I dropped my phone into the ocean about a week ago. It's been in rice since then. I just took it out and it turns on and shows my home screen and gets data and is receiving texts and stuff, however neither the touch screen nor the four android buttons work. I searched and people were suggesting soaking the phone in alcohol for this. Is your any chance that would fix my problem? Maybe it could be as simple as replacing my phone's screen? Thanks for any help.
What I would do is take the phone apart (remove the backcover, battery and unscrew the screws) locate the digitizer flex cable and blow dry it. There may be water left in the component.
Refer this this video on the disasembly.
Probably a bit late but you want to clean it with de-ionized water or Isopropyl alcohol. To be honest i would have put it in a bowl of either of those instead of rice as soon as i got home. I've personally found the rice trick to be a myth,works just the same as leaving it out to dry. Sea water contains high amounts of salt and drying it will just make the salt crystalise.You need to "Wash" the salt out and the 2 ive suggested wont leave residue on the PCB (info from my mum who is an electronics teacher)
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Just for the record, I'm not sure if this will consistently work but I thought it good to put this on record for anyone else who is at wits end with a water damaged cellphone. I dropped my phone in a river and it stopped working (Touch Pro 2). Well, actually it went in well I was swimming and forgot it was in my pocket.
I let it dry off with a hair dryer, but it was still squirrelly with the input. It would repeat certain characters. Also it would not charge from USB. It was basically unusable so I figured I would try soaking the main board in Isopropyl Alcohol (perhaps remove whatever it is that is shorting out the mainboard). I let the mainboard (without the screen) soak overnight in a sealed tupperware container (so the Alcohol wouldn't evaporate). Then I took it out to let all the Alcohol evaporate. Put it all back together a few hours ago and, violla, it works perfectly. No repeated inputs, no other problems.
Wow, That was lucky, Congrats
Congrats......
I posted about this last year about water infiltration incidents. It generally goes as follows:
If you drop your phone into water, fruit punch,toilet, etc. First thing to do---
1. Remove battery immediately
2. Open up as much as possible daub dry excess water
3. Submerged in Alcohol (200 proof drinking alcohol is best), Isopropyl or denatured works almost as good. leave 1-2 hours (the alcohol binds to the H20 and prevents the H2O from corroding the metal or electronics)
4. Dry with hair dryer
5. Put in desiccant (enough to submerge) or rice, or millet etc. and leave over night
Hair dry to blow any excess dust.... reassemble and you are done. If it did get water damage that renders the phone unusable then, use white out and white out the water strip back to white and go for replacement.
This method I have used for treating flooding on my underwater cameras for 20+ years and I have been successful 98% of time
Once again, congrats
Very interesting. I've also heard of putting in the fridge as it draws out all moisture?
Sent from Odin on my HTC desire
just fix a water damaged phone by changing the battery
it was a black berry phone soaked in water
Always wondered about that.
Thanks for the tips! I will keep it in mind, though the best way that's working for me right now is paying attention
Nice one, i shall try this on my damaged nokia =D
I can relate. I once jumped in the mediterranean with my phone in my pocket.
The SE k750i was a good phone...
First time I hear about this
what?! that's pretty awesome bro.
Lucky try rice.
That's fascinating. Could've used that info about 6 months ago when I managed to drop my phone into a toilet. Luckily it was unused.
It is nice with some tricks. Ill hope it work for me too xD
This is awesome.. Believe it or not a few years back my GF knocked over a class of water into my open pc.. and yeah it died.. Did a similar method here on the mobo and it worked.. for a while
Shot for the tip, I will keep it in mind
definately adding this to my bag of tricks of fixing electronic devices people bring to me to be fixed.
isopropyl is used for inject printers as well...
I always heard to take the battery out immediately. Rince the phone real good in DISTILLED WATER. Shake out as much water as you can, then put it in the oven on about 150-200 degrees for a couple of hours to dry it out.
I dropped my Nokia 6133 in a puddle of muddy water. Did the above and it worked for another year until I upgraded to a newer phone.
How does this method work for salt water? Dropped my Razor in the ocean a few years ago. Not a good day.
Yes, I said razor! I used to love that phone!
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I accidentally dropped my brand new sensation in seawater for a couple of seconds. I took it out, turned off, took out the battery, SIM card and memory card, lightly rinsed the phone with fresh water (didn't dip it into, just washed off the salty water off the phone) and now I'm waiting for it to dry completely, because I can see still some water trapped underneath the touchscreen.
