Database Users

Difference between pulling the battery and long-press hangup?

Presumably the long-press of the hangup button won't do much if the system is hung (though I have yet to see that happen) but is using that method to reboot different than yanking the battery? It appears to do a full reboot and is presumably more graceful than the battery-pull.

Holding the power button and pressing the power off dialog is better than pulling the battery. Pulling the battery should only be done in extreme cases. Think of it as a computer if you pull the plug on your computer right now you will probably end up with some error that windows will have to fix or halfed entered entries in the program your working on.
This is why it looks to be more graceful. Because it can perform shutdown scripts that can do things like wiping the cache and telling the OS when it turns on that everything is clean.

Yeah, I was inspired to post when I read Brooklynite's post about GPS/Map oddities.
But there was also someone on HoFo who complained that his Messaging app will slow down after a few days and the only way he has been able to fix it is by popping the battery. I said "That's weird...turning the phone off and on doesn't fix it?" and the poster said it did not.
I didn't feel like belaboring the point but I had a feeling he did not know the difference between standby and off.
So I figured I'd ask here where people are a little more tech-savvy to figure out if either there's something I don't know about the long-press or if maybe people just didnt RTFM and don't even know it exists

I'd also agree that turning it off the "right" way is better, but pulling the battery probably won't harm the phone at all either.

cboy007 said:
I'd also agree that turning it off the "right" way is better, but pulling the battery probably won't harm the phone at all either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That isn't always true it all depends on what you are doing... while it might not harm it permanently doing a wipe of the phone isn't fun either. You pull the battery in the middle of it doing something like saving your settings and you may have some horrible issues.

tidy rebooting method
I su to my fixed rc30 # shell (1 one was bad, it killed my ability to root then I just type "reboot" I tried shutdown -r now but shutdown ain't on board, is it in "busybox"?
I'm askin cause the reboot command seems to kill the thing. To fast to not be much better than pullin the power, maybe I'm wrong I'm no linuxatarion but I know some basics (other than X, I'm not the linux xpert who's afraid of commandlines
If somebody can figure what's happenning when "reboot" is exe'd locally and see how down and dirty it is or isn't or if there is a more graceful to reeboot dis biatch
Bhang, bang, bhang!

bhang said:
I su to my fixed rc30 # shell (1 one was bad, it killed my ability to root then I just type "reboot" I tried shutdown -r now but shutdown ain't on board, is it in "busybox"?
I'm askin cause the reboot command seems to kill the thing. To fast to not be much better than pullin the power, maybe I'm wrong I'm no linuxatarion but I know some basics (other than X, I'm not the linux xpert who's afraid of commandlines
If somebody can figure what's happenning when "reboot" is exe'd locally and see how down and dirty it is or isn't or if there is a more graceful to reeboot dis biatch
Bhang, bang, bhang!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will check it out this weekend.

Soft-reset without having to take the back cover off the phone

Here is a tiny program to soft-reset your phone without having to take the back cover off the phone. You access the program from the programs menu (Start--Programs).
http://www.clickapps.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=19165&section=PPC
@Beards: I added it to the wiki list, but for some reason the table structure of the item following is messed up (the version appears in the comments cell). It was my first time editing the wiki, so let me know if I did something wrong.

Chris Cross said:
Here is a tiny program to soft-reset your phone without having to take the back cover off the phone. You access the program from the programs menu (Start--Programs).
http://www.clickapps.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=19165&section=PPC
@Beards: I added it to the wiki list, but for some reason the table structure of the item following is messed up (the version appears in the comments cell). It was my first time editing the wiki, so let me know if I did something wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=450643
has a soft reset app i wrapped. It has no prompts, and just F.D.I

I have to say this does exactly what we need, no fuss, it just works.
Thanks.

