TL/DR:
It looks like the Sensation has a hair trigger LDI (Liquid Damage Indicator), as myself (see explanation below if you're bored) and another member have already had the dot turn red due to humidity condensing on a cold phone. The other member was a dev - can't recall the name, sorry - who has abandoned the Sensation due to being out $550, and I'd hate for anyone else to suffer a similar fate due to a crappy design on HTCs part. I've attached 3 photos that should help you prevent the LDI from being inadvertently tripped. There are other LDIs within the device, but those are hopefully not as prone to humidity as the exposed on under the battery - plus, they usually give you a warranty exchange well before they open up the old one.
Mods: I've combed through the TOS of the warranty and relevant consumer protection statutes, and can say with 100% confidence that this does not violate any laws/regulations or terms with the warrantors. If your phone fell into a pool and you lied about it - that would be another story, but that's not what my DIY is meant to protect you from. That being said, Make sure you remove the tape before you send/take your phone in, so as not to raise eyebrows and make your life difficult!
Blah blah:
About a week ago, we bought a Sensation from a very air conditioned T.Mobile corporate store in the humid southern USA. We left the store, and once I got into my car, I popped open the box to swap the SIM with another family member's, since the upgraded line was different from the person who would actually be using it.
Well, lucky me..the LDI was a nice pinkish/red color, which meant my warranty was toast.
We walked right back to the store, less than 10 minutes after we had bought it, and tried to explain to the manager that this BRAND NEW phone was indicating water damage. She put the blame squarely on me, even though it would have been impossible for me to leave the store, dunk the phone in water, dry off all traces of said water, and go back to the store in such a tight time frame.
Then it hit me: the LDI on the Sensation must be of the wicking variety, and the humidity in the air must have condensed on the cold innards enough to partially trip the sticker (similar to how water droplets will cling to a cold can of Coke on a hot muggy day).
They wouldn't budge from their stance to swap out the phone and notate how easily the LDI indicated damage, so we called Discover and initiated a charge-back. Because the total billable amount over the contract length is well over $1,000, I cited some legit sounding statutes and a case name that I made up on the spot, and threatened to contact the attorney general (mentioned the AG by name, but leaving that out so that I don't give away my state). The manager finally agreed to do a "courtesy swap" but said that if it occurred again, I'm on my own. Because of that, I figured that I need to cover myself since this occurred so quickly.
Great idea! Thanks..
HTC Sensation LDI False Reading
Just today my wife went in to return our 2 HTC Sensations as the reception was not much better then our decrepid My Touch 3G's so we figured why extend our contract for the same poor coverage. Last night I spent a few minutes copying over the memory card data, formating and reseting the devices. I boxed everything up and my wife took them in to our local Tmo store today. She called me from the store during the return transaction and told me that the store rep had taken one of the phones to the back room. When he returned, he said that devices' LDI was trigger. Not knowing which of the phones he was refering to, I was unsure if it was mine of my wifes. I know that she is more careful then me, as I use my phone outdoors often, and regular sim swap between phones depending on what I am doing. T thought that I might have touched the LDI during one of the many times I have opened the phone. Well turns out the IMEI was hers, and I know that she did not get her phone wet. Anyway, they would not return that unit. My issue is, that I have read on the net that other carriers do not use the outside LDI as a proof positive of water damage, that if the LDI uin the battery compartment is red, they will open the device to see if the inner LDI's have also changed. In my case, it is highly possible that the spray used to put on the Ghost Armor may have triggered the LDI.
I think it should be standard practice to look deeer then the LDI under the backplate since that indicator is exposed to the elements by actions like battery slaps and memory card and/or sim card removal.
I wouldn't be surprised if they went in the back, got a lil water & oops oh look... the LDI is tripped...
So my wife brought the phone home that TMobile said has a triggered LDI. There is a round circle LDI bottom right corner of the battery bay. There is a rectangle LDI on the bottom right of the battery. And then supposedly there is one in the bottom right rounded corner of the device in a small little hole. When viewed from the side, the hole is parallel to the HOME icon on the face of the phone. That supposed LDI voided my return of the device even though the Battery Bay and Battery LDIs were unchanged.
cybrslug said:
And then supposedly there is one in the bottom right rounded corner of the device in a small little hole. When viewed from the side, the hole is parallel to the HOME icon on the face of the phone. That supposed LDI voided my return of the device even though the Battery Bay and Battery LDIs were unchanged.
