[Q] {PRO} Troubleshooting Hardware buttons not working properly - Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey there!
I recently bought a used MK16i Xperia Pro. The problem is that the keys of the phone are not working correctly.
The following buttons always work: BACK, MENU, POWER, SHIFT, W
Sometimes (i couldn't reproduce it) most buttons react, but a lot of them in a weird way.
When i hit VOLUME_UP for example, i see the volume bar appearing and the adjusted volume (normal) and additionally the phone types "AD," and scrolls one letter to the left (A, D, COMMA, DPAD_LEFT). Similar problem for most other keys/buttons.
I already tried Stock-GB, Stock-ICS, CM10, CM10.1 ROMs.
I also ran CWM keytest and a keynumber track app. For BACK, MENU, POWER, SHIFT, W it gave me the correct Key-ID and i found out that HOME and SHIFT pressed simultaneously resulted in UP+CONFIRM in CWM.
When the other keys were responding, keytest showed a lot of Key-IDs one after the other.
I hope you get what I'm trying to explain.
Anybody ever heard of a problem like that? I couldn't find anything.
What do you think is wrong with the phone? Hardware problem, e.g. flex cable?
Software problem, e.g. kernel?? Already tried a bunch of kernels though...
Warranty is void as i opened the bootloader and sim-unlocked the phone via Wotan/Testpoint. Should i maybe open and reassemble the phone?
Thanks in advance for any hints & suggestions. Cheers

Related

Cannot get to tricolor screen. lost hardspl?

Hi,
I decided to try out some new ROMS in general as I hadn't updated my phone in ages. I knew I wanted to try out the android version, so I tried the following steps:
1) updated my version of hardspl to 3.28 as the version I had was very old.
2) installed one of the official UK windows ROM to check out the latest vendor offering and update my radio before trying android. think it was the latest O2 one.
3) installed Myn’s Warm Donut to NAND
4 ) installed Incubus26Jc's Super Eclair to NAND
Now, I wanted to try some other windows roms, but cannot get to the tricolored screen. I have tried lots of times, several techniques, but no sign of the tricolor.
I read somewhere that installing an OEM ROM wipes out the hardspl. Is this what has happened? If so, is there a way to re-hardspl my phone from the sd-card (as I cannot make activesync connections anymore), or a way to install a windows-rom from the sd-card without going through the tricolor screen?
Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
ET
As far as I am aware flashing a stock rom will not remove HardSPL, in fact I have flashed one of my kaisers with so many roms I have lost count, but never lost HardSPL, even with the latest generic HTC rom, which is pretty much the last word in stock roms as far as kaiser is concerned.
I'm not certain what has happened, but not getting the bootloader is, I'm afraid, very serious, if you have no access to the bootloader then it is very difficult to flash anything.
I'm going to have a good look around some wiki and forum pages, see what I can find out, in the meantime, can you confirm that you have something you can boot to? Even if it's android on nand then there may be some way of figuring out what has happened, and the hope of a fix.
From your post may I assume that all your attempts to get the bootloader ended with a normal boot of some sort?
Hi! Thanks for your very quick reply!
I can currently boot into android, with no probs and have a 2gb sd card I can access via an adapter on the pc.
I tried accessing the bootloader via holding camera and power down, then pressing reset for 3 seconds. also tried holding the buttons down for different permutations of time up to ~30-45 secs. no joy.
Also tried the battery out. put in battery. press power, then camera; or power and camera together.
Everytime I have tried it, i stay on the O2 logo, then the linux bootup stuff flies past.