Power button will do also
If the unit has not frozen completely, you can long press the power button and get the dialog box asking about losing data and asking Yes or No to continue.
This is actually the first time I have ever seen a built-in option of actually shutting the entire unit completely off! Just like removing the battery!
I tried this method a few times when it looked like the whole thing locked up (experimenting with old/incompatible apps) and it worked like a charm. I have had to remove the back cover only once to use the reset button.
Regards,
Gordo

Yes, this is the method I use and it is very convenient. Even when my screen freeze or the unit seems to hang, holding the button will still allow me to shut down. Hold again to restart.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3034819#post3034819

broken screen/rooted/warranty

I have a droid 2 rooted running 2.3.20.a955 07 kernel and fission 2.1 I think the rom version is about 2 months old. My screen is broke and I have to send it in to verizon its going through there warranty as a defect there sending me a replacement by tue/wed. I have to send in my defective phone within 6 days or something.
1. How if possible can I do factory reset/wipe my phone Sbf?
2. My phone even though the screen is broke it works the screen does not work I can hit the power button and the keys light up or go dim, I have kept it on the charger and my phone is set to usb debugging enabled.
3. Where can I find the correct sbf file/instructions for my version(if possible).
Thanks in advance

First and foremost, is the screen physically damages? It would be tough to SBF without a display at all.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App

My screen doesn't function at all, I didn't drop it, one of my keys when opening my phone slide back into the phone and then after a few slides the screen went blank.

I think it's possible to sbf but there would be no way of checking if it worked or if you are in the bootloader where you need to be to flash the sbf.
Maybe you could check if you connected it to a computer afterward and if your phone is set to make a noise when connected via USB you might see a change but other than that there wouldn't be a way to check to see if it worked.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App

Turn the phone off, plug it in to your computer, and turn it on. I've always found when my phone is plugged in to my computer and I turn it on, it automatically goes into the bootloader. Flash the SBF, obviously if it gets some sort of error, then it wasn't in the bootloader. If it successfully finishes, I think it would be safe to say that it worked. At this point, it's worth a shot.''
SBF Instructions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=770224
SBF Download:
hxxp://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-2-hacks/98972-need-2-3-20-sbf-file-where-download.html (replace xx with tt)

Alright sounds like I have some hope, I know that if I pull my battery in and out twice it kicks me to boot recovery.

orki's suggestions sound pretty good.

1) Perform an SBF, you can do this without seeing the screen. Just boot the phone in bootstrap (i forget what to hold but i think it is up key + power). Launch rsdLite and it will detect your phone, then perform an SBF. Wait until rsdlite says the phone is booted and complete.
(We are gonna do this without a screen so just do what I say...)
2) Pull the battery and then replace it.
3) Reboot the phone holding X+power (this will take you to the stock recovery)
4) Press volume down 3 times
5) Press camera
6) Press the menu button repeatedly for about 2-3 minutes (the stock recovery can hang when you are resetting to factory so thats why the repeated presses). You can also try sliding the phone closed and waiting 2-3 minutes (sometimes if it is closed it won't hang), but it is probably safer to just tap the ok key (menu). You can always repeat this step if you are worried or feel it might not have worked.
7) After a few minutes you should be able to press the camera button and the phone will reboot. It is now completely and totally stock. You can also just pull the battery and reboot at this point also and no harm will be done.

[Q] Any way to turn phone on/off without power button

Alright here's the deal. My phone is completely unresponsive to the power button. Volume up/down work just fine, but power does nothing. I've downloaded "Touch Control" which works great for locking/unlocking the phone, but I have no idea how to turn the phone completely off, or how I would get it back from being "off". This morning it wouldn't turn on, but when I connected it to my charger/computer it would start charging. I figured it was toast, but it randomly booted up like normal (minus the power button). Can anyone let me know how to turn on the phone without the button? If it requires connecting a computer that is do-able, but i'd rather have a way to make the phone turn on with the volume button.

BurtonSnol3order said:
Alright here's the deal. My phone is completely unresponsive to the power button. Volume up/down work just fine, but power does nothing. I've downloaded "Touch Control" which works great for locking/unlocking the phone, but I have no idea how to turn the phone completely off, or how I would get it back from being "off". This morning it wouldn't turn on, but when I connected it to my charger/computer it would start charging. I figured it was toast, but it randomly booted up like normal (minus the power button). Can anyone let me know how to turn on the phone without the button? If it requires connecting a computer that is do-able, but i'd rather have a way to make the phone turn on with the volume button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turning on the phone from the computer is not possible afaik. I would suggest doing a data factory reset in settings/backup and restore or reflash a stock image.

