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Viper's Guide to Water Damage

Viper’s Guide To Water Damaged PDA’s
This guide is to help anyone that has accidently left their phone in their pocket and went swimming,Went to answer a call and it fell in a puddle..etc, etc. I’ve worked for a major telecom company and have run into this situation so many times. Decided after dealing with this issue and reading so many myths, baking, rice…etc that are hit or miss and potentially very dangerous. Here’s a little guide that many people use with success to revitalize their wet cell phones.
Step 1: Immediately take the battery out of the phone and SHAKE any excess water off.
Step 2: Dry your phone first using a towel, wiping up anything that did not get shaken off. Now get a blow dryer on low heat and position it to blow on your phone about a hand, two hands length distance. Do this for about an hour or 2. Your phone should get alittle warm. If for any reason its hot to touch stop now. Let it cool off and increase the distance between the blow dryer and your phone. Also note, any ports that a covered need to be opened and memory cards, sim cards as well.
Step 3: after all visible water is gone or dry, place it in a small container (Tupperware works) slightly bigger than your phone. Now loosely pack your phone with cotton balls in your container. This works better than rice because it will not leave a white residue and it helps protect and keep your phone clean. You will let it sit overnight, at least 24 hours.
Step 4: Check on your phone, some of the cotton balls should be wet or moist. Inspect the phone, rotate it around and really look for any water. If it feels dry as a bone put the battery back in and fire it up. If it didn’t fire up check to make sure the battery is charged. If so then it may need some more time to dry out. DO NOT plug the phone into the wall charger and try to fire it up.
Step 5: If your phone did not fire up after 24hours BE PATIENT! Give it another 2 days then give it a go. It should fire up by now. If it doesn’t at that point use your wall charger. If at that point it doesn’t work, you need to consult some repairs.
Hope this helps

Thanks mate
Good stuff to be aware of it
It should be included on the Wiki (Is this possible Mods?)
Cheers,

Pretty much what I did for mine except I opened it up and dried out the internals with swabs before throwing it in rice for good measure. It worked for another month but then it started losing everything when turned off and after that the rom started corrupting. Bad luck on my part I guess.

Some of the problems related to pools are the chemicals etc. You want to have the water slowly evaporate hence the slow blow drying. If you bake you will leave a lot of the chemicals behind and thats when you get this weird looking white frost on in the inside of the screen and this WILL cause your phone internals to corrude and cause problems down the road.
Granted, I wish this was the end all be all but there are a lot of factors that can affect results. For the most part I've had good success, completely saved my 8125 and Lg Incite this way.
Another thing I forgot to mention is; if you have your phone ON when it gets wet and you try to fire it back up and it doesn't, Try a new battery. I noticed some new batteries have an 'internal memory' that could short circuit. My friend's Fuze wouldn't boot up after the 2 days, quick trip to ATT new battery fired right back up, been a week and 3days? now and it works fine.

+bumping for great justice+

if the phone was submerged in a pool i would imagine rinsing it with distilled water would do a great deal for removing pool chemicals no?

Long as its not spring water as that already contains a certain level of minerals. The other question you might want to ask yourself is; can your phone survive another dip? Completely, your judgment call on that one. You can skip it if you dry it on low heat, very slowly.

Trv06kviper said:
Long as its not spring water as that already contains a certain level of minerals. The other question you might want to ask yourself is; can your phone survive another dip? Completely, your judgment call on that one. You can skip it if you dry it on low heat, very slowly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
distilled water, by definition has no minerals. and pure H2O does not harm electronics. the problem is it quickly picks up contaminants and becomes conductive.
IF i dropped my phone in a heavy chemical ridden environment such as a pool i would much rather remove the battery and rinse the thing with distilled water then let those chemicals stay in the phone.

This is good information. Thanks for sharing.

