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[FIX] Clevo P370SM3 & SAGER NP9380-S 120Hz/3D SLI Flickering/Scanlines


BudMarLeY

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In my previous post listed here @ NP9380-S 120Hz SLI Glitch

@svl7 and @Prema walked us though this fix for the issue that I myself and others who own the SAGER NP9380-S (Clevo P370SM3) were having with issues with these glitches we were seeing.

This is an example of the issue that the NP9380-S has been having with it in SLI w/ 120Hz activated.

Please select 720p HD for a better look.

Note: Make sure your speakers are set low, because I had to add audio to the first video because my wife was talking to me.

The reason why I am creating this new thread is to save people time from skimming though all the posts on the old thread and to save time.

The fix has been found and it can be downloaded here at Nvidia Kepler vBIOS Mods where you have to scroll down to the end of the post and you will find the attached file named "Nvidia GTX 780m - OC edition - rev02.zip (127.0 KB)"

NOTE: For new members or guests to the forum, you must have at least 5 posts to be able to see it / download it, or become a T|I Elite Member.

This vBIOS mod is created by @svl7 and @johnksss so please make sure you thank them for their hard work and dedication for these vBIOS updates/edits.

You can donate to svl7 at this link, please do so for his work. It is not required but highly recommended.

To create a USB Flash Drive to load the vBIOS on and to make a backup of your old vBIOS please go to this link to learn how to do so.

WARNING: It is possible to brick your GPU by preforming a flash upon it and you take sole responsibility if it were to happen. Possible problems you could run into would be that the GPU doesn't recognize the vBIOS and you wont be able to see anything, so before you decide to flash, have a back up plan or figure out how to "blind flash" or build a .bat file to automatically load your OLD vBIOS in-case something were to happen. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

DO NOT EDIT @

svl7's vBIOS,

Doing so and flashing the edited vBIOS

will brick your video card(s).

:bananahuge:

NOTE!!!

ANYTHING AFTER THIS POST IS JUST DISCUSSION!!!

TO FIX THE FLICKERING/SCAN-LINES PLEASE DOWNLOAD

SVL7'S 780m OC Edition vBIOS LISTED ABOVE!

Thank you!

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Thank you for that! Hopefully soon this will no longer be a issue with computers that get sent directly to new customers.

edit: Hey @evilevil did you manage to upload the vBIOS listed in this thread? Just wondering if those videos are posted before the flash of the vBIOS or after.

also if you notice in the second video toward the end of it, the problem disappears. This happens to me as well when the temp of the second GPU goes beyond 65c-69c. It will only shutter once in a blue moon when the temps go past that.

editx2: I'm also looking into getting a second PSU (power brick) and using the Clevo supplied dual PSU adapter which looks like this. (For the simple fact of overclocking later on, because the stock 330w PSU is almost maxxed out with just regular settings. The GPU's in SLI pull 200w +/- and the CPU 50w +/- and you have to put into play all the other stuff this computer has that can drain wattage pretty fast.)

NBA-CLV-AC100.jpg

This is the Clevo AC-100 Power Converter Box.

You can find them on a couple of sites for anywhere from 40$-90$. Just have to hunt around for it. I got a quote for it from XoticPC and they said 95$ which I feel is a little steep. Cheapest that I saw for the power brick was 130$ but I cant seem to find it anymore. Next in line would be direct from either SAGER's website or XoticPC. I havnt checked other resellers but I'm sure they are all the same price overall.

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Does anyone know if this fix the game black screen? I have 780M SLI and 120hz, I'm not experiencig flickering but after some seconds in the game the screen goes black and game crash later.

Im not 100% but I know that when it would get the flickering and it became so bad that the driver would crash and it would go to black or white screen and it wouldn't let me ALT+TAB out of it. I would have to CTRL+ALT+DELETE and bring up my task manager and close the game down.

You could give it a test run and tell us your results. It can't hurt.

