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question about water damage

so yeah..... (dont all you laught now) but i just droped my phone in the toilet *b4 pissing thank god*... and it shut off... i took out the battery ASAP... and use a hair dryer to dry it out.. now its under a fan blowing semi cool air....
did i just completly **** my phone.... im sure i did... anyone know of something 2 do..

please help... ive been without my phone for 20 minutes.. and molski is releasing his 3rd ed rom soon.. and i wont even be about to use it

I once had Kool Aid poured down a motherboard of an open computer case. A lot of cleaning and a day later, it still worked fine.
Is there hope? Sure. Are the odds in your favor? Probably not.
But since you already got your phone wet, you know your warranty is gone. My advice (it's worked for me before) is to take the phone apart carefully, dry it off completey, clean it with 90% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth, and then wait for it to dry again. Hopefully that will stop the corrosion and hopefully removing your battery immediately worked to your favor before anything shorted out.
Good luck!

help again
ok welll first of all.. ummm im not gunna say WHY, but my warrenty wont work period on the phone. next what do i use to take it apart??? i know not to even try to turn it on for atleast a day or two..... and drying under a fan right now... and what if i cant clean with with 90% whatever you said and a microfiber thing... cuz i wont be able to get that untill tomrrow

I highly suggest you open it and do as was suggested earlier. Same thing happened to me on my Nokia phone and the above procedure saved it. Goodluck!

well i just left it under a fan all night.. and tried it this morning and everything works fine.....WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

You may want to seal your phone in a plastic bag with some instant rice or cilica for a couple of days. This will pull out any remaining moisture. If you did not take your phone apart I'll bet there's still water inside. If you don't get it out corrosion will set in.
Good luck

Phone wet - solutions
Well, I'm glad you saved your phone.
With all electrical equipment it's adviced to:
- switch it off ASAP
- the shorter it was on while wet, the less chance you have damaged it
- ensure that it gets completely dry
- a hairdryer can help, but at least open the phone as far as possible
- you can also leave it open on a warm place in the house,let the sun shine on it
- I would even let it dry for a few days
I must say, it also depends on the type of fluid. Salty water, coca cola, ice tea, coffee....these have a bigger chance to cause damage. If that happens, while switched off, clean a while well with just water to get to salt or sugar out. Then let it dry.

happend to my phone as well, after taking a piss (and flushing the toilet). I only opend the keyboad and lett it dry for a day on the heating. works fine [email protected] first the display was flickering quit a lot. but now, a week later... it's working as before.

After tilt was washed in landry machine

Accidentally, I put my tilt with clothes into the washer when I was doing laundry yesterday. Yeah, it does look much cleaner after one hour's wash with detergent, but I couldn't start it any more. After one day baking on top of the monitor, it was able to boot up, but the device will automatically shut off after showing the message " Sim Door is unlocked and the device will shut down in 10 seconds". I've checked the door, locked and unlocked it, but it doesn't work. Liquid has caused a short?
By the way, the warranty has expired, so I have to fix it all by myself. Would appreciate any suggestions

rubbing alcohol and toothbrush try cleaning the guts

Warranty would't cover this anyway. I'd eBay it as "for parts only" and buy something else. Good luck.

Most cell phones as I understand from a tech...they have "indicators" like small dots for example that change color when introduced to liquid. Quick way to say no to the customer in regards to warranty.

UR2L8 said:
Most cell phones as I understand from a tech...they have "indicators" like small dots for example that change color when introduced to liquid. Quick way to say no to the customer in regards to warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're called Liquid Damage Indicators (LDIs). They're behind the battery on pretty much every phone.

