[Q] Soft Bricked or Hard Bricked? (Please, PLEASE help!!!) - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S III

I have a SPH L710 galaxy s3 (sprint). I recently flashed a Rom called hyperdrive 4.1.2 that was on it's RLS11. following the instructions (factory reset x2, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, wipe system), I then picked the features i wanted in the built in aroma installer and let the rom flash. When it was done I noticed i kept getting the message "the process com.android.phone has stopped". So i performed a clean install of my previous Rom which was Liquid Smooth.
A day or two later I noticed hyperdrive has released it's RLS 12, so i decided to give it another try. This time there was an option in the aroma installer for developer picks so i selected that, thinking my previous attempt i may have picked conflicting files in the aroma installer. The Rom worked fine for about a day. Then the next day while it was charging after the battery have completely died the night before. I noticed the phone had rebooted on its own, then it started going into a boot loop. I did a battery pull, and i noticed when i put it back in, before i could even hold the buttons to get it into recovery mode or download mode, the phone would vibrate and turn on by itself, without me pressing any buttons at all. After some trying i was able to have the buttons held so when i inserted the battery, i was already holding the buttons to try to get to recovery. When I did this it would say it was about to go into recovery, then the screen would go black. The same thing when I tried getting it into download mode, It would show the download mode screen, then go to a black screen. I Then did some research, after seeing no one else really having this problem, and noticing that since it was still seeing boot screens before the black screen, it shouldn't be a hard brick.
I decided to order a USB jig for my phone that came today. When inserted the battery with the usb jig the phone still turned on by itself, but it was able to go to download mode and it stayed at the screen. I used odin 3.07 to flash SPH-L710_MD4_1130792_Rooted_Nodata, which was a tar file you would use if you wanted to keep your user data. It took 10 minutes to flash but everything seemed to be a success, it rebooted my phone and everything seemed to be working fine. After about 20 minutes of my phone being plugged back into a charger and i was halfway through with downloading an app from the android market where out of nowhere my phone temporarily froze and then rebooted, to where it will show the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then just goes to a black screen. Now even with the USB jig, it will still power on by itself as soon as a place in the battery, go directly to download mode, but then go to a black screen within 3-4 seconds before i can do anything.
Has anyone ever encountered anything like this before? At first i thought it might be a stuck power button, but when I was able to flash through download mode with the USB jig that first time it makes me think it is bricked. Any help or insight would be GREATLY appreciated.

dubbz84 said:
I have a SPH L710 galaxy s3 (sprint). I recently flashed a Rom called hyperdrive 4.1.2 that was on it's RLS11. following the instructions (factory reset x2, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, wipe system), I then picked the features i wanted in the built in aroma installer and let the rom flash. When it was done I noticed i kept getting the message "the process com.android.phone has stopped". So i performed a clean install of my previous Rom which was Liquid Smooth.
A day or two later I noticed hyperdrive has released it's RLS 12, so i decided to give it another try. This time there was an option in the aroma installer for developer picks so i selected that, thinking my previous attempt i may have picked conflicting files in the aroma installer. The Rom worked fine for about a day. Then the next day while it was charging after the battery have completely died the night before. I noticed the phone had rebooted on its own, then it started going into a boot loop. I did a battery pull, and i noticed when i put it back in, before i could even hold the buttons to get it into recovery mode or download mode, the phone would vibrate and turn on by itself, without me pressing any buttons at all. After some trying i was able to have the buttons held so when i inserted the battery, i was already holding the buttons to try to get to recovery. When I did this it would say it was about to go into recovery, then the screen would go black. The same thing when I tried getting it into download mode, It would show the download mode screen, then go to a black screen. I Then did some research, after seeing no one else really having this problem, and noticing that since it was still seeing boot screens before the black screen, it shouldn't be a hard brick.
I decided to order a USB jig for my phone that came today. When inserted the battery with the usb jig the phone still turned on by itself, but it was able to go to download mode and it stayed at the screen. I used odin 3.07 to flash SPH-L710_MD4_1130792_Rooted_Nodata, which was a tar file you would use if you wanted to keep your user data. It took 10 minutes to flash but everything seemed to be a success, it rebooted my phone and everything seemed to be working fine. After about 20 minutes of my phone being plugged back into a charger and i was halfway through with downloading an app from the android market where out of nowhere my phone temporarily froze and then rebooted, to where it will show the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then just goes to a black screen. Now even with the USB jig, it will still power on by itself as soon as a place in the battery, go directly to download mode, but then go to a black screen within 3-4 seconds before i can do anything.
Has anyone ever encountered anything like this before? At first i thought it might be a stuck power button, but when I was able to flash through download mode with the USB jig that first time it makes me think it is bricked. Any help or insight would be GREATLY appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long did you let it set on the black screen because it takes a while to boot up the first time after flashing a ROM.