I suppose the button assignments can't have been switched as the bootloader should be before any of the android stuff, right? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Button assignment can be changed after the OS has booted, but during boot they are hardcoded.
As long as it boots, then the bootloader is still there, and functioning, without a bootloader the phone would not boot at all, I'm actually wondering if the camera button has failed?
yeah, i was wondering about that too. is there a quick way to check within android? all the buttons are different from win. e.g red phone puts phone to sleep and of course there is no camera app to take photos in...
Well since you still got a working nand flashed you could install Warm Donut, camera works in that, however perhaps a simpler way might be just to press it gently, all the way in, if it is working correctly you should feel two 'click' positions, it's not always easy to diagnose hardware failures, but if the internal switch has broken/come adrift, you may be able to feel it.
ok, will try both & post back tomorrow. thanks for your help.
hmm... i think checking camera button in android is not possible because the camera app dont use the hardwarebutton. You have to press a button on screen to take a picture. You can check some buttons in linux bootup phase like the hardwarekeys on front. but not the camera button and the other sidemounted keys...
you can do this to test the camera button (in android):
- switch into text mode: fn + left softkey
- press camera button and tab somewhere on the screen
is there an output with s.th. like "TS-Calibration" then camera button is working
Hmmm, I don't think the camera button is working. During android boot up, all the hard keys output a character to the screen apart from the camera button. toastys suggestion did not yield a camera result either.
This makes sense, as I have tried a ridiculous amount of times to get to the tricolor screen.
has anyone got any ideas of how to load a windows rom back onto nand and bypass the botloader? If not, i guess my only option is to dismantle the phone in the hope that the non-functional camera button is due to a loose contact.
Thanks for the help guys.
No output = no camrea key i'm afraid, it does sound like either a fractured solder joint or something similar, not an easy repair, and yes it will require dismantling to get at the mainboard.
If you have the equipment then simply reflowing the solder joints on the switch should sort it.
As far as I'm aware there is no way to flash without access to the bootloader, however it might be possible to rig up a temporary camera switch using two pieces of thin rework wire, although I don't recommend it without previous experience of surface mount soldering
I'll let you know how it goes.
toasty_ said:
you can do this to test the camera button (in android):
- switch into text mode: fn + left softkey
- press camera button and tab somewhere on the screen
is there an output with s.th. like "TS-Calibration" then camera button is working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried this for fun. it caused bad calibration when i came out of text mode (fn + right soft key).
cool to find text mode though. that works fine
Hehe i tried this too.
For people who have bad calibration after this: You can fix it with "Dev Tools". Goto "Pointer Location" and you will see what exactly happen to your calibration when you touch the screen. To fix the calibration use the stylus, press & hold camerabutton and tip all corners of your screen clockwise. Begin with the topleft corner.
highcoder said:
Hehe i tried this too.
For people who have bad calibration after this: You can fix it with "Dev Tools". Goto "Pointer Location" and you will see what exactly happen to your calibration when you touch the screen. To fix the calibration use the stylus, press & hold camerabutton and tip all corners of your screen clockwise. Begin with the topleft corner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reboot also works. just thought others should know