Friend of mine laundered her Treo. She let it air out on a windowsill for a week.
She let it sit on a couple of silicone packets she had from a camera box.
(Water WILL evaporate, but soap will NOT. I hope it is rinsed.)
It works fine now. Hope this helps.

zhiheng said:
Accidentally, I put my tilt with clothes into the washer when I was doing laundry yesterday. Yeah, it does look much cleaner after one hour's wash with detergent, but I couldn't start it any more. After one day baking on top of the monitor, it was able to boot up, but the device will automatically shut off after showing the message " Sim Door is unlocked and the device will shut down in 10 seconds". I've checked the door, locked and unlocked it, but it doesn't work. Liquid has caused a short?
By the way, the warranty has expired, so I have to fix it all by myself. Would appreciate any suggestions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clean it with alcohol and toothbrush as GuySparkz said.
Best to use is isopropylalcohol, if not in specialized electro shop, you still can get it in pharmacy shop. but it will still not dissolve all parts of soap. You should use demineralised water for this, from gas station. yes water. then alcohol. demineralised water act like sponge to minerals and stuff from soup and regular water.
dissasemble it completelly, bath mainboard in dem. water for an half hour, use toothbrash don't be shy with it, then bath in alcohol half hour, now use toothbrush VERY carefully, without too much power. It could tear smd's away.
you can put it to bath on top of working wash mashine to use vibrations from it.
after bath I am using pressed air to drain and blow away drops which still contain unwanted substance, don't use the one from gas station because it contains condensed air drops, better use straw and blow on it fastly.
use fan during your presence or beware of breathing fumes too much and don't let fumes go to your eyes too. it's irritating.
don't bath battery, LCD, cameras, vibra device, keyboard, speaker and mic. use just brush.
if water get in touch panel, you'll probably need to get a new one.
if battery will stop working in few days, you can open and bath board inside it.
now to just drying method. it's risky, water is not 100% conductive, but rust which will be created after few days is and that could finish it off.
I cleaned plenty of phones & cameras after my friends been rafting with them with 100% success. only one camera which had been only drained and used for another 2 days was really dead.

You may want to try taking the battery out and washing it again with rubbing alcohol. It may sound stupid but soap will conduct electricity as it is an electrolyte albeit a bad one i think, this could be causing the short especially when these devices use such low voltage. Get all the residue off and let it air dry I did it once before with my Blue Angel. Dropped it into a blue toilet when i was deployed and I did that and it worked. And before I get a comments from the peanut gallery... My phone was not sh*$y or blue or anything like that just a phone.

Thanks for all you guys. your suggestions really helps!
In fact, I was going to wash it by alcohol.
Anyway, just want to try one more time before I open it.
It does boot up today W/O any error message, even though you still can see some weird areas on the screen.
It is really amazing!
Just to be safe, currently it was sitting in a big bottle of CaSO4 (moisture absorber), hopefully it can be fully cured.

zhiheng said:
Thanks for all you guys. your suggestions really helps!
In fact, I was going to wash it by alcohol.
Anyway, just want to try one more time before I open it.
It does boot up today W/O any error message, even though you still can see some weird areas on the screen.
It is really amazing!
Just to be safe, currently it was sitting in a big bottle of CaSO4 (moisture absorber), hopefully it can be fully cured.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the reason why using alcohol to clean is good is because it will evaporate itself (and whatever liquid or dust it mixed with) almost instantly when you apply on the surface. It's the best cleaning solvent.
This may also help you for your screen problem: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14919

After rinsing pack it in white rice for several days, it will suck out all the moisture.

JohnnyGTO said:
After rinsing pack it in white rice for several days, it will suck out all the moisture.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
very good advice

joihan777 said:
Friend of mine laundered her Treo. She let it air out on a windowsill for a week.
She let it sit on a couple of silicone packets she had from a camera box.
(Water WILL evaporate, but soap will NOT. I hope it is rinsed.)
It works fine now. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Treo seems to fair exceptionally well in regards to water damage. My father flushed his twice, both times he had to remove the toilet to retrieve it. He placed it overnight in front of an air vent and it worked flawlessly afterward and has been working for 6 months since it happened.

[28-5-2009] Xperia fell, into toilet!!