The service is still three days away until monday, but i was just thinking if somebody knows of what else could I do before I try to send it for repair. I was thinking of trying to turn it on once it completely dries off, or it is not such a good idea?
This wil help you... i think
The dry rice trick
Tried that also. I buried it in rice immediately, it has been so since yesterday when this happened, but still has some water trapped underneath the touchscreen.
I fear the damage from salty water is much worse than normal water.
Sorry to say but you are screwed. There is no way this phone will work reliably ever again..
The rice trick has never worked in my experience,dont turn it on,get some DE-IONISED water,flush it with that it wont leave residue like normal water will,let it dry in the airing cupboard for a few days then turn it on
Can I wash it with distilled water? Would that be helpful?
Is there a step-by-step instruction on how to dissasemble a Sensation and the tools required? I found one on Youtube, but it wasn't very helpful...
IannEefje said:
This wil help you... i think
The dry rice trick
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I did not know this, it seems the awesome "Dry Kit".
I will buy it one, and if a day i need it, i will try it.
Link : Dry-All for Smartphones
Distilled water is different to de-ionised water,i used de-ionised on a sunk G1 which got into a bootloop from the incident after the washing with de-ionised water it worked and still does
you need to use the de-ionised water to remove the salt water to stop it from corroding heavily.
I dropped a regular cell phone in a glass of lemonade 10 years ago and here's what I did"
- get it out quickly take parts out and sling it around to get liquid out asap
- got home and put a pot of water on the stove
- when water was good and warm, vigorously shook it in the water for 10 seconds
- shook phone as dry as possible
- let dry, heat oven slightly then turn off and put phone in to speed up drying
- once dry, reassemble
- phone worked perfectly afterwards
not saying I would do this with a Sensation....just sayin
Hi,
My nexus 5 went for a swim in the toilet last night.
I read some post somewhere that said i need to take the phone apart and dry it all out.
I took the back off and then couldn't find my micro screwdriver, so gave up and just instead dried it out by putting it in a tupper ware container of rice and silica gel.
When you take the back off, there is some glue at the bottom. This glue peeled up some silver circuit that runs all over the bottom of the phone, creating full breaks in it.
My phone has signal, but not great, it connects to wifi ok. But mobile data i.e. H doesn't work at all, i dont even pick up g.
Is the damage to this circuit the problem? Or is it just general water damage?
Can i fix the circuit? Like do they make copper paint or somethin i could use?
Thanks for any advice!
Yep. My daughter was in a rush to get into the pool and old dad forgot to take phone out of my pocket.
This happened a few weeks ago. I kept it in a bag of rice for 3 days and no luck.
I've since got another new S6 but was wondering if there's anything I can do in hopes of reviving it.
Thanks
Its a gonner.
The rice trick is a lie, its just as stupid to me as when batteries are dead to put them in your armpit to "recharge them" for that last little bit of juice.
The truth is, if you have a removable battery, the first thing you do is PULL that battery and LEAVE it out, which you and I dont. But when theres juice flowimg to the board when water hits it, it super cools very hot and tiny solder points on a board which causes fractures and most of the time complete breaks. Some people get lucky and only suffer from fractured joints from being able to pull the battery out and allowing joints to cool quickly. But with a sealed battery you are basically doomed from the time it hits the water OR if your lucky enough and it just got splashed or dunked for a second it didnt allow enough time to pull in water and your usually safe.
To those people who couldnt fire up their phone it is because water was shorting their phone, and once the water was evaporated if the joints didnt get damaged the phome fores up again. They say its the rice, I say its physics.
The roce thing is a joke, and it "only works" cause YOU the individual who thought the phone was thirsty didnt get it wet enough
;:EXAMPLE< THIS WILL DESTROY YOUR COMPUTER ONLY CONTINUE KNOWING YOUR COMPUTER WILL NO LONGER RUN AGAIN, I SUGGEST ALL PRECAUTIONS WHEN WORKING WITH ELECTRICITY AND AM NOT LIABLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOU OR YOUR PROPERTY.>
I have PROOF of this theory if you thing im lying. Grab and old DESKTOP with an easily removable motherboard and remove it. I HAD ONE FROM 1998 THAT HAD WINDOWS 2000 ON IT. Again make sure its NOT been on, preferable one that has sat in your closet for years. Pull the motherboard and ram and cpu, places where water can get lodged, and soak the motherboard for 10 minutes. Dry it off as much as you can and bake it in the sun for a day, two just to be safe.. That night plug everything back in and it will fire up. It more than likely will run just fine, unless you didnt let it get hot enough to evaporate the water while in the sun. In the same test let the computer run for about 20 minutes, enough time to get everything nice and warm.