[Q] Need Advice on my sidekick 4g water damaged

hello last night i was at a coffee house i left my sidekick 4g on the table while i went and get my drink my clumsy friend trips and spills coffee all over my cell o kinda got it dry and the screen is a bit messy inside the camera just cleared up everything seems to be workin except the sim card port my sim card does work since i have it on a back up cell but wen i put on my sidekick it wont even give me data nor show that its in the phone wat can i do or is there anything i can do

snoriega said:
hello last night i was at a coffee house i left my sidekick 4g on the table while i went and get my drink my clumsy friend trips and spills coffee all over my cell o kinda got it dry and the screen is a bit messy inside the camera just cleared up everything seems to be workin except the sim card port my sim card does work since i have it on a back up cell but wen i put on my sidekick it wont even give me data nor show that its in the phone wat can i do or is there anything i can do
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is the water damage tab turned pink?

yea it did its not all pink but its pink all right

snoriega said:
yea it did its not all pink but its pink all right
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Click to collapse
how new is the phone? maybe with some sweet talk you can get it passed a rep to get it repaired or just wait it out a little while dry it out and try again in 2 or 3 days

got it in May so its new lets hope i just been letting it sit

snoriega said:
got it in May so its new lets hope i just been letting it sit
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Click to collapse
well i hope all goes well

thank you

The best thing to do with any water damaged phone is to immedietly pull the battery out and stick it in a bowl of dry rice and cover it leave it for 24 hours the rice will draw out the moisture and hopefully phone will work again but usually its best to do this asap the longer the phone sits with liquid in it the more likely there will be damage
Sent from my SGH-T839 using XDA App

also just for next time (hopefully there is no) never power back on the device after water gets in it because you could fry something!
do what the post above said then you can power on!

As long as the water tab is another color, they're gonna charge you for a new phone. But as others said, the rice method is your best option.
Hope all goes well, I'd hate to see a Sidekick go like that.

I do electronics repair. I mostly work on laptops, but the idea is the same for cell phones. To repair a liquid damaged laptop I fully dismantle it, wash the mainboard with distilled water and a toothbrush, then I wash it again in 99% isopropyl alcohol. After that I place the board somewhere hot to dry. Above a low wattage lightbulb, on top of a heater vent, in a car in the sun, or on the preheater of our IR reflow station have all been used in the past. After it's completely dry I re-assemble the machine.
One of the key things about spill damage is working quickly. A laptop or a cell phone with water in it will often half-work initially. Water is mildly conductive, enough to cause circuits to malfunction. But it's often not conductive enough at the low voltages consumer electronics work at to cause immediate damage. That's why your phone still seems to mostly work in the minutes or hours after a spill.
But what happens if you keep using the device, hoping that it'll get better? Well, water corrodes metals. Aluminum, copper, iron, etc are all used inside our devices, and they'll happily corrode when they get wet. And if you turn the device on, the electricity will cause the corrosion to happen much faster. This build up of corrosion is much more conductive than straight water is. So before you know it, the corrosion will grow so thick on the closely spaced pins of a component that it shorts them together. BOOM! Now it's too late to take it to a professional. It's dead.
So keep that in mind, all of you, if you spill something on your phone, laptop, etc. Pull all power out right away, dry it quickly, and don't give it power again until you're sure it's clean and dry.

BTW, if you're unable to repair the phone, I would be interested in buying the speaker out of it. Mine has a horrible crackle that makes it hard to hear what some people are saying.

[Q] A "washed" through laundry HTC Diamond

Hello,
by a rediculous accident I forgot my HTC Diamond in the pocket of my jeans when running the laundry :-(
Afterwards, I opened the cover, took out the battery and let the phone dry out for 2 days. Now I've put it back together, and connected it to the charger. The "ring" is flashing, so the battery is charging but the phone itself is not starting and the display remains completely black, not even the vibration kick on starting...
Is there anything I could do? Or perhaps there is a chance to get out some photos I have shot earlier, would also be something...

ive heard that taking apart your phone and leaving the parts in rice can help (because the rice absorbs moisture)

Off topic:
I read one Desire went through a washing sequence in a washing machine in Desire spesific forum and now this?
Is this a new hobby? I mean... washing smartphone

darkman088 said:
Or perhaps there is a chance to get out some photos I have shot earlier, would also be something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the photos are on your micro sd card, you may be able to plug that into an adapter and plug it into your PC and gain access to them that way. Just be sure that micro sd card is thoroughly dry before doing so.

