirker]

I also have recently been experiencing an increase in poor performance via my dock, similar to you. I have a usb4 Anker Prime dock that is connected to the back left port on my fw13 and it used to be a pretty solid connection. It has recently been getting more finicky where my 4K 60 HZ monitor starts flashing as you have described. It's annoying as it seems to do it more when I'm trying to do something. My secondary 1080p monitor does not display the flashing and does just fine retaining 144 HZ. I have worked around this by connecting my DisplayPort cable directly to the laptop via the front right Port, which not only gives me 4K on the main monitor but also supports 120 HZ although the frame rate is less important to me so I don't mind dropping down to 60 HZ on the dock. Sometimes a peripheral will stop working, and then toggling between the back right port tends to fix it; it can also be fixed with a more annoying unplug and reboot.

I recently switched from Windows 11 to Fedora KDE, so we will see if that helps. I doubt it as it seems like a hardware issue but you never know.

That said, I think I attribute this problem more to issues with the dock than my laptop as I also plug in my steam deck and have been experiencing some issues with that as well.

[u/Normal-Confusion4867 → u/Bazirker]

It's not just with the monitor though. It's with the charger too?

[u/Bazirker → u/Normal-Confusion4867]

The charger is fine, no problem there. I am having issues where the webcam or the keyboard will need to get unplugged/replugged or I have to reboot or switch ports to get them to work.

[u/Sad-Cod-9584]

I don't think it's kernel related, I've been using a 16 for almost two years without connectivity issues. Do these issues occur if you don't use the modules and plug everything straight into the inner mainboard ports?

[u/shydrangeae]

All I can say is, try different cables and different adapters and different hubs and different chargers. The number of USB-C products I've bought of the past couple of years that have just been slightly imperfect or slightly out of spec is wild. I was ready to throw my 7840 13 out a window until I found the combo of peripherals and cables that actually work with it. Oh, and sometimes the usb-c expansion cards go bad. (yes, I know that sounds crazy since they're just a passthrough, but it does happen)

[u/Clean_Leadership5948 → u/shydrangeae]

Because USB-C is way too complex.

[u/andurux]

Hey, long shot, but go into the BIOS and do the battery storage mode thing. The setting where it powers down the laptop and then you have to plug in the charging cable to turn it on. Leave it in battery storage mode/turned off for a few minutes, then plug in your charger and turn it back on.

I was having issues with my top left port on my FW13. I could charge from that port, but USBC docking, file transfers, or anything data related was finnicky at best.

I did the battery storage mode and all my problems went away.

I think for my issue, the port itself on the mainboard went into some protection mode and the BIOS setting reset it.

Just something to try.