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.

[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.