Touchscreen isn't working after being in a pool - Xperia Z3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
Earlier today I was in the pool, I grabbed my Z3 and started taking pictures. (of course I checked twice that all the flaps are closed).
After 10 minutes, I put the device on the table near the pool to dry.
I went out for watching the pictures but I was surprised to find out that the device doesn't recognize my touchs.
I already tried restarting the device using the power + volume up buttons, but I can't see any change.
Important to mention that all the buttons work well, the same goes for the speakers, the microphone, the light sensor, LED light etc.
Do you have any idea what should I do?
Thanks and sorry about my grammer mistakes.

I got quite the panic attack the first time I experienced the same thing. For me waiting a while worked, and it came back to life. I still have trouble a couple of hours after soaking it when it comes to sound, though. Sometimes it thinks that I have a jack connected, for instance. I'm guessing you just have to wait for it to dry properly.

owid408 said:
I got quite the panic attack the first time I experienced the same thing. For me waiting a while worked, and it came back to life. I still have trouble a couple of hours after soaking it when it comes to sound, though. Sometimes it thinks that I have a jack connected, for instance. I'm guessing you just have to wait for it to dry properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same as me! It also thought I connected my headset, for some reason.
when you waited a while, the device was turned-off or on?

I never turned it off. Might be a good idea to try to connect a useless headsets jack (I take no responsibility for whatever might happen though. I have no good concept of whether this might be a bad idea or not) to try to clean it.

owid408 said:
I never turned it off. Might be a good idea to try to connect a useless headsets jack (I take no responsibility for whatever might happen though. I have no good concept of whether this might be a bad idea or not) to try to clean it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have connected a headset already and it worked fine. I will let the phone to dry until tomorrow.

Very strange. I get my phone wet a lot and never had any issue. Of course touch does not work well when phone and hands are wet. But after a couple of minutes, it is good to go.

If your phone stops working properly after being immersed in water then it is defective and water got inside of it. Bring it to a service center, they will test it and if they find a leak with flaps closed they will replace under warranty.
I've immersed mine in water a few times and I never had any problem (not pool, mostly in the sink for cleaning purposes and to test the waterproofing). If water goes and stays into the headphone jack the phone will detect headphones, but you just have to blow the water out of it or shake it a bit to get the water out. Underwater the screen will not work and it will detect fake touches if a lot of water is still on the screen, but it should work perfectly as soon as you dry it with a towel or something.
If you experience a malfunction after drying up your phone with a towel and getting residual water out of the jack then water got inside and you should get it replaced ASAP. It doesn't need any drying period, drying it with a towel is enough.

Related

My light won't shut off.