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I have triggered this on my handset, i think it was mositure on thumb after picking up handset after using a glass, because of the fit of the rear housing it has gone between and triggerd that even though rest of handset etc is bone dry, take care people as seemd to be very easy to trigger due to the flexing in the rear housing.
Now i will have to strip down and change sticker so my warranty stays intact
Related
Hello to all.
Recently a wet spot appeared on my Qtek2020. At first it was around 0.5 cm2, but it slowly grew to about half of the screen. I say appeared, beacuse I haven't spilled anything on the device.
Since my Qtek is still under warranty I haven't tried to disassemble it or anything but I did leave it to dry in a warm dry place. Now, the wetspot has disappeared but the marks (aroud the wetspot) are still visible and more importantly the device doesn't recognize "taps" in some parts of the screen (mostly on the place of on-screen keyboard which renders the phone pretty much useless, or at least very frustrating to use).
I reckon that the moisture was between the touch-recognizeing foil and the LCD screen. I think that this could happen due to condesation of water when I came from a cold and wet place (outisde) to a warm and dry environment (inside).
Our local Qtek service provider says that they I definatley spilled something on my PDA and they refuse to cover it under warranty. Of course paying 165 EUR for something I didn't do seems quite expensive.
Can anyone recommend anything that I could do? Thanks.
Sadly, this is the way it is done..
Do you have insurranse?
If not offered by your telcom, maybe a travellers insuranse perhaps?
I don't know the normal policies and standards of your country, but this MIGHT be covered by insuranse..
I have just had an XDA II handed back to me with almost the whole screen marked in this way.
Does anyone know of a supplier of damp proofing or rugged units. We use the XDA quite extensively, mainly outdoors.
As you know Cell phones and PDA's are precious pieces of electronics. They cost a lot of money and they can be fragile. What you may not know, is that cell phones companies have a very clever way of knowing what you have done with your cell phone. It's the water detection sticker. Inside you phone you will find a small white sticker that will change color if it comes in contact with water. The only problem, if there is to much humidity near your phone, it will change anyway. Google it and you will find a bunch of angry consumers that got there warranties voided because of it.
And I am one of them. I will bet you guys, that my next phone will get a special treatment so the stickers dont change color.
Can you please take a closer photo of the sticker? The stickers generally comes with some pink crosses on it which are genberally there when the pink dye has not been activated by water/moisture.
The reason for the markings is that some people will bleach the sticker to remove the pink dye to circumvent the voided warranty situation. By having the pink crosses its obvious when that is done.
Wish I could send you a better picture but I have sent my Touch for repair. There for, I have no device on hand. But When I went to see the manufacturer, he showed me a good sticker, and there ware no lines. Just a white sticker.
I wonder if I could coat it with a spay or something to seal-it with out activating the paper ???
alexun said:
Wish I could send you a better picture but I have sent my Touch for repair. There for, I have no device on hand. But When I went to see the manufacturer, he showed me a good sticker, and there ware no lines. Just a white sticker.
I wonder if I could coat it with a spay or something to seal-it with out activating the paper ???
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Questionable post dude, aint gonna preach on the moral issues of this stuff to get past the pink sticker issue but tbh if there is enough moisture to turn the sticker pink then there is enough in the air to possibly cause problems with the device, its not something put in to get out of fixing a device dude.
Mine is now solid red, I too have the Vogue, but it never got wet!
I think when I wiped it down the sticker went red, good idea, but very poor planning on their part.
Mine is red solid also and I never even touched (But yes I live in a very humidity place)
A lot of the time it happens if you leave your phone in the bathroom when you take a shower... Lots of people do it, including me. **** warranties, never needed one till now.
(Plus the Fuze didn't even have a warranty) :\
My phone has pink/reddish cross lines on the sticker. Does this mean it is showing moisture or does the sticker turn solid red when this happens?