Then quickly turn the pc ocr and UNPLUG it and LIGHTLY with a cup of cool water slowly drizzle it on the motherboard and you should start to hear cracking noises. Again the next dry pull it out and you will notice cracks in solder joints. And youll nitce that it never works again.
Maybe ill make a youtube video as I have another old pc.
The point it hot joints dont like cold water. So its all up to how fast water got in if any, most of the time if your phone is sealed properly its just outside on the screen and casing.
Even if it did revive, it's days would be numbered anyway. You could eBay it for water damage/parts only and probably recoup a couple hundred bucks.
Edit: My opinion on the rice is that it only helps dry out the phone slightly faster if left completely sealed airtight and buried for like a week. If there's going to be damage, it has already been done as was stated above.
See...rice works great with humidity or direct contact with water, my problem with rice on a phone is it is not in direct contact with water. NOW if you said you coverd the phone in rice in a SEALED container and threw that out in the sun? Yes I could understand the rice absorbing water faster
Now i am no genuis...ive just done a lotttt of research in my time. And I do a lot...of testing hahaha
I dropped mine in the sink under running water and it shorted out. Put it in rice for 5 days and it started working eventually. Still working flawless to this day. So rice is not totally a lie unless that was just a coincidence. All I know is that my phone is still working after water ****ed it up
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk 2
GoBears said:
Even if it did revive, it's days would be numbered anyway. You could eBay it for water damage/parts only and probably recoup a couple hundred bucks.
Edit: My opinion on the rice is that it only helps dry out the phone slightly faster if left completely sealed airtight and buried for like a week. If there's going to be damage, it has already been done as was stated above.
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Is there any way they could pull any of my info off there of I sold it on ebay?
Gytole said:
See...rice works great with humidity or direct contact with water, my problem with rice on a phone is it is not in direct contact with water. NOW if you said you coverd the phone in rice in a SEALED container and threw that out in the sun? Yes I could understand the rice absorbing water faster
Now i am no genuis...ive just done a lotttt of research in my time. And I do a lot...of testing hahaha
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I'm glad you clarified your earlier post. In certain cases, the rice trick does work. It does absorb humidity and draw wetness to itself. However, like you stated, it usually cannot magically pull moisture out of trapped jointed components.
hank3fan said:
Is there any way they could pull any of my info off there of I sold it on ebay?
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I'm sure if they really wanted to, they could. I doubt anyone would go through trouble. Have you tried hooking it to a computer lately and see if there's a response?
So I didn't get the insurance for my wife's Pixel 4a and it (and my Pixel 4) were submerged in water at Busch Gardens for about 5 minutes at about 3 feet deep. My Pixel 4 works fine and hers is dead. They were both in a plastic "protective" phone bag that was fully sealed. Somehow water got inside the bag, maybe a tiny pinhole I couldn't see. It's currently sitting in a bowl of rice as I don't have any silica gels at the moment. It's been in rice for over 12 hours but still won't start and I can still see condensation inside the camera lenses. She is currently using my old Pixel 2XL so we're good there. I am hoping I can bring this back to life. Any ideas?
Hardly would you be able to sort that out. I have managed to get mine out with rice but that was before the damage became irreversible which is your case I guess.
Please keep us updated.
So did drying out the phone work ok?
Forget the rice... voodoo would work better.
You need to take off the rear cover asap and disconnect the battery to avoid permanent damage.
The clock is ticking Mr Wick... tic-tok...
Use anhydrous isopropyl alcohol* to absorb the water. Flush liberally but make it fast. Displace as much as the alcohol as fast as possible next.
Low pressure (10-15 psi) compressed clean air can be used. Best done in a dry room to prevent condensation. Remove as much as possible.
Allow to dry in a warm dry room with a fan on it for at least 2 days before connecting the battery.
You could forego the isopropyl alcohol and just use this last step extended to a week but no water can remain. I reccomend using the isopropyl for large amounts of water. The BGA chipsets have their contacts under them, these must be 100% dry... you can't visually inspect them. All switches and micro connectors must be dry. No water at all in the phone when done.
Next time double bag in zip lock freezer bags... better yet, don't bring phones.
* it is flammable... don't get stupid. Take care not to get it in between the display and glass if this possible to do as it would leave a residue.
Use your best judgment.