Well I'm sure you can just write a Tasker task to turn your phone off basically any way you want to, the volume buttons or otherwise. If you don't already know about it, just look up Tasker in the Play store, it's really useful and worth a buy. As for turning it back on after it's off, that will be a little harder. I don't really know how you would go about doing that. I am interested to see what other people come up with though, so I'll stick around and read for any solutions.

gee2012 said:
The best is to unscrew the backcover and disconnect the battery and wait a minute or two, then reasemble it. You`ll need a special screwdriver
though. Check on Google which one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd really prefer not to disassemble the phone, but I might have to give it a shot later on down the road. Although, I'd still have to turn off my phone and turn the phone back on. I'd rather not have my phone turn off until I can find a way to turn it back on in case the button still won't function after I mess with opening up the phone.
Johmama said:
Well I'm sure you can just write a Tasker task to turn your phone off basically any way you want to, the volume buttons or otherwise. If you don't already know about it, just look up Tasker in the Play store, it's really useful and worth a buy. As for turning it back on after it's off, that will be a little harder. I don't really know how you would go about doing that. I am interested to see what other people come up with though, so I'll stick around and read for any solutions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use tasker for lots of things at the moment, but how would I get tasker to get my phone to do anything from a "completely off" state? I could use it for the wake/sleep function but I like Touch Control at the moment. My problem is turning it completely off and then back on from completely off. I believe Tasker wouldn't be running to perform the commands from a completely off state.

BurtonSnol3order said:
I'd really prefer not to disassemble the phone, but I might have to give it a shot later on down the road. Although, I'd still have to turn off my phone and turn the phone back on. I'd rather not have my phone turn off until I can find a way to turn it back on in case the button still won't function after I mess with opening up the phone.
I use tasker for lots of things at the moment, but how would I get tasker to get my phone to do anything from a "completely off" state? I could use it for the wake/sleep function but I like Touch Control at the moment. My problem is turning it completely off and then back on from completely off. I believe Tasker wouldn't be running to perform the commands from a completely off state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I edited my post above, didn`t read it well enough (tired i guess ).

gee2012 said:
Turning on the phone from the computer is not possible afaik. I would suggest doing a data factory reset in settings/backup and restore or reflash a stock image.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is your reasoning behind the factory reset? I'm perfectly happy with my phone as is, and I don't know how to reflash images without the camera button to "select" the zip files. I know I can run the reset through the settings but I don't want to be stuck without a way to at least get back to where I currently am.
Ultimately, does anyone know how to map something like vol up + vol down to turn the phone completely off or back on? Or at least show a way through usb debugging to turn on a phone.

I've been reading a few places that claim you can turn on the phone via ADB and then there are other places saying it isn't possible. Does anyone have any experience with this?

BurtonSnol3order said:
I've been reading a few places that claim you can turn on the phone via ADB and then there are other places saying it isn't possible. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From a quick search it looks like this should work:
Code:
adb shell
reboot -p
Havent tried it though.

chromium96 said:
Code:
adb shell
reboot -p
Havent tried it though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried it with my wife's N4. ADB works normal with it powered on, but when I have it off and connect it, it does not show in the device list and therefore I can't sent the reboot command. Anyone have anything else to try next?

Quick update. I was reading some people felt having CWM recovery would allow it to be seen in ADB while "off". I just put it back on my wife's phone and still nothing gets recognized. Does anyone know what version of CWM I'd need to download to get it to be recognized in ADB while turned off?

I've had this same problem for the past week and there is a really simple fix. Obviously without a power button you have two problems: 1) you can't turn the screen on and off 2) you can't turn the phone on if the battery completely dies or is removed.
Solution to not being able to turn screen on and off
-Download one of the many apps that uses the accelerometer and/or proximity sensor to control the screen (such as 'Awesome On Off')
Solution to not being able to power on the phone
-Use "recovery mode" to turn the phone on and then click to restart the phone. Google search for how to enter recovery mode for your specific device, but for the Galaxy S2 Skyrocket you turn the phone off, disconnect the charging cable, and while it's off you press and hold both volume buttons at once. While holding these buttons you connect the usb charging cable and a message pops up telling you to press "volume up" to enter recovery mode or press "volume down" to exit recovery mode and restart the phone. Do this second option. Your phone will reboot and you'll be back to your home screen.
Hope this helps someone!