GiantJay said:
How long did you let it set on the black screen because it takes a while to boot up the first time after flashing a ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i just placed the battery back in, it started on it's own without my pressing anything again, and i've been timing the last 5 minutes. but it seems like it will stay a black screen indefinitely. unless i remove the back of the phone, or snap it back into place, or any kind of micro impact movements it seems, when I do that it vibrates like it's first being turned on, and shows the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then it will go black again.

See if your adb on your computer can recognize the phone while it's stuck on the black screen. You might be able to push a Rom or recovery over using that.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

You may want to just start fresh and lose your data with a different stock file. That kinda happened to me before on the gs2 and I found better results with a 100% fresh start. The no data always left me with a hangup or two after getting the phone to boot.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

topherk said:
See if your adb on your computer can recognize the phone while it's stuck on the black screen. You might be able to push a Rom or recovery over using that.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not picking it up on adb.

dante32278 said:
You may want to just start fresh and lose your data with a different stock file. That kinda happened to me before on the gs2 and I found better results with a 100% fresh start. The no data always left me with a hangup or two after getting the phone to boot.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After the first odin flash i was thinking the same thing. But that's the thing, it won't stay on the download mode screen long enough for me to even try to flash anything else through odin. I'm also noticing when connected to the charger, if i make a slight impact against the phone with my palm, the screen will briefly show the battery icon as if the phone is charging when it is turned off, then the screen will go black again. When it is unplugged, is when it will show the samsung screen, then the samsung galaxy s3 screen, then go black again.

That's weird...sounds like something is loose. Any kind of recent impact damage to the phone? Dropping it, throwing it at your cat, anything like that?

To me it sounds like maybe your power button is stuck "down"
If you didn't know, the power button has a fail safe reboot that happens after holding for about 10 seconds. So no matter what, if you phone is frozen or whatever, holding power more than 10s will cause it to reboot. That would also explain why its turning itself on as soon as you pop in the battery.

toolegit said:
That's weird...sounds like something is loose. Any kind of recent impact damage to the phone? Dropping it, throwing it at your cat, anything like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not recently, and if it was ever dropped, it would be in it's case... But i had noticed that while it was in it's power glove case, sometimes i would have to use more than normal pressure on the power button to get the phone to respond. I was wondering if something was stuck, just haven't read anything like that happening to anyone, and when I used the jig the first time the screen stayed on.