WORKING !!!
Hello,
thanks for the replies... This morning the phone booted!!! I was able to download the photos!!! But the screen has stains, obviously the remaining water.
PLEASE advise on how to dry that thing completely !!!
I think that I'm gonna pass on the rice thing.
@aaa - YOU ARE A JUNKA$$ !!! You think that's really funny?!? Especially when I'm currently TIGHT on budget and need the money for other things and the next phone is planned no earlier than Christmas... I'm hesitating whether you're a real human being...

You can dry it completely in an oven for three hours at thirty degrees or so. I've done this three times. If you have a fan forced oven, just turn the fans on, that'll be enough.
A safer way (if you can obtain it) is to leave the phone for 24 hours in a bowl of dessicant silica gel. You'll often get a small packet of silica gel when buying new electronics or other moisture-affected things. That small packet is enough, just put it in an airtight bag and leave it for 24 hours.
The next step would be disassembly and a thorough swabbing with denatured alcohol, but that's pretty extreme and only needed when the device isn't booting.
Some LCDs are hard to get moisture out of, some are not. Leaving the phone with the silica gel for longer will have a better effect. As the previous poster mentioned, rice also works (quite well), but takes longer than silica.
Good luck with it!

Another thin that will absorb moisture is common table salt. Take the phone apart very carefully. Remove battery first, make sure you're grounded as well.

Hello everybody.
thanks a lot for the numerous advices...
Unfortunately, I have more to report...
The phone dried out and booted 2 or 3 days later, as I said. The stains on the display disappeared as by magic one day later.
Everything was fine for a week until I launched the camera 2 days ago. The backlight of the display went off and came back only after removing the batter for 15 minutes.
Now the backlight is going off pretty often, sometimes it requires to remove the battery 1-2 times before it starts working again and yesterday it happened that it got activated again when I got a call...
Any ideas please?

And also the phone keeps overheating from time to time without real load (GPS or wi-fi) which dries out the battery. But I had this problem also before the laundry

Sounds like that moisture in the LCD unit left a bit of residue and is shorting the backlight somewhere.
Only option there would be to disassemble and swab the LCD boards and cables/connectors with denatured alcohol.
Alternatively, a new LCD unit should fix the problem if it persists, just make sure you alcohol swab the connectors before plugging them back in
Someone also mentioned drying out in salt before. While that does work, salt is extremely corrosive on solder and SMCs, so I wouldn't recommend that route.

i heard hair dryers are the bomb at the screen moisture, just take off all that you can and blow dry it.

I just don't understand your refusal on using white rice. It have saved countless phones.
Uncooked white rice is VERY mosture negative. Just put layer of rice, put your phone on it, cover it completely with white rice, seal it in. Ziploc could work too.
In a day or two your partially dry phone will be bone-dry. If it was soaked still you could first try to shake out water as much as can, soak it in distilled water to remove minerals, then white rice it for 3 to 5 days.

I had this problem with my Touch Diamond. Everything worked, but while i was trying to dry it I broke one of the battery "hinges" but the phone still worked after except only with black screen. The best thing to do probably is just leave it for a couple of days and hopefully your phone will be back!

XXCoder said:
I just don't understand your refusal on using white rice. It have saved countless phones.
Uncooked white rice is VERY mosture negative. Just put layer of rice, put your phone on it, cover it completely with white rice, seal it in. Ziploc could work too.
In a day or two your partially dry phone will be bone-dry. If it was soaked still you could first try to shake out water as much as can, soak it in distilled water to remove minerals, then white rice it for 3 to 5 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly what ive said. ive read everywhere that rice is one of the best solutions out there

Like was said before you most likely have some corrosion on a few contacts, if you have about 6 bucks you can spare you can get residue free contact cleaner in an aerosol at radio shack or any electronics store and save yourself having to scrub each contact and connector. Just tear the phone down down spray all the contacts and connectors with contact cleaner let it sit for a few then spray it down with air duster to get any thats get under the resistors, in the connectors, etc that hasn't dried; let it sit till you're positive everythings dry and put it back together. Does the same thing as alcohol just alot less scrubbing.
Sent from my i897 w/Andromeda 3, Suckerpunch kernel, & 1.3Ghz OC using Tegrak.