A tale of two waves
I'm in Cocoa Beach Florida this week on my annual vacation. I was making a pretty awesome-looking skull sand sculpture and had my phone (AT&T Tilt (Kaiser)) laying on the sand about 20 feet higher than any wave had been in hours. Should be safe there I thought.
A rogue wave came in and completely washed over my phone before I could get to it. I quickly pulled off the protective case, yanked the battery, opened up the keyboard and placed it to dry about twenty feet further up the beach where my wife was tanning. A few minutes later another HUGE wave came in and gave it (and my wife )another good rinse.
I dried it all as best I could for a day, then tried it. I had a couple of the buttons that weren't working, the speaker was intermittant, but otherwise it all worked. The next morning it quit altogether, gave a red light only and wouldn't come on.
I went to harbor freight tools and bought a small yellow precision kit that had a T-6 Torx bit and a philips 00, tool it apart, submerged and washed every piece (except for the battery) in a cup filled with denatured alcohol (this immediately changed every moisture label red btw). I used the LCD replacement instructions and service manual both found on this site.
I allowed all parts to dry for about an hour and reassembled. Surprisingly enough, it all worked! My touch screen actually seems more sensitive and accurate.
I hope this helps someone else who finds themselves looking at forking over $$$ for a moment of stupidity.
Twiddler said:
...submerged and washed every piece (except for the battery) in a cup filled with denatured alcohol...
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I also wanted to point out that I didn't submerge my touchscreen portion. I don't know how it would fare and don't want someone to think that it had worked for me.
In fact, I wouldn't recommend anyone attempt to take their phone apart without nimble fingers, ample patience, and experience working with micro-electronics.
Let me know if you had any similar experiences!
The water sensor sticker on the battery for my AT&T Fuze is checkered red and white, is this normal or has it been tampered with water? I looked up an OEM battery online and my water sensor looks exactly like the one in the picture. I know for sure that my phone has not been water damaged by me, just afraid that the authorized AT&T dealer pulled some shady business on me, ie switch the battery with a water damaged one (box was not sealed). The other sticker that's on the phone (bottom right where the battery sits) is still solid white.
Thanks!
nautiboi said:
The water sensor sticker on the battery for my AT&T Fuze is checkered red and white, is this normal or has it been tampered with water? I looked up an OEM battery online and my water sensor looks exactly like the one in the picture. I know for sure that my phone has not been water damaged by me, just afraid that the authorized AT&T dealer pulled some shady business on me, ie switch the battery with a water damaged one (box was not sealed). The other sticker that's on the phone (bottom right where the battery sits) is still solid white.
Thanks!
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Same thing on mine, the battery sticker is checkered red and white and the the sticker on the phone (bottom right) is solid white.
I think the sticker turn solid red when it gets wet.
same thing on mine. Never exposed to water. I think it's due to the moisture.
My battery also looks the same, and has never been within 10 feet of water.
Thanks guys. I'm sure I have my answer now.
On a side note, when I talked to an AT&T rep, they told me that there's only one water sensor sticker, and that's on the phone, not the battery. But I wanted to make absolutely sure by verifying with you all.
On to problem number 2, my screen has an air bubble. It looks like the weird rainbow color in beef in the middle of the screen (about 1"x1.5"). When I push it, it moves, and when I let go, it moves back. I've only had the phone for a little bit less then 6 months. I will be working with AT&T warranty dept for this one. Wish me luck!
This makes me want to go over the dark side, the Apple iAndeveryoneandtheirsecondcousinhasone.
nautiboi said:
On to problem number 2, my screen has an air bubble. It looks like the weird rainbow color in beef in the middle of the screen (about 1"x1.5"). When I push it, it moves, and when I let go, it moves back. I've only had the phone for a little bit less then 6 months. I will be working with AT&T warranty dept for this one. Wish me luck!
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Good Luck. I have the same issue and they told me it was Physical Damage, and therefore out of warranty, so I would have to pay full price to get it replaced. My advice is to just call them and tell them you have dust under the screen or something like that, and hope that they don't find it.
So yesterday I went out to dinner, grabbed my trusty TP2 and put it in my pocket (uncracked), reached out location and pulled it out (cracked). I know there was no impact between the two locations as I simply sat in a car the whole way.
Anyone else have something similar? Glad I have insurance, that's for sure.
