Framework is replacing motherboards bricked by a recent BIOS update on its AMD Ryzen 7040-series Laptop 13 systems, even for customers without active warranty coverage, the company told Ars Technica. The failures followed the June 2026 release of BIOS 3.20, which left multiple laptops frozen during installation and unable to boot.
Framework started shipping pre-built Ryzen 7040 Laptop 13 computers and compatible motherboards in 2023. BIOS 3.20 added mainboard support for a haptic touchpad and new speakers on the higher-end Framework Laptop 13 Pro, while patching an issue with the Battery Extender status reporting. While some owners installed the patch without incident, others reported that the progress bar stalled indefinitely and the power button stopped responding.
Complaints regarding BIOS upgrade problems on Ryzen 7040-based Framework Laptop 13 hardware date back to at least March 2025. After users reported that customer support initially told them to purchase new boards out of pocket, Framework stated that it is investigating the root cause and making exceptions to replace out-of-warranty mainboards when a stable BIOS release caused the failure.
Future firmware releases will include a "Crisis Recovery Mode" designed to restore failed updates directly. Framework stated that the recovery feature is already included in its latest Desktop BIOS release and will arrive on the Framework Laptop 12, 13, and 16 across upcoming release cycles.