Related

[Q] Phone won't turn on

Last night I had dropped my phone from about a foot on a sitting-swing and it hit the ground. I have the black case from the sprint store on it. After that I attempted to turn it on and it just got stuck on Samsung loading screen with the genocide 2.0 logo below it, it then proceeded to be stuck there and eventually rebooted, this never seemed to end. When I attempted to plug it in to charge it the battery charging icon appeared but just has the loading symbol inside of it frozen, after many battery pulls and attempted clockwork-recovery boots failing I decided to go to bed. When I awake I went and tried to turn on my phone which immediately booted up into clockwork recover, fearing for my phones safety I backed everything up on it and then rebooted it. It seemed to work fine! It came on flawlessly and worked well. Throughout the day the battery seemed to drain extremely fast and then eventually died, having just gotten home I have found that the same thing is happening and it won't even charge.
Re flash the ROM then flash journaling on zip right after you flash the ROM then re boot & download you're apps fresh cuz you're data might be corrupted! Hit the thanks button if I've helped in any way! ;-)
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
I flashed back to stock rom to see if it would turn on, same thing happens, and I don't know if this is significant or not but when my phone boots up the buttons light up, then turn off, then back on again and stay on until the phone reboots itself or the battery is pulled.
EDIT: I have a strong feeling it's my physical battery that is causing the issues because it was working completely fine earlier yesterday.
Try booting in safe mode by holding power and the physical menu button until the phone gets to the lockscreen... Im curious to see if it helps because safe mode might help us get out of soft bricks? I wanna test this theory...
No it does not work, just get stuck at the Samsung loading screen. I don't honestly believe this is a software brick either because of the way it's acting, as I said in my above post I believe it's the physical battery and will probably be going to get it replaced soon

Galxy s2 Vibrating and crashes at loading bar.

So i've looked around and no one that i've seen has the same exact problem as i do. Here's my post in another forums about my problem.
Here's my story about my Galaxy s2 for T-mobile. My phone randomly turned off 2 days and whenever i tried to turn it on, it would restart and basically never get pass the blue loading bar screen. Second, i found out about this boot loop sequence and i was able to do a factory wipe.
After i factory wiped the data etc off the phone, i was able to use it until it ran out of battery, but then after i found out it ran out of battery, it wouldn't let me turn it back on, it wouldn't get pass the loading screen, once again. On the other hand, i am able to go to recovery mode or download mode, but the phone shuts off before i can even try and click on the options i want.
Today, i found out that if i kept pressing power button consecutively on the phone, I'd be able to go to my home screen and basically act as if nothing ever happened, it'd function as a new phone! I then had the nerves of turning off my phone just to make sure it finally works now, but my hopes were crushed and now the pressing the power trick does not even work anymore. It would probably work one out of 10-15 times, and in the end it'd still restart. I am using a gingerbread galaxy s2. My friend tried using the usb jib on my phone, and it worked but whenever he tried to plug in the usb, the phone would just restart. I am extremely frustrated with this, and if you can help, please do so because it's important that i fix this phone. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
Hi there, thank you for the welcoming me to the forums. No, my phone is not rooted, it has always been gingerbread etc i never tried rooting because i never knew how:/ I believe this started when i was just browsing around facebook, so i'm not entirely sure what happened... Uhmm i tried going to download mode through the volume keys and power button when it's connected to usb to the i think it's odin3? and it'd be in the download mode but as soon as the computer says it's connected, the phone would just turn off again and bam, it's like nothing ever happened. My phone does charge when it's plugged in, but it doesn't show it's being charged but i remember my battery was dead last night and i charged it till today and now it's got power. ANd no i don't have a warranty:/ i really hope you can help me
Sounds like a faulty power button. Check out Mobiletech video for thier power button repair service.
http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-t-mobile-power-button-repair/
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