If you could download GPU-Z and give us your BIOS version, we can tell wither or not you could use the vBIOS update. The vBIOS version should look like this but with letters and numbers. XX.XX.XX.XX.XX

you can download GPU-Z from my dropbox to make it easier on you.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hp3kz035by7rxbl/mZMTVF_a8d/GPU-Z.0.7.3.exe

Keep us informed if it helps the black screen issue. Thanks!

edit: I believe the nVidia 780m OC edition that is listed in this forum is version 80.04.B3.00.10 and it has been used to fix a multitude of issues with the 780m's in SLI.

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Bud we want people to try it more in other games as well and if possible to run all games (SLI in 120hz) for couple of hours.

Also if I may add if you could please press Alt+Tab to minimize the game during your gaming and re-switch to the game back in full screen and repeat this process several times in a couple of games as this method somehow speeds ups the flickering white lines process and make it even worse. To be 100% sure that the problem is completely solved

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Bud we want people to try it more in other games as well and if possible to run all games (SLI in 120hz) for couple of hours.

Also if I may add if you could please press Alt+Tab to minimize the game during your gaming and re-switch to the game back in full screen and repeat this process several times in a couple of games as this method somehow speeds ups the flickering white lines process and make it even worse. To be 100% sure that the problem is completely solved

I agree, I would try the ALT+TAB thing if I had my computer here with me. Until then we have to try and get the people who have the same issue as us to try it out and re-post it. I dont know when my ETA of my laptop coming back to me is. I'm hoping by the end of next week, because I want to fully test these vBIOS and play some damn games!

---updated---

If this isn't allowed to be posted here, please tell me or have the mods delete from the "---updated---" down.

Anyhoo, this is what I noticed that was different from the 80.04.B3.00.10 (svl7's oc edition) and the 80.04.92.00.09 (regular). I cant do the test on the 80.04.BD.00.05 (one that was shipped with our computers) because I do not have it on me at the moment.

post-18596-14494996277564_thumb.jpg

as you can see from above there is a definite power increase, which could be what is causing the flickering in the old one. If I'm right with my hypothesis, then the vbios that is with our computers that is causing the glitching isn't producing enough power to run the cards in SLI w/ 120hz on.

I have a feeling there is a increase in power draw when 120hz is on, and its just enough to cause the cards to slow down. When the cards are cold so to say, they have a lower power draw, then it warms up and the power increases, this is where the glitching happens. By increasing the amount of power to the cards thats its allowed to draw it pulls more and fixes the problem. This is just a guess and is not educated to say the least.

What I would recommend is to get the AC-100 dual psu adapter and get a second brick and then overclock to your temps and hearts content.

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I agree, I would try the ALT+TAB thing if I had my computer here with me. Until then we have to try and get the people who have the same issue as us to try it out and re-post it. I dont know when my ETA of my laptop coming back to me is. I'm hoping by the end of next week, because I want to fully test these vBIOS and play some damn games!

---updated---

If this isn't allowed to be posted here, please tell me or have the mods delete from the "---updated---" down.

Anyhoo, this is what I noticed that was different from the 80.04.B3.00.10 (svl7's oc edition) and the 80.04.92.00.09 (regular). I cant do the test on the 80.04.BD.00.05 (one that was shipped with our computers) because I do not have it on me at the moment.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9313[/ATTACH]

as you can see from above there is a definite power increase, which could be what is causing the flickering in the old one. If I'm right with my hypothesis, then the vbios that is with our computers that is causing the glitching isn't producing enough power to run the cards in SLI w/ 120hz on.

I have a feeling there is a increase in power draw when 120hz is on, and its just enough to cause the cards to slow down. When the cards are cold so to say, they have a lower power draw, then it warms up and the power increases, this is where the glitching happens. By increasing the amount of power to the cards thats its allowed to draw it pulls more and fixes the problem. This is just a guess and is not educated to say the least.

