Water damaged nexus 5 won't boot - Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi after coming back from vacation and dipping in the pool with my nexus 5 I have came home and soaked my nexus 5 mother board and parts in 99% alcohol. I have cleaned the motherboard with a toothbrush but the corrosion fades out when the alcohol is covering it but comes back after drying. Also what is the cloth like material on the motherboard?
As for booting my phone can only boot into the safe mode launcher and then goes into battery charging symbol after the google symbol when I press start. My phone also only works when It is plugged into a charger.
Any help would be appreciated thanks. I do not think I cleaned it well enough

Water damage is.often fatal, beyond cleaning with alcohol. Corrosion is not the only problem. Shorts are too. If its not working now, it never will. Cut your losses.

0ly said:
Hi after coming back from vacation and dipping in the pool with my nexus 5 I have came home and soaked my nexus 5 mother board and parts in 99% alcohol. I have cleaned the motherboard with a toothbrush but the corrosion fades out when the alcohol is covering it but comes back after drying. Also what is the cloth like material on the motherboard?
As for booting my phone can only boot into the safe mode launcher and then goes into battery charging symbol after the google symbol when I press start. My phone also only works when It is plugged into a charger.
Any help would be appreciated thanks. I do not think I cleaned it well enough
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its too late for this device now but if this ever happens again, turn off the phone immediately and remove the back/battery and place everything in a bowl of uncooked rice for a day or 2 to have the rice extract the fluids from the phone/battery.

Related

[Q] nexus 5 water damage bootloop

hi, my nexus 5 had water damage and i manager to turn it on into bootloader but when i choose 'Start' then it will keep on looping on the Google logo, i tried multiple ways showed on other thread still no help then i decide to factory reset my nexus 5, same, when in bootloader, i choose recovery mode but it did not go into recovery mode, it come out the Google logo again and keep looping again. any help?
Thanks
Lol dry it out for a few days before powering it on
dicecuber said:
Lol dry it out for a few days before powering it on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did use hair dryer blow and leave it untouched a day, not manage to turn on but boot loop..even in recovery mode
lavenzo said:
i did use hair dryer blow and leave it untouched a day, not manage to turn on but boot loop..even in recovery mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol...are you serious? Don't use a hairdryer
The motherboard fried?
dicecuber said:
The motherboard fried?
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Click to collapse
no idea =( no sign of life
sending to repair shop this weekend
Probably not worth it to fix water damage. Better off replacing it
Never power it on immediately after any water damage..
It is best using vacuum cleaner to suck the water or most of the moisture inside the phone and follow with dipping it into a container full of rice for like 2 to 3 days.. you would have much better chances of recovering it back.
There is no easy way out of this, no matter what other guys tell you. You need to open the device, remove the mainboard and carefully inspect it for visible water marks which need to be cleaned away with pure alcohol.
Only after doing so and drying the board, you might have a chance of it working again.
farsight73 said:
Never power it on immediately after any water damage..
It is best using vacuum cleaner to suck the water or most of the moisture inside the phone and follow with dipping it into a container full of rice for like 2 to 3 days.. you would have much better chances of recovering it back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
leaving it powered on risks of short circuit no?
If you leave it powered on or with the battery connected the end result is massive corrosion from both the impurities in it and the galvanic erosion ( metal + water + electricity ).
The best course of action is to imediately shut it off , open it up and disconnect the battery . Once you've done that , get a container , fill it with the purest iso alcohol you can get ( besides removing impurities it pulls water out if pure enough ) , gently brush the board , then dry it with either a blow dryer or by putting it in a hot , dry place for a few hours.
I've used canned air successfully to blow the moisture from under chips and overall , so that can work too.
The easiest damaged parts are the display ( if water or alcohol gets between layers ) , charging and power circuit ( since there's quite a bit of power flowing through that area ) , as well as RF components since they are under shield cans that might contain the moisture and corrode over time.
Once it starts showing signs of damage it's going to get downhill fast - and repairing it is no longer worth it - you will race to replace components as they fail one by one.