Is it possible you had the screen facing out in your pocket? What I mean by that is when I keep mine in my pocket I make sure the screen is against my leg and not facing forward.. Either way, good thing indeed that you have insurance..
it is, but its a coat pocket. I Just couldn't believe it happened as I've had a touch screen phone for the last...3 or 4 years without issue.
if you have made fun of someone that has a case on there hip that is why it happend to you if not then its bad luck.
do you really believe that crack could appear after no physical impact?
I've seen crazier things happen. My one thought was that its quite cold here right now. Either way, I definitely didn't have any impact that I felt, which shouldn't be enough to crack a screen like this did. I just expect more out of HTC I guess.
A screen protector like invisible shield would help i have it on mine...only thing i hear is that when used in ur pocket it can pick up a lot of lint but so far mine hasn't had that problem. any little bit of dust i see on it i just rub it off
I've got ghost armor, when they get back in stock and i claim my insurance i'm going to start using a slip in case.
football0552 said:
So yesterday I went out to dinner, grabbed my trusty TP2 and put it in my pocket (uncracked), reached out location and pulled it out (cracked). I know there was no impact between the two locations as I simply sat in a car the whole way.
Anyone else have something similar? Glad I have insurance, that's for sure.
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Yep. A couple of days ago I got into a car, the TP2 in my pocket (which was hanging...unzipped jacket) closed the door and crack! Lovely cracks spread across the screen of my beloved and not even 30-day-old TP2.
I should have known better, The same thing happened to one of my Moguls earlier this year. The weird thing is, the TP2 still works perfectly. I tried to get a return authorization, but Sprint referred me Assurion, which means $100 deductible. The only good thing about it is that the TP2 is so new, they don't have any refurbs to send out, so I'm getting a new one, with one year warranty. From now on, cases only... no pockets!
Not sure what happened in your case,
A: My assurion deductable was $39... I could have sworn it was $89.
B: I need to find a good stiff slide in vertical case that I can just slide the phone into and out of in my pocket.
C: Assurion says they'll get my phone to me Tuesday (i.e. out Monday).... either they're full of cow chips or they purchased a stock just in case since Verizon is apparently trickling in shipments.
what was the temperature outside ?
if it was decently cold, and your phone was cold as well, cold things always crack easier, especially with a screen this big. smaller the screen, harder it is to break.
haha, well it was cold for this time of year. nothing terrible. about 20 degrees F. I know the size matters, I just couldn't believe it cracked so easily so I was really just fishing to see if its a possible problem. My replacement will be here today and i've been trying to find a good STIFF slide in vertical case I can just keep in my pocket.
I live in Canada and on occasion it gets down to -25 degress c here (-13F)
and I have left many cellphones out in the cold, with no ill effects (although screen response can slow down dramatically while it's cold)
the only thing that would crack it is a dramatic change in temp. over a short period of time, like 80 to -5 and I don't even know about that.
a screen skin is NOT going to prevent cracking, only scratches, the LCD glass is on the inside of the device and a think film doesn't add anything to stability.
my guess is it got flexed are banged in the wrong spot. possibly a few days earlier which weakened it and then lightly banged again when you put it in your pocket...
of course a defect in the internal glass is possible, when you get in to mass production of a product there are bound to be some defects.
mine on the other hand has traveled 10 feet across from say 4 feet up and hit pavement with no more than a 1mmx3mm indent on a corner.
it's in general a well build device (but boy was I sick when that first happened)
My advice, if your insurance costs money.. bring it in with a little story.
"I was sitting at a table and typing away I closed the keyboard, and I couldn't believe it a crack appeared across the screen"
As long as it is a solid crack across the screen with no obvious point of impact, I am pretty sure you will get away with it.. even with out insurance.
Football, Telus here in Canada has a thin hard plastic case for 15 canadian.
it will even prevent your screen from getting scratched. and makes that annoyingly placed "power"/screen blank button harder to push. I am pretty sure all the cdma devices are the same, but I don't know 100% I ordered a verison screen protector, and it fits. but the tolerances aren't as high for that
I had the same thing happen to me just a week ago. Slid it into my pocket and not even three minutes later, pulled it out to use the phone and had fresh cracks spreading across the screen. The phone did not come into contact with anything... Still a mystery to me as to how it happened!!