What I would recommend is to get the AC-100 dual psu adapter and get a second brick and then overclock to your temps and hearts content.

Thanks for your effort in figuring that out. But if that's true how come the problem kept on increasing for me and some other people who weren't having this problem at the beginning including you and then it just appeared from nowhere. As also for me it kept on getting worse over time by which it start appearing immediately as I open the game despite the fact that it wasn't like that in the beginning by which it used to happen after 15 or 20 min in the game where the GPU starts to get hot.

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Thanks for your effort in figuring that out. But if that's true how come the problem kept on increasing for me and some other people who weren't having this problem at the beginning including you and then it just appeared from nowhere. As also for me it kept on getting worse over time by which it start appearing immediately as I open the game despite the fact that it wasn't like that in the beginning by which it used to happen after 15 or 20 min in the game where the GPU starts to get hot.

I don't know. That is the thing I don't understand. When I got my computer, for the first week everything was working fine. Then out of the blue I started my computer up one day and did what I normally would do, just started playing skyrim and I noticed the glitching happening. Originally I thought it was from my mods for skyrim but after formating my computer and just starting skyrim up normally it was still there. It may be different for everyone, when I talked to the SAGER RMA dept they said the ones they seen was nothing to write home about. They said "you have to look closely to see it" which I replied that it wasnt the case with my computer.

Maybe when we upgraded to the new driver for nVidia, maybe behind the process it flashed the bios. This is just a speculation. If this vBIOS works, I'm not going to question it. Ill accept it as it is and enjoy my games in full 120hz SLI. If it doesnt fix it, then I guess I'll be playing in 60hz SLI. I sent my computer to SAGER's RMA to make sure nothing was wrong with it. Then I found out here that the vBIOS was the culprit. We will see in a week or so when I get my computer if the vBIOS fixes it.

Until then I would say just make a backup of the old vBIOS and then flash the new one and check it out yourself and see if it fixes the issues your having.

I know that in BF3 and 4 the game started with the glitching right off the bat. It seems like its a common thing for the BF series games.

@evilevil

Did you flash your computer yet to see if the 780m OC edition fixes it?

edit: Im also trying to figure out what the GPU boost is in the svet's editor, and why its disabled in the OC edition. @svl7 can you speculate on this?

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Thank you for that! Hopefully soon this will no longer be a issue with computers that get sent directly to new customers.

edit: Hey @evilevil did you manage to upload the vBIOS listed in this thread? Just wondering if those videos are posted before the flash of the vBIOS or after.

Actually I haven't flash the vbios because as I said before I don't have much experience in vbios flashing and I wouldn't take the risk of bricking a $3k+ laptop and losing my warranty, so that's why I am gonna contact sager and RMA my laptop as quick as possible because I think they are the ones responsible for any errors or downfalls in any of their products and they are the ones responsible for solving these problems.

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Actually I haven't flash the vbios because as I said before I don't have much experience in vbios flashing and I wouldn't take the risk of bricking a $3k+ laptop and losing my warranty, so that's why I am gonna contact sager and RMA my laptop as quick as possible because I think they are the ones responsible for any errors or downfalls in any of their products and they are the ones responsible for solving these problems.

i thought the same thing until I read how easy it is to flash a vBIOS. you can also setup a .bat command (look it up on google) to do the process for you if you brick the vBIOS and cant see the screen.

SAGER will not flash the vBIOS and the only way you are going to fix this is to do it yourself. So its really if you can live with it, then stick with the glitching or if your brave enough, flash the hell outta it. Im sure @svl7 or @Prema will walk you though what you need to do if your really nervous. Im sure they would probably even talk you though it over the phone if your really lost. Or you could call me and I can walk you though it when I do it myself.

i guess we will have to wait until my computer gets back from sager to see if they fixed it. just a waiting game for now

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i thought the same thing until I read how easy it is to flash a vBIOS. you can also setup a .bat command (look it up on google) to do the process for you if you brick the vBIOS and cant see the screen.