I need help s2 acting up

This has probably been resolved or mentioned before so please do not flamed me up. Just needing some quick help.
This is not my device this is a friends. He had a darkside V8 Rom which me and him thought are giving him issues. The phone will literally reboot by itself and vibrate during boot up. Never seeing the home screen again. Only way to remedy this is to take out the battery and if we get lucky it will see the home screen again.
Thankfully I was able to boot into recovery and flash the Milestone AOKP MR1 Build and flashed the gapps. I did this sucessfully. So rebooted the device again to make sure everything will be good. Now the phone will only show the samsung logo and black screen with pulses of vibrations every second. I tried plugging it in and it doesn't even turn on just vibrates. Only when I take out the battery then it will actually turn on,but just the samsung logo followed with the black screen and pulsating vibrations.
Is the phone done? Is it perm bricked? I can't even go on download mode
EDIT: And yes I did a clean flash. I did all the proper wipe cache/dalvik, factory reset etc. etc.
It sounds like a power button issue. Same symptoms.
If you aren't familiar with the phone because it isn't yours;
They tend to start the boot process as soon as the battery is installed without pressing power. You might be missing the chance to put it in download mode, hold the volume button as you put the battery in. If you want to go from ICS to a 4.2.2 ROM you should ODIN to the latest stock ROM first then re-root , there some radio upgrades that can't be flashed from recovery.
Z33type said:
This has probably been resolved or mentioned before so please do not flamed me up. Just needing some quick help.
This is not my device this is a friends. He had a darkside V8 Rom which me and him thought are giving him issues. The phone will literally reboot by itself and vibrate during boot up. Never seeing the home screen again. Only way to remedy this is to take out the battery and if we get lucky it will see the home screen again.
Thankfully I was able to boot into recovery and flash the Milestone AOKP MR1 Build and flashed the gapps. I did this sucessfully. So rebooted the device again to make sure everything will be good. Now the phone will only show the samsung logo and black screen with pulses of vibrations every second. I tried plugging it in and it doesn't even turn on just vibrates. Only when I take out the battery then it will actually turn on,but just the samsung logo followed with the black screen and pulsating vibrations.
Is the phone done? Is it perm bricked? I can't even go on download mode
EDIT: And yes I did a clean flash. I did all the proper wipe cache/dalvik, factory reset etc. etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try taking it apart and cleaning around the power button it could just have junk around it that tricks the phone into thinking that you are constantly pushing the button. Option two buy a download dongle for $5 from ebay to force download and see if it stays on long enough to flash a rom. Finally, it possibly is the old faulty power button situation that is known to happen with the S2 to some people which means it will need to be replaced.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2
donm76 said:
It sounds like a power button issue. Same symptoms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. This is almost certainly caused by a bad/stuck power (on/off) switch. It's a very common problem on all the US-carrier Galaxy SII phones. (I think the international "i9100" model uses a different type of switch.) You can simulate the issue on a good T989 by holding down the power button when you turn it on - it will reboot and then vibrate every few seconds with a blank screen, until you release the power button.
Some people have had success poking/pulling/cleaning/washing the switch, but replacing it is the only reliable long-term fix.
If you don't have insurance coverage and are out of warranty, you can replace the switch yourself. Several eBay sellers offer replacement power switches for the SGH-T989 Galaxy S2. (about ten bucks). You'll need a steady hand, a fine-tipped soldering iron, and some small solder. A magnifying glass and a bit of paste flux couldn't hurt either.
Or, if you don't have mad soldering skills, a few companies offer mail-in repair service:
- $39: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Switch-REPAIR-SERVICE-T-Mobile-Galaxy-S2-SGH-T989-Samsung-Fix-Bad-Button-/161028469601
- $45: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Button-Repair-Samsung-Galaxy-S-Galaxy-S-II-Galaxy-NOTE-MORE-/320910836052
Did u flash correct gapps after flashing the ROM? If the answer to this question is no it could've caused a bootloop in which case u need to reboot into recovery, do a full wipe ( data, system, cache, dalvik ) then flash the ROM then flash gapps, or the power button issue, either way easy fix
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