Slightly water damaged phone!

Hey, so I was drunk the other night and got in the shower with my jeans on and my phone in my pocket, don't ask how I managed do this... but anyway, only really got my phone slightly wet, not exactly submerged in water, more like asif it was in the rain...
Well now it won't turn on, however if I plug the charging cable in the screen comes on to show the charging icon but shows its fully charged. I have tried holding Volume Up and Volume Down and the Power buttons, this will not hard reset it and the screen stays off.
How knackered is it!?
First try getting it properly dry - wrap in stocking, put it in a bowl of dry rice, and leave it for 24 hours in a warm dry cupboard.
Then cross your fingers...
Okay I will try this, could chips and electrical components be fried inside? Or would it of shut off and simply need the circuit boards cleaned?
dahawthorne said:
First try getting it properly dry - wrap in stocking, put it in a bowl of dry rice, and leave it for 24 hours in a warm dry cupboard.
Then cross your fingers...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just about to put it in some rice today as had none in before, tried turn it on and it came on! Thank god!
Thanks for the support!
There could still be a bit of moisture inside. I recommend it in the rice to make sure there is no residual moisture that could cause future problems.

HELP...

my mom dropped her phone in a toilet...quickly grabbed it out and took it apart and dried it off...she brought it to me immediately and i dismantled the phone,..used alcohol to clean off the entire motherboard, let it sit to dry out then turned it back on...the phone worked fine, I even made a call. Once I was done I plugged the phone in to charge for her and after about a half an hour i checked the phone and it was off...so i turned it back on. It stayed on about ten minutes...now it absolutely won't power on at all.... what did i do wrong in trying to save it? I thought I had everything covered...it wasn't hardly wet at all when i took it apart....oh its an LG G4...
PLEASE help....
Thank you!
Funnyfish8684 said:
my mom dropped her phone in a toilet...quickly grabbed it out and took it apart and dried it off...she brought it to me immediately and i dismantled the phone,..used alcohol to clean off the entire motherboard, let it sit to dry out then turned it back on...the phone worked fine, I even made a call. Once I was done I plugged the phone in to charge for her and after about a half an hour i checked the phone and it was off...so i turned it back on. It stayed on about ten minutes...now it absolutely won't power on at all.... what did i do wrong in trying to save it? I thought I had everything covered...it wasn't hardly wet at all when i took it apart....oh its an LG G4...
PLEASE help....
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi...Thank you for your post.
#1-when your mom dropped the phone in the toilet...was it damaged or was the screen cracked or anything...because a wet LCD could burn off and seap inside the main components.
#2-when you took the phone apart....was there any loose components from the motherboards or any water spilled on a PCB or have you noticed anything weird or wrong with the board.....cleaning it with alcohol was a smart idea because alcohol dries quickly but alcohol is also a solvent and you could have rubbed too hard on the board and loosen something a bit like a capacitor or a connector or anything similar.
#3-did you check the battery for any possible water damage or did you check the connectors on the battery to insure they are probably seated because some phones have clips that lock the ribbon cables in place and you might have missed one and it came loose during charging.
#4-if non of that works maybe you should consider taking it to a repair shop to atleast let a professional take a close look at it and diagnose it and that might just be the thing that the phone needed.......some TLC.
Phone was in mint condition when she dropped it... Double checked all connections... She ended up having to just upgrade her phone. Thank you for the help!