My fault entirely, but I dropped my HTC Fuze in the toilet...
Well, I pulled it out and popped out the battery and quickly dried it up as well as I could. I exposed as much as I could and let it sit to dry for a couple of days. Now, it turns on and it runs perfectly fine, the only problem is that the flashlight stays on, and does not turn off no matter what I do. Don't know what to expect to accomplish by posting this here, but maybe some of you have any ideas?
I've been trying to open it up and see if anything looks weird, but I don't have a screwdriver small enough...
Eh, no suggestions as to what I could do?
That's really weird. But weird things always happens when electronic devices are dropped in water!
I would try nuelight: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=456908 and see if that shuts it off. Otherwise, you may as well take out the LED light physically.
Out of curiosity is it on normal or extra bright and how long has it been on for without burning out? I use my light quite alot and am rather paranoid about frazzling it.... A personal message would be extra helpful as i may not check this thread again
Many thanks.
whenever you subject ANY electronic device to moisture follow this suggestion - Ive seen it fully revive seemingly dead electronics:
Remove batt/power ASAP!
Remove as much moisture by hand as you can
Put device in the fridge for AT LEAST 3 days before attempting to power it up again. the fridge will wick all moisture out of your phone/mp3 player/etc much as it will fully crustify your loaf of bread.
Be patient! firing it up early will not help...
also putting it in a bowl of rice helps
i used a blowdryer on an old samsung years ago and it worked for about 8 months then apparently rusted up inside after going in a pool
chopsxxx said:
whenever you subject ANY electronic device to moisture follow this suggestion - Ive seen it fully revive seemingly dead electronics:
Remove batt/power ASAP!
Remove as much moisture by hand as you can
Put device in the fridge for AT LEAST 3 days before attempting to power it up again. the fridge will wick all moisture out of your phone/mp3 player/etc much as it will fully crustify your loaf of bread.
Be patient! firing it up early will not help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like it works, would it work a couple weeks after the original fall into water though? I thought it was dead, but after sitting in front of a fan full blast, it turns on just fine, but the flashlight just comes on and stays on. Even if the phone is off and just the battery is in it, the flashlight comes on and stays on. I could easily use it like this, but the battery life is another pain.
lbhocky19 said:
also putting it in a bowl of rice helps
i used a blowdryer on an old samsung years ago and it worked for about 8 months then apparently rusted up inside after going in a pool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I heard about putting it in cat litter. I don't have cats though. Hah, eight months is better than nothing, eh?
Agent Blair said:
That's really weird. But weird things always happens when electronic devices are dropped in water!
I would try nuelight: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=456908 and see if that shuts it off. Otherwise, you may as well take out the LED light physically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. It pissed me off because I had just been watching Dane Cooks new comedy where he says... "I just joined the 'I just dropped my phone in my own piss' club." There was nothing in the toilet when it decided to take a dip, but still... Hah. I was trying to take out the LED light, but I couldn't even break through the shell. I realized that I need tiny tools to do so. I was also looking for a place I can order replacement parts, but if I can't get into it, that'd be a waste of time. I was just going to try to let the LED burn itself out, but until then I'd still not be able to use it, battery life is awful.