BTW... If you were looking at the phone in the upright position, the screen cracking started from the left middle of the screen and made it's way across to the bottom right corner. Just wondering if anyone else has had the same pattern.
twasnow said:
I live in Canada and on occasion it gets down to -25 degress c here (-13F)
and I have left many cellphones out in the cold, with no ill effects (although screen response can slow down dramatically while it's cold)
the only thing that would crack it is a dramatic change in temp. over a short period of time, like 80 to -5 and I don't even know about that.
a screen skin is NOT going to prevent cracking, only scratches, the LCD glass is on the inside of the device and a think film doesn't add anything to stability.
my guess is it got flexed are banged in the wrong spot. possibly a few days earlier which weakened it and then lightly banged again when you put it in your pocket...
of course a defect in the internal glass is possible, when you get in to mass production of a product there are bound to be some defects.
mine on the other hand has traveled 10 feet across from say 4 feet up and hit pavement with no more than a 1mmx3mm indent on a corner.
it's in general a well build device (but boy was I sick when that first happened)
My advice, if your insurance costs money.. bring it in with a little story.
"I was sitting at a table and typing away I closed the keyboard, and I couldn't believe it a crack appeared across the screen"
As long as it is a solid crack across the screen with no obvious point of impact, I am pretty sure you will get away with it.. even with out insurance.
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To keep it short, I know, I know, I know, and I know. lol. (Just for an interesting note, being in South Dakota for College I've had it around that cold without a windchill... walking to class and having your eyelashes freeze in a block sucks.)
I was more or less just trying to come up with the most plausible excuse even though I was sure (99.999%) it wasn't the cold. It just completely blew me away that I pulled it out and there was cracks across the screen because at the point I hadn't even dropped the phone and as previously mentioned I wasn't leaning or really touching anything while riding in the car.
Also, generally its not actually glass that's on resistive touchscreen's as far as I know. I wasn't trying to insinuate that the screen skin would help stability at all (actually stiffness... don't get my started about this I've been dealing with stiffness matrices WAY to much lately in class).
I agree in general it seems quite well built, and agree if my case is isolated but I was wanting to make sure it was. A point of note is that the crack originated on the far right side and propogated in a couple of lines across the screen. Really my guess is that the method they use to connect the "glass" (a plastic..?) produces some residual stresses around the edges of the material.
Finally, where do you get the case you have? I really just want a slip case as I mentioned that is pretty stiff so that anything that may possible break the screen gets spread out over the area of the case. I am trying to stay away from a snap on hard case as I find them bulky, get your device dirty, and really don't protect what I want to protect.
Thanks for your input.
wbchristmas said:
I had the same thing happen to me just a week ago. Slid it into my pocket and not even three minutes later, pulled it out to use the phone and had fresh cracks spreading across the screen. The phone did not come into contact with anything... Still a mystery to me as to how it happened!!
BTW... If you were looking at the phone in the upright position, the screen cracking started from the left middle of the screen and made it's way across to the bottom right corner. Just wondering if anyone else has had the same pattern.
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mine cracked middle right and propagated in a crack more or less horizontally across the device and another at about a 45 degree angle towards the bottom of the screen. The instances sound similar just reversed.
The reason your screen cracked was most likely it pressed up against the seatbelt buckle. I have had this happen a couple of times. When driving now I ALWAYS take my phone out of my pocket or remove the case from my belt. As I said, a couple times I left it there and when I buckled up, the buckle of the seatbelt was pressed against my right hip. A little bit of pressure, like from stopping the car, is enough to crack the glass.
So word to the wise, do NOT leave your phone in your pocket or on your belt when you get into a car. Or if you do, put it on the side of your body that is facing away from the seat belt buckle.
docgiggs said:
The reason your screen cracked was most likely it pressed up against the seatbelt buckle. I have had this happen a couple of times. When driving now I ALWAYS take my phone out of my pocket or remove the case from my belt. As I said, a couple times I left it there and when I buckled up, the buckle of the seatbelt was pressed against my right hip. A little bit of pressure, like from stopping the car, is enough to crack the glass.