Help with Menu button not working

Since I updated to froyo, mine Menu button acts like Home button and I cant go in setup with Menu button. This cause alot of problems, cant go in apps to bring upp setup/bring up keyboard etc..
Before, sometime the Menu button will work if wait a while, its like lottery, sometime it work sometime it dont and I have already tried hardware reset/unroot to stock. Nothing works, Menu button works like Home button even in stock ROM.
Anyone got a solution, pls?
I dont really know whats wrong with it.. should be a software problem.. unless you dropped it.. anyways just in case you'd need to get onto settings do this... all apps menu/settings icon, simple but might help if you needed
Hope this help!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
!PANDA said:
I dont really know whats wrong with it.. should be a software problem.. unless you dropped it.. anyways just in case you'd need to get onto settings do this... all apps menu/settings icon, simple but might help if you needed
Hope this help!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do use this way to go into settings, but it wont help me if I want go into apps settings to configure the apps and I cant go into mine bookmarks in IE.
I also noticed, every time I charge mine phone, looking in aLogCat and it says "V/Notificationservice( 92): Charging for Hero..." (shouldnt it say Desire?)
I dont quit remember when this problem started, but I think it was when I rooted mine phone with "downgrade 0.92 to 0.80 and root with Unrevoked3" guide. Then I flashed Pinky Desire 1.8, but got problem with this ROM(Menu/forced closed etc..), so I flashed in Modaco r8 prebaked + a2sd+ instead and works great with this ROM. But mine Menu button problem is still there and getting worser by the time. Now it acts like Home button.
I have tried wipe data/dalvik cache reflashed/unroot back to stock froyo ROM and nothing helps.
Anyone got any idea whats going on here? Im really desperat now to get the Meny button working again, without it I feel handicap using the phone and I dont want send it in on to service. Since I had only heard bad things about the service center Anovo that Im gonna send mine phone to make the repair. So its the last step, if I cant fins any soultion with this darn Menu problem.
EDIT:
Found the culprit! It was mine 16 GB SD Card which casuing the problem! I changed back to 4GB SD Card that followed with the phone, prepared to send it in for service and suddenly Meny button worked.
But the question is, can a corrupted SD Card causing the Meny button acts like Home button?
How do I check if mine 16 GB sd card is corrupted?
EDIT 2:
OMG, is this. I format the sd card, reboot the phone and it suddenly start again. Meny button acts like damn Home button. So mine problem is not solved, the damn Meny button came back. Can it be when format, it deleted whatever files saved in sd card and made it act like this? Have tried put in another sd card, but same thing. Im out of clue now. *damn it*
Hi,
I have the same problem. My Menu button (HTC Hero 2.1) suddenly acts like home button sometimes (randomly).
Weirdly, it does unlock the screen normally (after locked by power button).
I have tried to installed various custom ROMs, reflashed with older RUU from HTC (1.5) but the problem remained.
So, i have no idea whether it's hardware (loosen maybe) or software problem.
Since Menu button is pretty important, my solution is : REMAP the button!. I assigned menu button to be home button and vice versa. Here is my /system/usr/keylayout/hero-keypad.kl :
$ cat /system/usr/keylayout/hero-keypad.kl
key 102 MENU WAKE_DROPPED
key 139 HOME WAKE_DROPPED
key 158 BACK
key 217 SEARCH
key 107 ENDCALL WAKE_DROPPED
key 231 CALL WAKE_DROPPED
key 115 VOLUME_UP WAKE
key 114 VOLUME_DOWN WAKE
i'm considering to swap them physically but it seems to be complicated
superkon said:
Hi,
I have the same problem. My Menu button (HTC Hero 2.1) suddenly acts like home button sometimes (randomly).
Weirdly, it does unlock the screen normally (after locked by power button).
I have tried to installed various custom ROMs, reflashed with older RUU from HTC (1.5) but the problem remained.
So, i have no idea whether it's hardware (loosen maybe) or software problem.
Since Menu button is pretty important, my solution is : REMAP the button!. I assigned menu button to be home button and vice versa. Here is my /system/usr/keylayout/hero-keypad.kl :
$ cat /system/usr/keylayout/hero-keypad.kl
key 102 MENU WAKE_DROPPED
key 139 HOME WAKE_DROPPED
key 158 BACK
key 217 SEARCH
key 107 ENDCALL WAKE_DROPPED
key 231 CALL WAKE_DROPPED
key 115 VOLUME_UP WAKE
key 114 VOLUME_DOWN WAKE
i'm considering to swap them physically but it seems to be complicated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sended mine too service and see what they gonna say when finished repair. 1 week have gone and still not fixed it. *missed mine Desire*
dt33 said:
I sended mine too service and see what they gonna say when finished repair. 1 week have gone and still not fixed it. *missed mine Desire*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This post might be a bit old. But sinds some days i've been experiencing the same problem. So I was wondering if your problem has been fixed after getting back from repair. Because I really do not want to miss it and I don't know how to do that key mapping stuff. So please let me know what happened...
Thanks!
Have anybody here fixed this issue?
I have the same issue on my desire!
Please help!
SCesar
hi,
any one able to fix this issue. mine is also gone now. this happened after issuing the following command in terminal emulator. su , a2sd cachesd.
the phone rebooted and after that menu home and vol up key is intermittent. tried reflashing and tried various roms. any help appreciated.
Rds
Arun
Hi,
Also have noticed that the keys work once other power is connected. Can anyone be able to help.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
HTC Desire buttons: menu, volume down, optical joypad
Hello,
Have you found any sollution to your problems? I've got the same one. After restart few buttons don't work. Volume down and optical joypad aren't working at all, menu button acts like volume up & home button pressed at the same time.
Anyone had similar problem? Do you know a solution?
Thank you, best regards, Darek.
Desire - problems with volume up, home and menu buttons
I have sam problem with my Desire. It has been rooted for almost 2 years with LeeDroid (various versions from about 2.2, through 2.5 final up to 3.0.8 now). The problem shows randomly for few days. Volume up button, home and menu button stop working. They start working again for a while sometimes, with no known reason.
Do You know any working solution?
I tried wipe data and cache partitions, I've upgraded LeeDroid from 2.5 to 3.0.8. No luck.
For rooted phones, this is a good temporary option. It's a little ugly, but saves the day
market.android.com/details?id=com.smart.swkey&hl=en