[Q] Got my phone wet. Everything still works but charging is unreliable

Hey everyone,
I wish I wasn't here under these circumstances, but yesterday my phone got drenched by the faucet when I accidentally dropped it in the sink. I turned it off right away and tried to dry it by blowing out all the holes/buttons/etc. with canned air. then (maybe stupidly) I turned the phone back on and used it the rest of the day, not really noticing that it wasn't charging when I plugged it in until later when the battery got very low and I plugged it in again and noticed that the charging symbol didn't appear.
Ultimately, what I found DID work, (at least temporarily, sometimes it still stops charging) was turning the phone off, then plugging it in, then turning it back on . When I did this, usb (and wireless) charging work, as well as the USB connection for getting files off the phone on my computer.
It's a bit odd that this is what worked, but so far, it seems to. I'm just not quite sure if there's anything else I can do other than maybe send the phone to LG for repair, or find a local shop that might be cheaper...
Just looking for any suggestions or information anyone may have to help me fix this. thanks in advance!
shorty6049 said:
Hey everyone,
I wish I wasn't here under these circumstances, but yesterday my phone got drenched by the faucet when I accidentally dropped it in the sink. I turned it off right away and tried to dry it by blowing out all the holes/buttons/etc. with canned air. then (maybe stupidly) I turned the phone back on and used it the rest of the day, not really noticing that it wasn't charging when I plugged it in until later when the battery got very low and I plugged it in again and noticed that the charging symbol didn't appear.
Ultimately, what I found DID work, (at least temporarily, sometimes it still stops charging) was turning the phone off, then plugging it in, then turning it back on . When I did this, usb (and wireless) charging work, as well as the USB connection for getting files off the phone on my computer.
It's a bit odd that this is what worked, but so far, it seems to. I'm just not quite sure if there's anything else I can do other than maybe send the phone to LG for repair, or find a local shop that might be cheaper...
Just looking for any suggestions or information anyone may have to help me fix this. thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should have not used the phone but put it turned off in a bowl of uncooked rice for a few days. Optional also removed the back and the battery if possible. You will have corrossion now and maybe worse electrical damage.
gee2012 said:
You should have not used the phone but put it turned off in a bowl of uncooked rice for a few days. Optional also removed the back and the battery if possible. You will have corrossion now and maybe worse electrical damage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I recognize that it was a bad idea... but there's not much I can do about that now. I'm just trying to figure out what my best course of action going forward is.
shorty6049 said:
Yeah, I recognize that it was a bad idea... but there's not much I can do about that now. I'm just trying to figure out what my best course of action going forward is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to remove the back and battery and place it in a bowl of uncooked rice asap for 2-3 days, this will limit the damage. Your warranty will also be voided i`am afraid as the moisture indicators are colored now.
gee2012 said:
Try to remove the back and battery and place it in a bowl of uncooked rice asap for 2-3 days, this will limit the damage. Your warranty will also be voided i`am afraid as the moisture indicators are colored now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you think the chances of the moisture indicators NOT being colored would be?
I had the phone inside a bumper case which covers the sides of the phone and the back. Some water got inside the case, but maybe not enough to wet the indicators.. I'd hate to open the phone and then realize they weren't colored. I hate opening phones if possible, but that'd be the only way to know for sure , I guess...
I'm working on getting my hands on a back up phone to use currently , but I hate to see the condition of this one get worse... (my nexus 4 that I was going to use as a backup hasn't wanted to power on in a couple months after I botched Rom flashing attempt and subsequent failure to accept a charge)
shorty6049 said:
what do you think the chances of the moisture indicators NOT being colored would be?
I had the phone inside a bumper case which covers the sides of the phone and the back. Some water got inside the case, but maybe not enough to wet the indicators.. I'd hate to open the phone and then realize they weren't colored. I hate opening phones if possible, but that'd be the only way to know for sure , I guess...
I'm working on getting my hands on a back up phone to use currently , but I hate to see the condition of this one get worse... (my nexus 4 that I was going to use as a backup hasn't wanted to power on in a couple months after I botched Rom flashing attempt and subsequent failure to accept a charge)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Water goes through the tiniest cracks and openings so i guess the indicators are colored. Only one sure way to find out and that is looking inside the phone. Look on YouTube for a Nexus 5 iFixit dissasembly video.
Opening up the phone doesn't really void the warranty. Breaking something while opening it does. You still had the headphone jack and the usb port open right? That means water got in and tripped the sensors. This is pretty much guaranteed. IMO, those sensors are too sensitive. Just using the phone in a humid place (bathroom while shower is running) trips them.
If everything works fine just try a wireless charger
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
The fact that your charging doesn't work reliably anymore probably means the moisture indicators would be coloured... I've had phones where the water didn't damage it at all and they still were
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Q] Water Damaged Nexus 5 Boot Loop Suggestions

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.

[Q] LG G2 dropped in clean toilet

Happened for half a second and then I pulled it out really quick. Took it out of my case, turned off the phone, rebooted it, rebooted it again. Seemed to work fine. A little while later it indicated headphones were plugged in where they weren't Said uh-oh, desperately and stupidly) actually plugged in headphones to solve the problem, pulled them out, turned off phone and turned it on again, worked fine, problem went away. Went to the movies, felt it vibrate once during the movies, tried to get on it after movie, wouldn't turn on. At all. Nothing happens when I plug it in.
Currently letting it sit in a bag of rice like I probably should have done in the first place. Obviously can't remove the battery and opening it up seems to be more work than it's worth. So i guess my questions are 1) am I screwed and 2)How long should I REALLY keep it in that bag? I've heard anywhere from overnight to a whole week just to be safe.
c0ntinuity said:
Happened for half a second and then I pulled it out really quick. Took it out of my case, turned off the phone, rebooted it, rebooted it again. Seemed to work fine. A little while later it indicated headphones were plugged in where they weren't Said uh-oh, desperately and stupidly) actually plugged in headphones to solve the problem, pulled them out, turned off phone and turned it on again, worked fine, problem went away. Went to the movies, felt it vibrate once during the movies, tried to get on it after movie, wouldn't turn on. At all. Nothing happens when I plug it in.
Currently letting it sit in a bag of rice like I probably should have done in the first place. Obviously can't remove the battery and opening it up seems to be more work than it's worth. So i guess my questions are 1) am I screwed and 2)How long should I REALLY keep it in that bag? I've heard anywhere from overnight to a whole week just to be safe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all in the first place you shouldnt have used it because it could have even caused short-cut in the motherboard.
Now keep it in that bag of rice for 1-2 days that would be enough.
Sent from my XT1033 using XDA Free mobile app
Okay, clean water is better than dirty water. However, tap/toilet water has mineral impurities which tend to make the water conductive, thus allowing short circuit conditions to occur. You're probably screwed as something obviously caused your device to stop working. Now, (most) components can tolerate being shorted once, maybe twice, provided currents remain low and brief. You might be lucky.
Next time, rice right away. Also, leaving the battery in is not a good idea, no matter how difficult it is to get to. Plus, removing it will allow you to perform a visual inspection.

