Related
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.
Hello. I had an accident, and my phone paid for it dearly. I have a HTC Desire and unfortunately the other day I spilt a rather large amount of Coke onto it, which has caused all the keys to be a bit sticky, and worst of all the power button to be constantly 'held down'. Which means the phone is very often asking if I would like to power it of, I cant tell it when i want it to lock, nor unlock. I have gotten round this by setting screen time-out to 15 seconds and installing the No Lock app, but this is very far from ideal.
Is it possible i can clean the cola out from my phone? It looks like it would take some disassembly, but I'm willing to try.
On an interesting side note, it seams when the phone is at the right temperature (body, in fact) the button works perfectly fine, but if it gets too hot or cold, its gone again.
maaaaaan just sell it as is , its gonna STANK later
STANK?
souljaboy said:
its gonna STANK later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"STANK" I'm not sure what you mean dude. Cola doesn't smell?
Do the usual. Separate all parts of the device, remove memory card and battery and let the rest sit in a bowl full of rice for 12-24 hours
Pickx said:
Do the usual. Separate all parts of the device, remove memory card and battery and let the rest sit in a bowl full of rice for 12-24 hours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well its been 3 days, isn't that enough airing time? and its cola, I fear there may be residue causing the issue, not just left behind water that will evaporate.
Well,as far as i know if you unplug any power sources from the device you can just clean it with water and then ley it dry again..for a long time to completely dry up.
radu_wizu said:
Well,as far as i know if you unplug any power sources from the device you can just clean it with water and then ley it dry again..for a long time to completely dry up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am of the same thought, but I really don't want to pour water on my phone lol
Don't pour water. Use a cotton bud perhaps with water or isopropyl alcohol (if the plastic is ok with it) perhaps. Don't submerge it or pour liquids over it
And submerge it on rice to absorb all humidity left
Peelypeel said:
Well its been 3 days, isn't that enough airing time? and its cola, I fear there may be residue causing the issue, not just left behind water that will evaporate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is definitely residue. Just clean it as previous post suggested.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Ok, thanks alot guys, Ill try just dabbing some water on the corners of the power button so some goes in, then putting it in rice. All while the phones off and battery is out of course.
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.
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
Hi all,
First off I would like to thank anyone and everyone that reads this thread, it helps me out if you have any information that could help me out here.
About a week or so ago my girlfriend dropped her Nexus 5 in water, and removed it almost immediately then brought it to me. Sadly the damage was already done and the screen was black. I got the back off and got as much water out as I could shake gently, and the screen still had haptic feedback when I touched it, so I messaged it and it displayed the notification light. This led me to believe the battery was ok, so we left the back off and let it dry for a while, and over time the screen and sound came back. We placed the phone overnight in dry rice, and for the meantime we put her SIM in an old S2. The next morning there was obvious water damage on the screen but less than before, and everything seemed to be working fine, games ran, music played, messages came and went on Hangouts, and when we plugged it in to charge it worked like a charm, so we believed we had gotten lucky, put it back in the rice overnight again and the next day tried putting the SIM card back in the phone.
The Nexus at this point asked to restart and we obliged, but this is when the problem started. It would get to the Google boot screen, hang, then restart, over and over. I tried going into recovery and I could, but no further than that. I am not an expert so don't know what would cause this, but I am led to believe that the battery and everything else is all in working order otherwise it wouldn't have been working and charging while it was on. I wonder if maybe there is a separate part of the phone used for BIOS bootup and it got damaged? Any suggestions or ideas on how to fix the issue would be met with extreme gratitude. Thanks for reading all this.
TL;DR Phone was dropped in water, aired out and worked fine, restarted for SIM card and get stuck in endless boot loop.
QyuBurt said:
Hi all,
First off I would like to thank anyone and everyone that reads this thread, it helps me out if you have any information that could help me out here.
About a week or so ago my girlfriend dropped her Nexus 5 in water, and removed it almost immediately then brought it to me. Sadly the damage was already done and the screen was black. I got the back off and got as much water out as I could shake gently, and the screen still had haptic feedback when I touched it, so I messaged it and it displayed the notification light. This led me to believe the battery was ok, so we left the back off and let it dry for a while, and over time the screen and sound came back. We placed the phone overnight in dry rice, and for the meantime we put her SIM in an old S2. The next morning there was obvious water damage on the screen but less than before, and everything seemed to be working fine, games ran, music played, messages came and went on Hangouts, and when we plugged it in to charge it worked like a charm, so we believed we had gotten lucky, put it back in the rice overnight again and the next day tried putting the SIM card back in the phone.
The Nexus at this point asked to restart and we obliged, but this is when the problem started. It would get to the Google boot screen, hang, then restart, over and over. I tried going into recovery and I could, but no further than that. I am not an expert so don't know what would cause this, but I am led to believe that the battery and everything else is all in working order otherwise it wouldn't have been working and charging while it was on. I wonder if maybe there is a separate part of the phone used for BIOS bootup and it got damaged? Any suggestions or ideas on how to fix the issue would be met with extreme gratitude. Thanks for reading all this.