[Q] Help - HTC One X physical touch buttons stopped working

Hi folks. Today I experienced a strange behavior with my phone. The physical touch buttons at the bottom of the screen stopped working. I have tried installing other launchers but that did not solve the problems. It seems like a hardware failure. Can anyone help with ideas to solve this issue? Thanks
UPDATE: I pressed all three buttons simultaneously and they now seem to work fine. Hope this is a solid solution.
Hi
I have the same problem with my device but pressing all 3 buttons simultaneously does not work.
What is the exact process you followed when pressing the buttons? were in you in a specific screen or app when you did this? or perhaps you held the buttons for an extended period?
Thanks
Probably a general android bug, had this on my old nexus one and a reboot always sorted it
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
pranam said:
Hi
I have the same problem with my device but pressing all 3 buttons simultaneously does not work.
What is the exact process you followed when pressing the buttons? were in you in a specific screen or app when you did this? or perhaps you held the buttons for an extended period?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do a factory reset(back up your stuff first) then if the buttons are still not working then try to press all of them at once. that should definitely work.
thanks but nothing seems to work. The bottom bit of the screen (just above the buttons) is also not working so I've sent it back in
hopefully i get a working one soon!
i have the same problem with extras ((
bottom buttons not working, none of the three. when i try to press back or menu, sometimes nothing happens and sometimes i press above, like menu at home page. And also when i try touching them after a while the phone gets crazy, and starts to make strange things like entering some apps, switching between them, taking screen shots (normally i do not know how to do it), beeping, and going on like this without stopping. if i can press power of, it stops, otherwise it goes on himself.
My device is original , original rom without root, or something else. i just install apps from market thats all.
Please help me, now i can not use my phone
I had a similar problem, it was a hardware fault.
Couldn't use the hardware buttons anymore and the 1st centimeter above the buttonskeys was living his own life.
Friday I brought my phone back (unlocked) to a HTC service center near me and today (Monday) !! I got it back, repaired with a new LCD screen (all under warranty).
The positive side is that I have no scratches anymore in my screen, 1st thing i'm going to do is buying a screen protector.
Hi.
Same problem, physical buttons on bottom does not work.
The story:
Left my phone with my son for 3 days, came back, got phone back with buttons not working any more.
(Homer Simpson struggling Bart mode on).
Naturally, my son got no idea what happened etc.
Sent it back to HTC on warranty, they picked it up last friday, and I already got it back.
Reason for fault was water damage (got pictures attached from htc).
(Homer Simpson struggling Bart mode on).
UNREPAIRABLE as HTC states.
Problem is, buttons are ONLY thing which does not work. Everything else works fine, touchscreen, camera, etc etc.
As I went and read few forums, seems that there's some connection lost between physical buttons, and mainboard, is that correct?
Finally my question - If I will replace whole front panel (LCD + panel with buttons), would it be possible to make it work again?
Brand new complete front panels are like 40GBP on ebay...
(I will not be trying to replace buttons only, as I read, it is a bit more difficult...)
Help?
Install a ROM which has on screen buttons. You won't even notice the cap. buttons after a couple o' days especially if you switch off the lights.
And they are totally customizable - you can have up to 5 buttons if you want.
Cost: 0 (zero) GBP.
PS. Don't strangle your son LOL
Sent from my One X
TToivanen said:
Install a ROM which has on screen buttons. You won't even notice the cap. buttons after a couple o' days especially if you switch off the lights.
And they are totally customizable - you can have up to 5 buttons if you want.
Cost: 0 (zero) GBP.
PS. Don't strangle your son LOL
Sent from my One X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So thats one way of doing it, btw - which rom?
but i really would like to make buttons work... maybe I will risk those 40gbp and I will try to repair it....
hajaku said:
So thats one way of doing it, btw - which rom?
but i really would like to make buttons work... maybe I will risk those 40gbp and I will try to repair it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IceColdJelly 4.2.1 by LorD ClockaN :good:
Hi Guys.
Got my HOX wet when hiking, and now my three buttons are dead.
I am running Venom 3.7.7 and have found Button Savior (search on the market) is a perfect replacement for the broken back/home buttons.
Good luck to all who have the same problem.