I haven't looked into this in detail but I doubt it will be too hard to just fix/replace the button.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Best way to turn on and turn off android is to use ADB & fast boot.
1.Install ADB & fastboot on windows
2.Boot your android into download mode
3.Connect to PC via USB
4.Oppen command prompt from ADB Folder
5.Now issue this command > " adb reboot".
Source: http://rootmygalaxy.net/how-to-turn-on-off-android-phone-without-power-button/

Adb is a good way

[Q] Continuous reboot into "No Command"

Hey everyone I really hope you can help me out here. Last night my completely stock Nexus 7 2012 locked up during normal use. It had KitKat 4.4.4 on it not rooted or unlocked. I THINK usb debug was enabled but don't honestly remember. After the lock up I forced it to power off. When it started up again, it was stuck with the 4 circles going round and round. After a long wait I went into recovery and tried to wipe the cache. This went on for almost 10 min but never completed. I forced it to power off again (and here is where I panic and things get fuzzy. I tried to get back into recovery and just restore it but I can not get it to do anything except boot to the dead android picture and a message that says NO COMMAND. I've tried to use the VOL UP and Power button sequence to get the menu and it won't come up. It stays on that screen for a few seconds and then it acts like its restarts but I never see the google logo just this dead android flashing on and off with the no command error. I've read several threads, tried the WUG toolkit as well as skipsoft toolkit but with the device stuck in this loop nothing can communicate with it. I removed the cover and unplugged the battery which gets the machine to shut down but when it powers back on even with key sequences I can't get anything but this dead android. I can use power and VOL up to get into APX mode but that is my only other option. Please give me some more suggestions!

Well things have gotten worse now I can no longer get past the black and white google screen. I'm guess this thing is just toast.

How old is it? If it's under a year, you can RMA it back to ASUS and they'll fix it for free. Since you haven't rooted it nor unlocked it (although I don't think that would be an issue anyway), they shouldn't have any issue with repairing it. Just be sure you didn't leave any signs that you opened it or else, that will void the warranty and they won't repair it for free.

Its exactly 2 years old today. It was a birthday present. funny how it chose today to die.

Okay just so I can have some closure here,
The tablet will not shut off when I hold power button it shuts off and comes right back on to the google logo.
I can NOT get into boot loader or recovery at all. No key sequences work what so ever. I've been into recover and boot loader before on this device so its not that don't know how.
The only time it gets detected by my PC when plugged in via usb is if its int APX mode which as far as I can read is useless to me.
So is there any other secret or is it just trash now?
Thank you.

My wife's was doing this when it failed an OTA. Hold the power button long enough the screen will go dark for a couple seconds.when it's dark, hold all three buttons down and wait.it will go into fastboot.use nexus root toolkit to flash stock+ unroot and select bootloop .
---------- Post added at 09:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 PM ----------
Ps it did this because she accepted an OTA not knowing I had TWRP on there.