Hello,
thanks for narrowing the problem down.
But for me it looks like something different, because:
1) I have been using the phone for 1 week without any problems and it got screwed after I've launched the camera app for the first time
2) The backlight works when I power on the phone. But its stop is event-triggered, like when I launch the sound or video player or when I get a call... Similar events would trigger the backlight back on.
Perhaps reflashing the software could fix that?
I went to a shop today and put another battery. The phone booted, anyway without any backlight, twice...
At least the device is still alive.

There probably was a tiny water bubble and it messed with phone when you turned camera on.

darkman088 said:
Hello,
thanks for narrowing the problem down.
But for me it looks like something different, because:
1) I have been using the phone for 1 week without any problems and it got screwed after I've launched the camera app for the first time
2) The backlight works when I power on the phone. But its stop is event-triggered, like when I launch the sound or video player or when I get a call... Similar events would trigger the backlight back on.
Perhaps reflashing the software could fix that?
I went to a shop today and put another battery. The phone booted, anyway without any backlight, twice...
At least the device is still alive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
remove the back cover and battery from the phone, and put everyting in a bowl of rice for a day,. should fix everything,

XXCoder said:
There probably was a tiny water bubble and it messed with phone when you turned camera on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either that or a short in the cameras circuit from corrosion, either way i'd pull it apart before it gets worse and check it out.
Sent from my i897 w/Andromeda 3, Suckerpunch kernel, & 1.3Ghz OC using Tegrak.

sidekick got wet

ok i got my phone wet what do i do i put it in the rice

I've heard that works, I don't know how long you keep it in there.
Take the battery out and do not try to turn it on or it will like short circuit or something like that.
/my little knowledge.

well i did turn it off and then back on

Put it in rice for a day or so.

will that fix the button issue

Most likely. The button problem is caused by water completing the circuit between the button and the point of contact, so putting your SK in the rice will almost certainly fix your problem (just be sure to be patient and wait a day or two).

worst comes to worst buy on on ebay for 75 bucks

thank you guys u made me feel so much better

well it didnt fix it

you gotta wait a few days man now its probably done-zo

what you mean

you have to let it sit in rice for a couple days, the water will cause corrosion and over time will mess up the circuits, rice will dry it out over the course of a few days then it would be fine but if you pump electric through it you can cause things to permanently be damaged

If you are some what mechanically inclined, you can disassemble your phone so it can completely dry. All you will need is a micro screw driver set (usually find at hardware or tool store) and youtube has a good collection of dis-assembly videos. The proper way to service a water damaged smart phone would be to disassemble and place in an ultrasonic cleaner with alcohol or other chemical to remove water. Might check your local area for a phone repair shop, they usually have all the tools to get your phone repaired correctly so you don't end up with a button that doesn't work or worst problems later on from corrosion. Hope this helps

im confussed

What blk2dr is saying is that over time, the water can cause damage to your phone (if it isn't dried quickly). He recommends that, if you think you are able, you should take your phone apart so that it can dry faster.
If you aren't confident in your ability to take your phone apart and put it back together, I recommend you just slide the screen up, take the battery cover off, remove the battery and SIM card (and microSD if you have one in there), and put it back in the rice.
How long did you keep your SK in the rice the first time?

over night i tired it when i woke up and it still didnt work

Perhaps there is some water left.Maybe it condensed. Try taking it apart and see if there are any drops left.Also don't get tempted to use a hair drier since it cpuld melt some circuits and wire connections.
Sent from my Optimus Me using xda premium

i think the phone is trashed the battery and the phones water thingy is red

listen, of course its red, but you needed to let it sit in the rice longer, its not going to dry out in 12 hours
its going to take days, and by trying it over and over youre just doing more damage

i will try it tomorrow morning

How to check dissembled Pixel 4a Mainboard?

Hi all,
I ditched my phone in water.
I disassembled the whole phone, cleaned everythign with IPA and dried it afterwards. Now I would like to check if the mainboard is still working.
I connected the battery, display and usb port to the mainboard and plugged a charger in -> no response (display black, no vibration, sound etc)
I assume that the batterie is completly dead as it discharged until it turned off.
Is this aready a clear sign for a broken mainboard or does it only boot when fully assembled? Just want to avoid to put more effort into the phone, e.g. replacing the battery etc if its already lost...
Thanks in advance!