[SOLVED] "SAFE MODE" overlay bottom left, HELP !

Hi guys,
I've been on xda for a long time and done all things on my trusty old desire, but recently, during a rainy day, i tried to listen to a call, and maybe some water got in..... I went turned off, went home, dried the phone for a couple of hours,
Now when i turned it on, there is a message overlay on bottom left of screen, :SAFE MODE:
SAFE mode disables your DATA partition and no other obvious side effects (but its a big problem itself)
I've googled i around and some say its hardware fault, some say they fixed it with some keypress combos.... i tried em all, no luck yet..... keys do work in rom, except the Vol down, trackpad, and power key(it reboots instead locking).
I tried several gb, ics roms, downgraded hboot, then upgraded, many wipes, many reboots...no luck as of now..... Any helpful suggessions are welcome. I love my desire very much and plan to use it (if repaired) for a year atleast....
If there is a workaround, tell me ill try it for sure. My phone out of warranty so i am also willing to open it up myself and in that respect, any guide or tutorial is also welcome. Please guys just anything, even for the sake of it. (i know i sound desperate, coz i really am. Being a student, u cant replace smartphones very easily)
Regards
A broken Desire owner:crying::crying::crying:
It seems your Vol down and trackpad are stuck, so they keep being pressed. Might be a contact problem, but might also be on the mainboard.
ok guys
Lets see,
I opened up my desire using a disassembly video, (pretty hard job finding right screw drivers).....
Now vol down, vol up working..... power key is acting normal (not rebooting the phone on key press),
Search, menu, home, back, all are working perfect......
Optical J-pad NOT working, not pressing, not moving,
And phone still in safe mode....
Now any tips !!!!
Regards
Yasir
Usually you'd go to safe mode when pressing the menu button while booting, but it may be the same with the trackpad (can't test that atm). You say menu button works fine? Try pressing Vol- and Power and see if it reboots, then your trackpad is still stuck (and you can probably fix it like you fixed the volume buttons).
thanks for reply
hi,
OK guys i have some update....
Desire can be put in safe mode by using MENU + POWER key combo, thats the normal process. BUT, if there is water stuck in ANY of the keys, may it be vol up/down, menu, home, optical joypad etc, the DESIRE will detect a Fault in hardware, and go in SAFE MODE ALWAYS, no matter whether u press a combo or not....
IN MY CASE, the optical joypad had the shortcircuit...... i opened my phone myself using a disassembly video, and cud clearly see the burn out wire in optical joypad. So i removed the optical joypad button cable from its connector.
For the rest of the keys, i JUST performed cleaning with cotton cloth, and packed the phone up.
Voila !!!! The phone booted up JUST FINE......
so for all you guys out there, if you encounter this, you know what to do.....
I'll attach the picture of removed OJ later.
Regards
Yasir