TL;DR Phone was dropped in water, aired out and worked fine, restarted for SIM card and get stuck in endless boot loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take the device apart, remove the motherboard. Get some rubbing alcohol and a tooth brush.
Remove any shields that can be taken off to expose more components. Then start scrubbing!!! Continue until you get all of the green/white corrosion. If there are any black scorch marks on the connections, take a eraser and it will remove the burn mark, then continue to clean with alcohol. Also the flex cable connections would need to be cleaned also.
The next step is up to you, if you feel comfortable with it. Make sure all plastic and rubber pieces are off the motherboard. Then stick it in the oven on 400F for 30 min to reflow some of the solder that may have gotten damaged.
Put back together, you may have to factory reset if the software got corrupted.
It is still highly possible to recover the device.
Good luck!
oOflyeyesOo said:
Take the device apart, remove the motherboard. Get some rubbing alcohol and a tooth brush.
Remove any shields that can be taken off to expose more components. Then start scrubbing!!! Continue until you get all of the green/white corrosion. If there are any black scorch marks on the connections, take a eraser and it will remove the burn mark, then continue to clean with alcohol. Also the flex cable connections would need to be cleaned also.
The next step is up to you, if you feel comfortable with it. Make sure all plastic and rubber pieces are off the motherboard. Then stick it in the oven on 400F for 30 min to reflow some of the solder that may have gotten damaged.
Put back together, you may have to factory reset if the software got corrupted.
It is still highly possible to recover the device.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't go so far as reflowing solder for a dry-out.
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000BXOGNI?tag=adapas02-20
can be attained at your local auto supply, simply disassemble the boards and give them a once-over spray and wipe-down. Reassemble, and then troubleshoot the bootloop, which may require a full stock flash. Good luck!
wideasleep1 said:
I wouldn't go so far as reflowing solder for a dry-out.
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000BXOGNI?tag=adapas02-20
can be attained at your local auto supply, simply disassemble the boards and give them a once-over spray and wipe-down. Reassemble, and then troubleshoot the bootloop, which may require a full stock flash. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not reflowing to dry it, sometimes solder on the connections/components need to be reflowed when they got WD or the device will not function correctly.I have seen it more time that I can count.
oOflyeyesOo said:
I am not reflowing to dry it, sometimes solder on the connections/components need to be reflowed when they got WD or the device will not function correctly.I have seen it more time that I can count.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There wouldn't be solder damage when OP acted almost immediately to dry it out. A cleaning, further drying should be all that's needed. One should NEVER turn on electronics until fully disassembled, cleaned and dried in any event.
wideasleep1 said:
There wouldn't be solder damage when OP acted almost immediately to dry it out. A cleaning, further drying should be all that's needed. One should NEVER turn on electronics until fully disassembled, cleaned and dried in any event.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The second the device hits air corrosion starts to build. Rice does nothing, it pulls a little bit of the water from the charge port and headset jack, basically what drips out. There is possibility that there is still water inside the device. He needs to open it up to scrub it down with a tooth brush and alcohol at least.The connections may break in time even after cleaning, that is why I suggest a reflow.
oOflyeyesOo said:
The second the device hits air corrosion starts to build. Rice does nothing, it pulls a little bit of the water from the charge port and headset jack, basically what drips out. There is possibility that there is still water inside the device. He needs to open it up to scrub it down with a tooth brush and alcohol at least.The connections may break in time even after cleaning, that is why I suggest a reflow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't disagree most of this up to the point of reflow, which should be an absolute, last-ditch exercise. If corrosion is a major concern, after cleaning with solvent, a Caig deoxit treatment would be my next advice, but I think reflow is best left to the experienced.
wideasleep1 said:
I don't disagree most of this up to the point of reflow, which should be an absolute, last-ditch exercise. If corrosion is a major concern, after cleaning with solvent, a Caig deoxit treatment would be my next advice, but I think reflow is best left to the experienced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks to both of you for your advice on this. I will go and get some of the cleaning spray you suggested and give all the components a good clean, and will look for any scorch marks that may have occured when it was damaged. I would try flashing the OS as well but I'm not entirely sure how to do that when the phone has not been set up for USB Debugging. I attempted to flash it after unlocking the bootloader, but that didn't seem to work either. I will report back when I have performed the steps and let you know if there has been any progress.
Thanks =)
QyuBurt said:
Thanks to both of you for your advice on this. I will go and get some of the cleaning spray you suggested and give all the components a good clean, and will look for any scorch marks that may have occured when it was damaged. I would try flashing the OS as well but I'm not entirely sure how to do that when the phone has not been set up for USB Debugging. I attempted to flash it after unlocking the bootloader, but that didn't seem to work either. I will report back when I have performed the steps and let you know if there has been any progress.
Thanks =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2513701
And to the guy above, sorry if it seemed I was arguing. A few too many drinks at that point.