SAGER will not flash the vBIOS and the only way you are going to fix this is to do it yourself. So its really if you can live with it, then stick with the glitching or if your brave enough, flash the hell outta it. Im sure @svl7 or @Prema will walk you though what you need to do if your really nervous. Im sure they would probably even talk you though it over the phone if your really lost. Or you could call me and I can walk you though it when I do it myself.

Ok that sounds great so actually I will not contact sager for now and wait till you receive your laptop and flash the vbios yourself and try it for at least couple of hours and with different games to make sure that it's working 100% as no one has tried it yet except for 1 or 2 people and they haven't place any update for the issue if it has completely gone or no after testing it for couple of days.

And for me I am not 100% sure to be a vBios because it seems that everyone is having this flickering issue differently as some people have it more severe than others according to what is mentioned in the forums and as what sager told you as well as it seems to be increasing and getting much worse by time. As also for this user ssam_sm he said that the flickering issue has worsen for him that it even starts appearing when he is playing the games in 3D which I think it's totally unacceptable as for me I purchased this laptop mainly for the it's 3D capability and it's 120hz screen.

Also maybe this vBios could fix the problem for couple of days maybe weeks and then comes back again so lets hope for the best.

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Ok that sounds great so actually I will not contact sager for now and wait till you receive your laptop and flash the vbios yourself and try it for at least couple of hours and with different games to make sure that it's working 100% as no one has tried it yet except for 1 or 2 people and they haven't place any update for the issue if it has completely gone or no after testing it for couple of days.

And for me I am not 100% sure to be a vBios because it seems that everyone is having this flickering issue differently as some people have it more severe than others according to what is mentioned in the forums and as what sager told you as well as it seems to be increasing and getting much worse by time. As also for this user ssam_sm he said that the flickering issue has worsen for him that it even starts appearing when he is playing the games in 3D which I think it's totally unacceptable as for me I purchased this laptop mainly for the it's 3D capability and it's 120hz screen.

Also maybe this vBios could fix the problem for couple of days maybe weeks and then comes back again so lets hope for the best.

yea, ill keep you in the loop and i will test it with loads of games. when i had 3d on it still would flicker.

im also waiting on a update as well. but nothing as of yet.

just waiting on @kenandaoer to hear how his results are.

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yea, ill keep you in the loop and i will test it with loads of games. when i had 3d on it still would flicker.

im also waiting on a update as well. but nothing as of yet.

just waiting on @kenandaoer to hear how his results are.

Bud have you tried to contact Xotic or SAGER and inform them about the V-BIOS so they can test it with a couple of different laptops as well, I guess they may keep your notebook for the next year trying to figure out the problem if they didn't try the V-BIOS & it may be the only solution as of now.

To be honest I don't see them resolving the problem without someone insisting that they must try the V-BIOS solution.

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Bud have you tried to contact Xotic or SAGER and inform them about the V-BIOS so they can test it with a couple of different laptops as well, I guess they may keep your notebook for the next year trying to figure out the problem if they didn't try the V-BIOS & it may be the only solution as of now.

To be honest I don't see them resolving the problem without someone insisting that they must try the V-BIOS solution.

XoticPC is tracking, but they wont flash a system either, and SAGER knows the issue is there and they are testing a multitude of fixes EXCEPT flashing. I'm going to give them until Wednesday to reply back to me then I'm going to give them a call and request either they figure it out or mail it back to me.

And yes I've talked to both XoticPC and SAGER. Talked to XPC on Thursday and talked to SAGER on Wednesday. Told them both that there is a vBIOS that reportedly fixes the stuttering and flickering.

If we can get more people to complain to SAGER and XPC then someone will be like "hey lets fix this"

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Sorry, I've been pretty busy today, so I haven't been able to test the cards as much as I wanted to.