Touch Screen work after water submersion

Hello, ladies and gentlemen (and those inbetween, too)!
I will try to keep this as short as possible. If you want less details, tl;dr section at the end. EDIT: i.... didn't quite think this through
My girlfriend has an Xperia Z3 which she bought from a random seller from Germany (am UK residents). Everything about the phone was great, it was brand-new albeit it has been, apparently, been the display device; but other than that it worked perfectly. We even tested out the waterproofness right after setting up the device and charging it up to see if it works. Back then, it did.
Now, this friday (frikkin' Friday the 13th) she had some sort of an art project going on, which she wanted to do underwater. She does have a GoPro for it, but for some sample shots before finishing out, she decided she could just as well use her Xperia. Now, I was sleeping at the moment so I did not get to witness how she did it, but she assures me she closed the flaps extra carefully. However, after she tried submersing it into water, the screen started blinking randomly, as if there is some problem with LCD matrix of some sorts.
We put the Xperia into a bowl of rice and left it that way overnight. After turning the phone back on, the screen showed first "Sony Xperia" logo, then completely went blank. Just a random look-around on the Internet showed me that for extra help it would be best if you take your water-exposed phone and leave it upside-down while it is drying out. I was hopeless, but I didn't want to disappoint her so I said it would work. I was sure it would work since at times, when turning the phone on, some images did work out (like the charging icon when it's turned off and charging) so most probably the phone is not damaged yet, its just still exposed to water.
Next day, after leaving it just standing there upside down, the screen worked as normal, and normal touch functionality returned as well. Not for long however.
My final hurdle is this: When you turn on the phone (after being in vertical upside-down position) and hold it properly (as in, again, vertically, but upright-down) , the touch functions work very well. For a couple of minutes. After that the touch functionality artifacts (faulty touch detection, ultrahigh sensitivity etc) return. It appears that the water is still there somewhere, and as you hold the phone correctly, it goes down back a bit and impairs functionality.
Now, the question is: What can I do to completely remove the water from the device, seeing as keeping it in rice for 2 days did not remove the impairments from internal water exposure entirely?
So far I've tried only rice. Was bad call, but I did not think of anything better and used a bit of hairdryer at the very beginning of the issue, and yes, I now know that it was a stupid idea.
I think I will leave it in one-two more days upside-down in rice and see how it goes from there. Before turning on, I also thought about using the vacuum cleaner method of attempting to suck the water out of it through available holes.
Any other suggestions, tips and ideas? Would seriously want for things to go back to normal, considering now I do not have a phone (gave mine to girlfriend in place of her ill Xperia).
Thanks for your attention and I hope your devices stay healthy and safe!
tl;dr exposed Xperia Z3 to water with problems, turns out the damage was reversible and everything works well so far but touch functionality is faulty, still water stuck inside the phone that impairs touch screen, tried drying it by leaving in rice, gonna leave in rice for a day or two more and use vacuum cleaner on the holes right after, anything else that I could do?

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