Water Damage Boots To Black Screen

So I've had this phone water damaged. I left it in rice in a very hot room for maybe 4 months. It boots into recovery and download mode fine and the screen works well. But when i boot it normally after flashing fresh Stock Firmware (It didn't boot before just stuck on splash). I plug phone into charge and the Samsung charger plug sound plays. That means its actually loaded into Android. Any ideas how to fix this?
I thought of replacing the LCD but since Download and Recovery shows up fine then it shouldn't be it?
You need to pull the battery asap after water exposure. The phone needed to come apart right away. Perhaps the mobo has conformal coating but the connectors do not have any protection.
You need to pull the whole thing apart, inspect and dry it completely.
Its long term prospects aren't good.
blackhawk said:
You need to pull the battery asap after water exposure. The phone needed to come apart right away. Perhaps the mobo has conformal coating but the connectors do not have any protection.
You need to pull the whole thing apart, inspect and dry it completely.
Its long term prospects aren't good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been dried for a whole 2 or 3 months in rice and a hot room. Phone boots fine now but only to Download mode or Recovery mode. Screen doesn't work past splashscreen when booting
blackhawk said:
You need to pull the battery asap after water exposure. The phone needed to come apart right away. Perhaps the mobo has conformal coating but the connectors do not have any protection.
You need to pull the whole thing apart, inspect and dry it completely.
Its long term prospects aren't good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been a few months after it's been water damaged I havent run it since BTW
Hamisxa said:
It's been a few months after it's been water damaged I havent run it since BTW
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Click to collapse
You mean you tore it down right away?
blackhawk said:
You mean you tore it down right away?
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Click to collapse
No I mean i tossed it in rice for 2 months in a very hot room and left it there. I tried to take the back off but it started crackling so I didn't try to take it further. I thought the battery might blow up.
Hamisxa said:
No I mean i tossed it in rice for 2 months in a very hot room and left it there. I tried to take the back off but it started crackling so I didn't try to take it further. I thought the battery might blow up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery won't blow up unless you get it really hot. You can't leave water in these devices at all, every minute counts especially if it has a battery.
Sorry but the rice method doesn't cut it.
My Buds case fell in my coffee and sunk to the bottom. Fished it out and tore it apart on the spot. Flushed with RO water, then rinsed with anhydrous isopropyl alcohol using centrifugal force to get as much of the alcohol off (no compressed air in the car) then let it dry.
Amazingly it still is working a year latter; I got lucky, but I was also acted fast and did the right things.
Aside from nose diving it into my full cup of coffee.
I wouldn't invest to much money into this device. Water damaged electronics are insidiously unpredictable and there's no time limit to when it will fail again even if you do manage to get it working.
Dirt minimum; take it apart and carefully inspect it. Pull the micro ribbon connectors and inspect the contacts. Make sure they're completely dry.
Anhydrous isopropyl alcohol (99%) can be used to displaced water. Be careful around LCDs if present as it can poison the liquid crystals.
Exactly the same story with a smartphone at work. The phone starts into recovery with no prolem, the display is working fine. But when I start the system it only shows me the "Samsung Galaxy A51" lettering, "Secured by Knox" and the "Powered by Android". After booting the display remains black but the device gives a feedback when pressing the volume up/down buttons.
Is there any way to reinstall the whole OS? Or maybe authorize the Fingerprint of my PC to check if there's any display output via scrcpy?
Folsense said:
Exactly the same story with a smartphone at work. The phone starts into recovery with no prolem, the display is working fine. But when I start the system it only shows me the "Samsung Galaxy A51" lettering, "Secured by Knox" and the "Powered by Android". After booting the display remains black but the device gives a feedback when pressing the volume up/down buttons.
Is there any way to reinstall the whole OS? Or maybe authorize the Fingerprint of my PC to check if there's any display output via scrcpy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could one of many possible damaged contact surfaces or shorted/open surface mount devices including cpu or ram flat packs or mobo traces. Even after the water is gone if it wasn't promptly removed* damage will continue to surface long after the incident.
You need to tear it apart asap. Even a few minutes may be too long.
Water damage electronics are insidious failures waiting to happen.
Cut your loses.
*prompt removal is no guarentee but greatly improves chances of success.

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...
Click to expand...
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

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