Dry for at least 72 hours in a warm dry room with a fan on the mobo. The BGA chipsets can dry slow.
Isopropyl is hygroscopic so it's important to remember it may attract some moisture from the air while drying. Use only >92% or greater, 96% is best. Submerged the board in it for a couple minutes while moving it around.
Battery needs to be charged and good for the phone to boot.
Out of circuit the mobo especially is sensitive to ESD damage. Use your best judgment but more assembled is better than less assembled unless very familiar with the device.

Thanks for the reply! Phone is "drying" for two month now as I was already considering as "lost" after disassembling and no luck with first checks. But before getting the new 6a, I want to give it a last try Was just 7 month old when I dropped it :/
When I plugged the charger in, there was no sign of charging. So not sure if the batterie is broken or if its coming from the board, or both.
A new battery is quite expensive just for a test / to find out more is damaged.

Helikoptermann said:
Thanks for the reply! Phone is "drying" for two month now as I was already considering as "lost" after disassembling and no luck with first checks. But before getting the new 6a, I want to give it a last try Was just 7 month old when I dropped it :/
When I plugged the charger in, there was no sign of charging. So not sure if the batterie is broken or if its coming from the board, or both.
A new battery is quite expensive just for a test / to find out more is damaged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the battery sat near its auto shutdown voltage for 7 months it's DOA.
A charger likely won't supply enough current to boot.
The fact that it does nothing when connected to the charger is a bad sign.
Check for loose connectors, bent connector pins, etc.
Examine the mobo (power section especially) and connector pins closely for corrosion damaged caused by electrolysis.
Since you can't see the BGA pads if there's corrosion there...
Water exposure; power off immediately and pull the battery asap to limit damage. Salt or brine water is a death sentence though.
Anhydrous isopropyl alcohol is an excellent drying agent but it and any solvents can't be used around LCD's; it will irreversibly poison them.
LCD's are vented to atmosphere on the sides...

blackhawk said:
Water exposure; power off immediately and pull the battery asap to limit damage. Salt or brine water is a death sentence though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats true, happened at work so I could do anything for the whole day and in the evening it was already dead. With some random screen on and offs during the day and "booting into fast mode" or something similar during the day.
Phone was not reacting to switch it off normally, screen was black and buttons did not react either
blackhawk said:
Anhydrous isopropyl alcohol is an excellent drying agent but it and any solvents can't be used around LCD's; it will irreversibly poison them.
LCD's are vented to atmosphere on the sides...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A thats interesting, I was already thinking that some water went inside the screen. Because I have quite some dark areas on the screen, which increased in size the first days. Looked like water got pulled in. Was hoping that when the phone gets warm again it will disappear...
blackhawk said:
The fact that it does nothing when connected to the charger is a bad sign.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, have the same feeling. Very unlucky as it was just rain water in a not perfectly closed rain jacket...
Will check the connectors and cables again but was already quite sure that they are all clean

Helikoptermann said:
Thats true, happened at work so I could do anything for the whole day and in the evening it was already dead. With some random screen on and offs during the day and "booting into fast mode" or something similar during the day.
Phone was not reacting to switch it off normally, screen was black and buttons did not react either
A thats interesting, I was already thinking that some water went inside the screen. Because I have quite some dark areas on the screen, which increased in size the first days. Looked like water got pulled in. Was hoping that when the phone gets warm again it will disappear...
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Click to collapse
That sucks. Prompt battery disconnect* can save electronics (flooded cars sometimes too).
LCDs are sort of witchy. The spot may or may not disappear over time. Have an old S4 that got sunbaked while charging. The display had multiple issues, barely usable. Thought it had fried drivers. Strangely the longer it sat unused the better it got. 3 years latter it almost 100%.
*Lol, 3 years ago I dropped my Buds case in a full cup of coffee, cream and sugar of course. It promptly sank to the bottom like a lead weight.
The Li is spot welded in. Immediately tore it apart, flushed with RO water, then with anhydrous isopropyl, allowed to dry for a day.
It's still working normally today. A drank that cup of coffee afterwards too