I did manage to squeeze in a few benchmarks(3dmark 11 and valley), a little bit of tomb raider, company of heroes 2, Rome II (No SLI profile yet, sigh), and an hour of dota 2. All were ran in fullscreen and no flickers appeared. I occasionally switched back and forth between the game and desktop, and I still can't see any flickers. FPS were what I expected them to be (nearly identical to the new Alienware m18's benchmarks posted here), and the temps were fine, maxed at 82C and 80C.

I'll try to play more games whenever I can. But for now the vbios is working great!

Edit: Playing some dead space 3 in fullscreen right now, and again, no flickers!

Edit 2: Temps got pretty high in dead space 3, around 90 for both cards (without turbo fans. Still, I used to get these temps anyway, so I don't think it's caused by the vbios

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Sorry, I've been pretty busy today, so I haven't been able to test the cards as much as I wanted to.

I did manage to squeeze in a few benchmarks(3dmark 11 and valley), a little bit of tomb raider, company of heroes 2, Rome II (No SLI profile yet, sigh), and an hour of dota 2. All were ran in fullscreen and no flickers appeared. I occasionally switched back and forth between the game and desktop, and I still can't see any flickers. FPS were what I expected them to be (nearly identical to the new Alienware m18's benchmarks posted here), and the temps were fine, maxed at 82C and 80C.

I'll try to play more games whenever I can. But for now the vbios is working great!

Edit: Playing some dead space 3 in fullscreen right now, and again, no flickers!

Thank you ken for the update! much appreciated!

Keep up the good work and I personally cant wait to hear back for a update on how the vBIOS is treating you.

edit:

after a somewhat long hiatus on XPC's forums, I went back to check on a old post that I made for this issue and found there are other people with the same problem.

http://xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?16480-780m-in-SLI-on-Sager-Notebook-irritating-issue-please-help-%28with-video%29

my post

http://xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?16521-Test-Matrix-Multiple-780m-SLI-issues-%28on-Sager-9380-S-only-%29

someone elses post

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Sorry, I've been pretty busy today, so I haven't been able to test the cards as much as I wanted to.

I did manage to squeeze in a few benchmarks(3dmark 11 and valley), a little bit of tomb raider, company of heroes 2, Rome II (No SLI profile yet, sigh), and an hour of dota 2. All were ran in fullscreen and no flickers appeared. I occasionally switched back and forth between the game and desktop, and I still can't see any flickers. FPS were what I expected them to be (nearly identical to the new Alienware m18's benchmarks posted here), and the temps were fine, maxed at 82C and 80C.

I'll try to play more games whenever I can. But for now the vbios is working great!

Edit: Playing some dead space 3 in fullscreen right now, and again, no flickers!

Edit 2: Temps got pretty high in dead space 3, around 90 for both cards (without turbo fans. Still, I used to get these temps anyway, so I don't think it's caused by the vbios

Thanks for posting your results after flashing the vbios and hope to hear from you on more games and hope also while you are in the middle of the game to just minimize it (alt+tab) for a couple of times and then maximize it to full screen again to make 100 % sure that the problem is solved. Try also to play the game for at least more than a hour to double check if the high temperature will actually gonna affect the performance and cause the flickering problem to appear again for most of the games or not.

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Thanks for posting your results after flashing the vbios and hope to hear from you on more games and hope also while you are in the middle of the game to just minimize it (alt+tab) for a couple of times and then maximize it to full screen again to make 100 % sure that the problem is solved. Try also to play the game for at least more than a hour to double check if the high temperature will actually gonna affect the performance and cause the flickering problem again for most of the games or not.

he said in his post that he switched back and forth a few times to the desktop and the game and it had no effect on the flickering coming back. From what I understood from his post is that it is working flawlessly but he will keep up in the loop.

edit: when I get mine back Ill do the benchmarks for a full 24 hours and see what happens.

When i was running the heaven benchmark i had the flickering like a mad man, so that will be the first one I do to see if it works.