KANDL said:
Okay just so I can have some closure here,
The tablet will not shut off when I hold power button it shuts off and comes right back on to the google logo.
I can NOT get into boot loader or recovery at all. No key sequences work what so ever. I've been into recover and boot loader before on this device so its not that don't know how.
The only time it gets detected by my PC when plugged in via usb is if its int APX mode which as far as I can read is useless to me.
So is there any other secret or is it just trash now?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"The tablet will not shut off..." <<---- This suggests that you are seeing or observing something happening. But based on your previous posts I can not tell exactly what you are now observing - the black & white Google logo?
I would start first with trying to determine if the battery is capable of being charged. The last thing you want to be doing is fooling around with this stuff with a nearly dead battery.
If you put it on a 2A wall charger (*not* a PC USB port), does the tablet warm up a little after 20-30 minutes? If so, leave it on the charger for at least 2 hours. (Heck, even if it doesn't warm up, same advice - put it on the wall charger for at least 2 hours)
OK, next item for you to consider. In Android devices, there is usually a nonvolatile storage area (maybe in the "misc" partition?) called the BCB (Boot Communication Block). The bootloader will always look at that area first, and if there are no boot instructions in there, by default the bootloader will attempt to load & jump to the entry point of the contents of the LNX partition (Linux boot partition). This would cause a "normal" Android boot to occur by default when turning the power on. The other two common instructions in the BCB are for a reboot into the recovery, or instructions for the bootloader to stay resident but drop into it's fastboot mode.
Why am I telling you this? Because there are certain pathological situations that can develop into loops without apparent escapes. Imagine that the tablet was sitting in custom recovery mode, and the dummy behind the PC keyboard flashes some random garbage to the recovery partition, and then uses the touch interface to reboot into recovery. What happens is that "boot to recovery" instructions are placed in the BCB, and a soft-reset of the device occurs... which (when the hardware finishes resetting) loads up the bootloader.**
Now the bootloader sees the "boot to recovery" instruction in the BCB, and attempts to load the garbage in the recovery partition. Eventually - either due to a watchdog timer reset, or a illegal instruction trap, the device will soft-reset again... WITHOUT EVER CLEARING THE CONTENTS OF THE BCB.
In this example, the bootloader is intact and operational, but the looping behavior continues until the battery drains. You don't get an opportunity to communicate with it in fastboot mode because it is always trying to load the bad recovery. Either there is a way to break out of this death spiral... or their isn't.
Now, one more thing - I lied slightly right around the ** annotation.
On the Tegra3 SOC, there is a kind of micro-kernel inside the Tegra3 that is responsible for loading the bootloader. Simpler processors of old would simply load a memory page at a specific hardware memory address when they reset, but this is far more sophisticated: the little micro-kernel in the Tegra3 can evaluate the bootloader to see if it has the correct cryptographic signature and so forth.
If that micro-kernel doesn't like what it finds, the Tegra3 will put the USB port into APX mode. This is important because it is diagnostic: if your tablet always goes into APX mode, for instance after disconnecting/reconnecting the (charged) battery and then powering up the device, then you are probably out of luck; but if it doesn't go into APX mode, that suggests that the bootloader is actually healthy, but perhaps thrashing in one of those nasty boot-loop cycles.
OK, still with me?
Have you looked at this thread carefully?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2133986
It suggests that possibly you can get the bootloader to ignore the contents of the BCB by a carefully-timed press of the Vol-Down button - which, if it works - should let you escape to fastboot mode. This is documented in the above thread as "bootloader interrupt".
So, questions for you:
1) Are you sure the battery is well charged? (Not easy to tell without a voltmeter or heating of the tablet during charging - the temperature of the tablet will drop after it finishes charging. One way to be sure of things is to disconnect the battery, reconnect it, and then put it on the wall charger. That way you can be sure that the tablet is not on, so any heat would be due to battery charging, not other components running. FWIW, a discharged battery will be about 3.5v, and charged about 4.15v.)
2) Does the tablet always go into APX mode when it starts up, even if you only press the power button?
3) Once the battery is charged, what are you seeing on the screen during start-up? After you have disconnected the battery and reconnected it, do you see anything on screen when you put the tablet on the charger?

bftb0, Thank you for attempting to help me out, I really appreciate it. I understand 99% of what you wrote, and that gives me a little bit of hope! Let me begin by answering your questions.
1. I am certain the battery WAS charged. as I had just pulled it off the charger when this happened. Also I'm certain the battery IS charging when I plug it in. It does get warm after a while. The battery did drain down now since my last post, but I have removed the cover and unplugged the battery to get it to power off. Now it is currently charging back up as I'm typing this. I can see the battery charge indicator on the screen while its laying here.
2 and 3. The tablet does NOT go into APX mode by its self. It only does that when I hold power and VOL+. It now currently powers on with a press of the power button goes to the black screen with with the white google logo and stops. After that I can no longer get it to power off without manually disconnecting the battery. I can get it to reboot and go right back to the same google logo. Prior to it doing that it would go to the android on its back and just say no command. That screen would flash on and off like it was contentiously rebooting. However after trying all day to get some sort of menu to come up and different key sequences it now only goes to the google logo and stops.
I have it currently charging and will let it charge to full capacity while waiting for you to reply. I tried and tried to get the boot interrupt to work from the thread you posted in your reply and it wither does not work or I'm simply not doing it right but I'm willing to try some more if it will save this thing and I don't have to go buy a new one.
Thank you again for your help!