[Q] Phone shut off now stuck in permanent death loop

Hey all, I have a S3 i747 on rogers. I have had it for a couple years everything working fine and great, I rooted it after I bought it and it worked no problem. A week or two ago it suddenly shut itself off while I was using it. I didn't think much of it, then later that day again it turned itself off.
This time, it automatically tries to reboot but as soon as the logo appears it instantly turns itself back off again. It's not that it gets to a certain point, it's like there's a time limit on how far it can progress through the boot sequence, I estimate about 4-5 seconds. No matter what I try I cannot get it past this cut off time.
I have tried download mode, recovery mode, battery tricks (found on obscure sites), etc etc etc and still its stuck in this death loop. Im fine with buying a new phone, but I had not made a contact back-up for 6 months (no, I wasn't syncing with google) and have lost many, many new contacts as well as certain files and pictures that I wouldn't mind getting back.
Also, if I am very fast I can get the first page of recovery mode to pop up, but then the "time limit" hits and before any selections on the menu can be made it automatically reboots. If I leave the battery in, it will try every few minutes to boot repeatedly until the battery is completely zapped.
TeflonTeffy said:
Hey all, I have a S3 i747 on rogers. I have had it for a couple years everything working fine and great, I rooted it after I bought it and it worked no problem. A week or two ago it suddenly shut itself off while I was using it. I didn't think much of it, then later that day again it turned itself off.
This time, it automatically tries to reboot but as soon as the logo appears it instantly turns itself back off again. It's not that it gets to a certain point, it's like there's a time limit on how far it can progress through the boot sequence, I estimate about 4-5 seconds. No matter what I try I cannot get it past this cut off time.
I have tried download mode, recovery mode, battery tricks (found on obscure sites), etc etc etc and still its stuck in this death loop. Im fine with buying a new phone, but I had not made a contact back-up for 6 months (no, I wasn't syncing with google) and have lost many, many new contacts as well as certain files and pictures that I wouldn't mind getting back.
Also, if I am very fast I can get the first page of recovery mode to pop up, but then the "time limit" hits and before any selections on the menu can be made it automatically reboots. If I leave the battery in, it will try every few minutes to boot repeatedly until the battery is completely zapped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it still keep rebooting even in download mode? If not then try reflashing your stock rom.
Or maybe try booting up without an sd and without a sim card.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk
Also make sure to not hold the volume and home keys too long when going into download mode, once the phone vibrates you should be able to let go. I made the same mistake on my phone and then noticed i had been pressing the volume and power keys while download mode was starting, causing it to select cancel. If not though you are probably looking at some sort of internal hardware issue that may be causing the reset to trip or causing the phone to believe it should be shutting itself off at that moment. This is all purely speculation, but hope it helps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Florad77 said:
Does it still keep rebooting even in download mode? If not then try reflashing your stock rom.
Or maybe try booting up without an sd and without a sim card.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
zoomonkey90 said:
Also make sure to not hold the volume and home keys too long when going into download mode, once the phone vibrates you should be able to let go. I made the same mistake on my phone and then noticed i had been pressing the volume and power keys while download mode was starting, causing it to select cancel. If not though you are probably looking at some sort of internal hardware issue that may be causing the reset to trip or causing the phone to believe it should be shutting itself off at that moment. This is all purely speculation, but hope it helps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't even make it into download mode, or recovery mode. Like I said, its as if the phone has a built in time-limit for how long it is going to load, the absolute farthest I can get is the first page of recovery mode and then boom it instantly resets before I can even make one selection, and I did this like 100 times in a row so I got very fast at getting into recovery mode. As per 2nd quote, yes I am releasing the buttons as I am supposed to to get into the appropriate mode, but the "time limit" hits and just reboots no matter what.
I've tried booting up without sim and sd card, but it still doesn't make it any further.
Dead boot look i747
Fix a fix for it? I have the same problem.
TeflonTeffy said:
I can't even make it into download mode, or recovery mode. Like I said, its as if the phone has a built in time-limit for how long it is going to load, the absolute farthest I can get is the first page of recovery mode and then boom it instantly resets before I can even make one selection, and I did this like 100 times in a row so I got very fast at getting into recovery mode. As per 2nd quote, yes I am releasing the buttons as I am supposed to to get into the appropriate mode, but the "time limit" hits and just reboots no matter what.
I've tried booting up without sim and sd card, but it still doesn't make it any further.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would put my money on a bad power switch/button.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Yes, it acts like a stuck power button, a common problem with galaxy s phones.
If it auto starts when you insert the battery, that's a sure sign the power on circuit is active.
When my Captivate did this, I opened the back & carefully tapped it on a table edge to try dislodging any debris.
I then followed teardown instructions, inspected the switch assembly & blew it out with forced air.
The problem ended & never returned. I honestly don't think there was a physical defect in my phone's switch; more likely a residual charge on the mainboard.
Root causes vary as do solutions for the problem. Inexpensive switch replacement is a good one too.
Since then I have used a couple of apps to reduce the need for the gs3 power button.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

P605 in need of some help.