[Q] Power button hyper-sensitive

Hi all,
I've had some problems with my S3 power button. It's behaving like it's being pressed when it isn't. Just slightly brushing it, without depressing the button, is registering a press. Pressing the button is behaving like the button is being held.
I've read a number of possible fixes. I tried software options, just to be sure (cleared cache, factory reset). But this is almost certainly a hardware problem.
I stripped the phone down and the physical button itself looks absolutely fine. It is interacting as it should with the internal button on the motherboard. The issue seems to be that the internal button attached to the motherboard (the little white button) is registering clicks even when it's not being fully depressed.
The phone did have some water damage about 6 months ago. I wonder if this could be causing the the phone to mess up now?
I even tried a fix that many people seem to think works: smacking the crap out of the power button itself. It had no affect on my phone - I think that "fix" that is for a power button that is stuck depressed and not a power button registering phantom clicks/being hyper-sensitive.
So I suppose I have the following questions:
1) Has anyone else experienced similar problems and, if so, did they get it fixed?
2) My plan is to try replacing the motherboard/logic board and see if that helps. Does that sound like the best fix or is it overkill?
3) If I'm replacing the motherboard, does it need to be an I747 motherboard or will any S3 model work fine?
4) What's the best source for a motherboard? I don't mind if they're used or refub so long as they work.
Any advice you can offer is welcome.
Cheers.
BenScopato said:
Hi all,
I've had some problems with my S3 power button. It's behaving like it's being pressed when it isn't. Just slightly brushing it, without depressing the button, is registering a press. Pressing the button is behaving like the button is being held.
I've read a number of possible fixes. I tried software options, just to be sure (cleared cache, factory reset). But this is almost certainly a hardware problem.
I stripped the phone down and the physical button itself looks absolutely fine. It is interacting as it should with the internal button on the motherboard. The issue seems to be that the internal button attached to the motherboard (the little white button) is registering clicks even when it's not being fully depressed.
The phone did have some water damage about 6 months ago. I wonder if this could be causing the the phone to mess up now?
I even tried a fix that many people seem to think works: smacking the crap out of the power button itself. It had no affect on my phone - I think that "fix" that is for a power button that is stuck depressed and not a power button registering phantom clicks/being hyper-sensitive.
So I suppose I have the following questions:
1) Has anyone else experienced similar problems and, if so, did they get it fixed?
2) My plan is to try replacing the motherboard/logic board and see if that helps. Does that sound like the best fix or is it overkill?
3) If I'm replacing the motherboard, does it need to be an I747 motherboard or will any S3 model work fine?
4) What's the best source for a motherboard? I don't mind if they're used or refub so long as they work.
Any advice you can offer is welcome.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the exact same problem with mine, and unfortunately there's not much you can do about it as it's a hardware defect. I haven't tried replacing motherboards or anything, so that might help you. What I did to help with the problem was rerouting my power button to my volume up key so that I can use the power button as little as possible. The only time I use the power button now is when I need to power it on - which causes reboot loops sometimes.
Drisc0 said:
I had the exact same problem with mine, and unfortunately there's not much you can do about it as it's a hardware defect. I haven't tried replacing motherboards or anything, so that might help you. What I did to help with the problem was rerouting my power button to my volume up key so that I can use the power button as little as possible. The only time I use the power button now is when I need to power it on - which causes reboot loops sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sucks.
I like the sound of your work around, though. Was it pretty simple rerouting the power button?
BenScopato said:
Sucks.
I like the sound of your work around, though. Was it pretty simple rerouting the power button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto, my power button is borked too. Ended up doing the same thing but I don't use my power button at all. I just use rom toolbox to reboot system/into recovery
Rerouting was simple for me as it's baked into the settings in the rom I'm on (ground zero) as it is with most custom ROM'S I've been on. If you're just running stock I'm sure there's an app in the market that'll work however I'm drawing a blank ATM
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
brianray14 said:
Ditto, my power button is borked too. Ended up doing the same thing but I don't use my power button at all. I just use rom toolbox to reboot system/into recovery
Rerouting was simple for me as it's baked into the settings in the rom I'm on (ground zero) as it is with most custom ROM'S I've been on. If you're just running stock I'm sure there's an app in the market that'll work however I'm drawing a blank ATM
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running CM.
I've had a look through the routing options. What I can't locate is a way to disable the power button completely. My main problem right now is the phantom clicks. I'd rather that button be dead.
Anyone know of a way I can make that happen in CM?
Nevermind. I just physically removed the power button. That did the trick.
For anyone interested, you can replace a faulty power button on the motherboard pretty easily and the parts are cheap. If I wasn't due an upgrade in 4 months I'd probably do that. No need to replace the whole motherboard.
Does anyone know the app to reroute the button? I too have the same problem.

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