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he said in his post that he switched back and forth a few times to the desktop and the game and it had no effect on the flickering coming back. From what I understood from his post is that it is working flawlessly but he will keep up in the loop.

edit: when I get mine back Ill do the benchmarks for a full 24 hours and see what happens.

When i was running the heaven benchmark i had the flickering like a mad man, so that will be the first one I do to see if it works.

I actually meant that if he could just keep doing this minimizing and maximizing thing for all of the games he is going to try now and afterward.

And Bud I hope that you will receive your laptop as soon as possible as I am also waiting for your results aswell.

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I actually meant that if he could just keep doing this minimizing and maximizing thing for all of the games he is going to try now and afterward.

And Bud I hope that you will receive your laptop as soon as possible as I am also waiting for your results aswell.

ditto!

i take it the issues happen at its worse for you when you switch back and forth to the desktop and the game?

edit:

hey @evilevil do you have GPU-Z installed on your computer.

Im looking for the vBIOS you have on your computer right now.

I want to see what the clocks are and the power settings.

if you can get me a copy of your vBIOS though GPU-Z i would greatly appreciate that.

editx2: nvm I got it from @kenandaoer, thanks ken!

editx3:

WTF!!!!!!

@svl7 or @Prema

is it me or does this vBIOS look a little jacked up?

this is the default bios that came loaded with @kenandaoer, who was having the same issue and all of us.

look at the power target at the bottom of the image...

wtf.jpg

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In my previous post listed here @ NP9380-S 120Hz SLI Glitch

@svl7 and @Prema walked us though this fix for the issue that I myself and others who own the SAGER NP9380-S (Clevo P370SM3) were having with issues with these glitches we were seeing.

This is an example of the issue that the NP9380-S has been having with it in SLI w/ 120Hz activated.

Please select 720p HD for a better look.

Note: Make sure your speakers are set low, because I had to add audio to the first video because my wife was talking to me.

The reason why I am creating this new thread is to save people time from skimming though all the posts on the old thread and to save time.

The fix has been found and it can be downloaded here at Nvidia Kepler vBIOS Mods where you have to scroll down to the end of the post and you will find the attached file named "Nvidia GTX 780m - OC edition - rev02.zip (127.0 KB)"

NOTE: For new members or guests to the forum, you must have at least 5 posts to be able to see it / download it, or become a T|I Elite Member.

This vBIOS mod is created by @svl7 and @johnksss so please make sure you thank them for their hard work and dedication for these vBIOS updates/edits.

You can donate to svl7 at this link, please do so for his work. It is not required but highly recommended.

To create a USB Flash Drive to load the vBIOS on and to make a backup of your old vBIOS please go to this link to learn how to do so.

WARNING: It is possible to brick your GPU by preforming a flash upon it and you take sole responsibility if it were to happen. Possible problems you could run into would be that the GPU doesn't recognize the vBIOS and you wont be able to see anything, so before you decide to flash, have a back up plan or figure out how to "blind flash" or build a .bat file to automatically load your OLD vBIOS in-case something were to happen. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

DO NOT EDIT @svl7's vBIOS, Doing so and flashing the edited vBIOS will brick your computer.

:bananahuge:

NOTE!!!

ANYTHING AFTER THIS POST IS JUST DISCUSSION!!!

TO FIX THE FLICKERING/SCAN-LINES PLEASE DOWNLOAD

SVL7'S 780m OC Edition vBIOS LISTED ABOVE!

Thank you!

Thanks Prema and SV7. You Guys have been a BIG HELP. And Bud i appreciate the youtube because i thought i had a blown card! Im gonna have to get you guys a beer and join that elite status!!!!

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Thanks Prema and SV7. You Guys have been a BIG HELP. And Bud i appreciate the youtube because i thought i had a blown card! Im gonna have to get you guys a beer and join that elite status!!!!

i just want to figure ut what is wrong with this computer. then i would be happy :)

thanks for everyones input

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