Hi, hoping someone can help.
Having a major problem with my P605 (Hong Kong version), It just will not start up anymore.
Current State:
At the moment, with just the power button, it shows the samsung galaxy note 2014 logo. Then a few seconds later the startup sound will play. Then a few seconds later the samsung boot animation plays. Then once the animation stops and just displays the samsung logo, nothing else. It stays on that, and can stay on it for hours.
Note: The Samsung boot animation has a very pink hue to it, like the cyan and yellow are no longer there. More on that later.
With the Power + Home + Vol Up it says recovery mode is starting, then resets and boots as above.
With the Power + Home + Vol Down it goes into download mode no problem.
Background (Some of it may or may not be relevant, just putting it on here in case it is):
Up until a couple of weeks ago it was stock, but rooted JB (IIRC), then it was accidentally dropped (not by me). It is in a Trident Krakhen case, but that did not stop damage being done, the damage being the backlight stopped working. I followed a Youtube guide and removed/reinserted the ribbon. Put it back together and switched it on, and worked, sorted!
Now I thought as the seal of freshness has been popped, I may as well upgrade it to Lollipop so I can play Pokemon Go. As Lollipop has not been released for HK p605's I used the Irish (I think) firmware. Upgraded using Odin, no problem. So then I wanted root access, so I used the method described on XDA to root Lollipop using "CF-Auto-Root-lt03lte-lt03ltexx-smp605.zip". Again, flashed with Odin, no problem. But the root didn't take, a few programs randomly lost root access, others would not ask for access and just say the tablet was not rooted, etc. I reflashed the file at least 6 times to try and get it to take. Eventually it did.
Forward to the next day, I go to unlock my tablet and the screen has gone all pink, same as above, like Cyan and Yelow have gone. And a black shadow is over the left half of the screen. I restarted the tablet, colours came back, yay. All fine up until yesterday, the pink and shadow were back again. This was late at night while I was in bed, so not near the computer. I restarted the tablet. This time the pink stayed. OK, so I thought I will wipe the tablet back to factory and see if that helps (not done a wipe or anything else up until this point) so I try to go into recovery mode. It showed the logo and the little blue recovery text, then black screen, then normal boot logo and back into the OS. Tried a few times to get into recovery mode, but just kept resetting back to OS. So I told ROM toolbox to force a recovery restart, big mistake! It went into recovery boot loop. Just Galaxy Note 2014 entering recovery" then blank, repeat. No sound, nothing. I think that perhaps if I can turn it off, it may reset the whole thing, I put the tablet into download mode, then go to sleep. In the morning, the battery is dead. Great! Plug it in, instantly recovery boot loop. Fudge! From this point I don't know the battery level of the tablet, so that MAY be causing issues. I plug it into the PC to flash with Odin. Flashed stock lollipop, restarted, flashed stock bootloader, flashed CF auto root. Multiple times in each. Nothing seems to bring it out. The closest I got to something was the tablet telling me recovery was screwed and I needed to use Kies recovery. I left it plugged in for a few hours to try and build up some battery power, the PC does not provide enough power to charge, it makes the screen flicker rapidly when the battery is empty, but all the time while charging it is boot looping and the screen is on full brightness so I don't know how much I gained.
Finally flashed stock KK, and now it just hangs on the Samsung animation logo as above.
Is there anything I can do?
Does the pink hue and black shadow mean hardware is affected? The colours seem fine in download mode.
If anyone could help that would be great as I am scratching my head here.
EDIT 1: OK, I took the casing off, found that the little push on connector next to the usb connector had pried itself loose, I reattached it, and removed/reinserted the screen ribbon cable. All while the tablet was powered on (my old electronics teacher would have had a fit!). Restarted, the pink tinge has gone and the boot animation came up at the same time as the audio. Good signs. But still froze on the 'glow' effect. Tried recovery and YES it went into recovery, although the little android fell over with an exclamation mark over him. But still, progress. So now I am reflashing stock, will see how it goes.

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