So word to the wise, do NOT leave your phone in your pocket or on your belt when you get into a car. Or if you do, put it on the side of your body that is facing away from the seat belt buckle.
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Haha, I already do this. Actually, I was in the passenger seat and the phone was in the right pocket of my fleece jacket. I'm just the jacked it what damned me because normally when I put it in my pants I have the screen facing my leg.
Is this something that asurion will cover?
Couldn't find solid/non-contradictory advice on this in previous threads, tl:dr version at the bottom.
Putting this in general Q&A because at least the isopropyl alcohol related stuff shouldn't be too specific, but let me know if it would be okay/worthwhile to copy it to the Galaxy S3 subforum (even just the frankensteining part). Thanks.
Okay, my mother dropped her Galaxy S3 4G (International Version) into salt water. The screen or phone turned off immediately, but the battery was left in for half an hour before she got it home. I didn't know it was salt water til later so I ran a vacuum over the outside (safe distance for static) and put it in a bag of dessicant packets and rice for 24 hours and then powered it on – I didn't realise until I plugged it into my computer that it had actually turned on, but the screen and speaker weren't working (bottom buttons may work but I can't be sure – on turning the phone on they light up for a split second but don't seem to at any other time, not sure whether or not touching them was working and am not powering the phone up again til I've got the buildup off).
I managed to make a backup of data using kies before opening the phone up and noticing the white buildup that indicates salt water, which she then confirmed. Really my fault for not asking in the first place.
Interestingly, the water indicator in the battery compartment hasn't tripped, but obviously the white buildup means there's no way its getting warranty replacement. There's a huge payment left on the phone, and I would like to try and salvage it – I've got experience working with electronics (albeit not in this state), and if I can get the right information it will probably be cheaper than out of warranty repair. I've tried using a bit of contact cleaner on the connectors and managed to get a lot of the white buildup off the screen connector, but it hasn't helped.
From some reading, I've learnt that 90%+ isopropyl alcohol can help deal with the buildup, so I'll head out to get some high-purity stuff from an electronics store over the weekend, however as most functions seem to be working fine except the screen, I don’t know if soaking the mobo is going to do anything, and most of the screen's PCB is inaccessible (the glass, screen, and screen pcb are glued together on the S3 and part of the PCB is covered), so it's difficult to get to with swabs etc.
Does anyone know for certain whether or not the screen section, which has what I assume is thermal compound, can be soaked in isopropyl alcohol without doing irreparable damage? I have seen entire phones soaked, but the SGS3's screen is attached with glue. If the thermal compound is damaged by this, is it replaceable and if so will regular computer stuff work or do I need something in particular?
Failing this (as it's entirely possible stuff has arced or whatever), I am willing to attempt replacing the screen if I can find a suitable donor, however it's not easy to find 4g versions for parts with intact screens and I don't think we're going to pay out the $170 or thereabouts for a new one any time soon (only way that would happen is if I knew it would work and took the phone for myself, giving her my SGS2).
Will the screen section from an Australian non-4G work, and will it being from a different carrier (unlike the US we don't have carrier specific models) cause problems if I use the 4G mobo? Again, I'd prefer answers from people that know for certain, as even buying phones to Frankenstein the thing back to life isn't cheap.
I assume the speaker is the same thus swappable, right? If not, can it be soaked (I assume not but again seen entire phones soaked).
tl;dr: Intl 4G SGS3 dropped in salt water. Dried, screen and touch aren't working, but phone connects/charges and backup made. White buildup on PCB, so warranty replacement out of the question, want to attempt to salvage or failing that, Frankenstein it together.
1) Can the screen section be soaked in isopropyl alcohol without irreparable damage?
2) Will this damage the thermal paste, if so what do I replace it with? Would scraping it off carefully be possible/work?
3) Will an AU SGS3 non-4G screen assembly from a different carrier (no varied models here) work in it?
4) The speaker is swappable between the two, right?
Would prefer answers from people who know for certain/from experience, if you're not certain please explain your logic (don't want to take unnecessary risks).
Sorry if that sounds pushy, a little bit stressed about this as there are a couple of potential donors on ebay that are ending in the next day or so. Thanks in advance!