Well, because you have a pure stock tablet and the problem occurred spontaneously and under innocuous operating conditions, the most likely explanation is some type of hardware failure affecting the eMMC NAND chip.
Even if that is the case ... AND you successfully are able to get to fastboot mode ... it still might not be repairable. It could be a modest failure (e.g. something affecting the cache partition only, which could knock offline both the normal boot as well as the recovery boot), or it could be an enormous fraction of NAND.
eMMC NAND is supposed to be able to degrade gracefully, so there is a small chance that erasure and formatting of partitions will release blocks that have failed. But it could also be that the failure is extremely severe and no recovery is possible even if the bootloader is still intact.
I imagine you've already tried it, but since it will be your only possible means of rescue I would try the bootloader interrupt trick (Vol-Down approximately when the b&w Google logo appears - hold it down for 3-4 seconds)
Since the tablet gets stuck in a hardware reset loop, you should probably unplug the battery after every failed attempt, start it up normally (power button only), and then press and hold Vol-Down as soon as you see the Google b&w logo. Perhaps with the use of a stopwatch, you could experiment with slightly different timings, possibly even try the button press a second or two before you expect the logo to appear. I am not aware of any other way to get to fastboot (without having a booted kernel as in the recovery or normal os); and it may also be that the only time that the Vol-Down button has any effect is under the "default" (empty) BBC contents. If that is the case you are probably SOL.
The objective is to try and get the tablet into fastboot mode by any means possible.
If it were happening to me, and I was able to get that to happen, the next thing I would do would be to erase the entire tablet (except the bootloader) using fastboot, and then follow that up with an installation of a stock recovery (and formatting of cache, system, and userdata in that order), and then follow that up with a "factory reset" using the stock recovery.
If you can get just the recovery and (bootloader) fastboot mode working again, there is an outside chance that the tablet could be put back into service.
A little bit of explanation is in order here for me to explain why I am suggesting this. Sometime after I got my tablet, I spent a bunch of time dumping *all* the device partitions (things like MISC, USP, PERS, etc in addition to the "normal" Android partitions) before/after certain fastboot operations. What I noticed - by accident - was that I was seeing data that belonged in a certain partition showing up in other partitions. And always in block-sized offsets.
I think that what I was observing was an artifact of the eMMC wear leveling / block remapping that is part of the device's FTL (Flash Transition Layer). Literally, blocks were being shuffled around - even across partition boundaries - when they were in an unused/erased state.
In addition, if you look at the Google instructions for flashing a factory image, you will note that sequence is
erase p1
erase p2
...
erase pN
(followed by)
format p1
flash p2
format p3
...
That is, **as much as possible is erased before anything is put back into service**
It is my presumption that this happens to give the wear leveling and bad block remapping process of the eMMC chip maximum flexibility (as most everything in the device is marked as not in service it should be easy to remap based on block write counts as individual partitions are put back in service via via flash and format operations). Can't prove that though.
It looks like you did your reading about APX mode - there is a risky and fairly complicated procedure available to rooters that allows them to capture some custom (unique per tablet) file blobs that allow re-installation of a bootloader from APX mode, but is a procedure that has to be performed ahead of time. (And because the file blobs are unique per tablet - encrypted & signed with a unique hardware identifier, you can't get someone else to generate them for you) So APX mode is of no value to you afaik. It's barely of value to rooters as well. (I will say that I haven't kept up over the last year, so there is always the chance that someone discovered something new wrt the Tegra3 and APX mode that I don't know about - but that's the way it was a year ago or so)
Well, good luck with your tablet - I suspect you are going to need a bit of good fortune.

Thanks you so much for your help. I will continue to try the boot interrupt and see if I can get it to go. Failing that I guess I'll be shopping for a new one. I really appreciate your time in trying to help me.