OMG, this was the first thing i said.
suddenly my X1 fell into the toilet straight into the pipes!
but before it goes into the water, a good thing happend! the battery popped out . this might be a good sign
lucky me, i recovered my phone, but will it work?
i don't know, it's out of warranty anyway so let's open it, clean it and see what's inside.
steps done so far (started @ 10:00 am GMT+3)
1) washed the phone, with every single cleaning liquid i ever found
2) started opening the phone and cleaning it from the inside (yes, puring it with water and some cleaning/anti germs stuff) and yes including the bords.
3) finished cleaning it from the inside, now drying part (current status)
4) dryubg is over, connected everything together (without the body of the device, only boards) and YEPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, it's working.
a) Touch screen is fine, LCD have some problem (seems it still have some water in) i will dissamble the LCD completely.
b) no other problems to the main hardware (as PDA, i didn't test the speaker or anything else!)
5) OS Is not booting now, LCD is missing the RED Color, getting stucked on the SE Logo!
6) got really tired, i think this will need time, went to the shop, bought an HTC Touch HD
7) i will continue working on X1 untill it's fixed.
i will update this as i progress.
wish me luck
[12-5-2009]
Finally got some time to check why the phone is stucked SE Logo.
- first tried a hard reset
it didn't solve it, i thought maybe flashing a new ROM will help.
- Flashed a new ROM (HSPL already there before),
Still the same issue, the LCD is missing the Blue Color Sometimes, its a carbon connector for sure and can be fixed, but why not booting?!
[28-5-2009]
- got more time to work on it
- flashed nX1i_v1_04_WWE, still, stuck on se logo!
- Check attached Images
Edit : i replaced the LCD, the phone is booting now but it's taking around 4 to 5 minutes to boot, it get's stucked at the SE logo then it continues.
i'm able to flash new ROMs.
BT and Wifi are not working.
BT is turining on and off but i cannot use it, my X1 cannot be found using any other BT device when it's on visible mode. and cannot send files from my X1!
Wifi : Not turining on at all!
anyone with ideas? i really suspect the flexcable due to any accedental push i made when opening the device but it's expensive to replace and honestly, a new X1 would cost a bit higher!

dang thats unlucky - as long as the battery fell out it wouldnt have short circuited anything then i guess - just dont turn it on till its SUPER dry

comeradealexi said:
dang thats unlucky - as long as the battery fell out it wouldnt have short circuited anything then i guess - just dont turn it on till its SUPER dry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you think it's possible to use the elictric hands dryer? or it will do some problems?

don't think a hairdryer should cause problems
about warranty then think all phones today have
indicators which show if they have been wet because
dropping it in water is not covered
surprisingly many people seem to drop phones in toilet
read it was the most common way for them to die

Are you shure that you aren't just in a bad nightmare?
My aunt throw already three mobiles into toilets, don't ask my why
Everything I can say is, that none of the phones could be reanimated

I have too admit my Xperia fell in once, after a few days all was okay, exept dpad wasnt functioning, and i couldnt hard reset or enter bootloader ( weird problem ) with the keys. Ended up replacing it, and forget asap.

Hey,
sh*t happens. Anyway. Here is a link with a thread called: my phone got wet - what should I do!
Even I never had such an accident before I found the solutions quite useful.
Have a look:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=448106
Greets

I haven't read that thread posted above yet, but never use a hairdryer/hand dryer. The can be quite hot coming out of the nozzle, if you're not careful you can melt plastic with them (I work in a helpdesk, I've seen laptops come in after a tiny spillage but with melted keyboards after being attacked by a hairdryer).
Best bet is to take all the covers you can off, dry with a towel/kitchen paper (toilet paper breaks up and leaves lots of little bits) and leave to dry *slowly* resting on a towel, folded several times over, on top of a radiator. Leave it there for 24 hours, more if it looks like there's still water in there.
I'd expect to see tide marks on the screen afterwards though, especially if you live in a hard water area. If you live in a soft water area you might be luckier and have very little residue.

Maybe u should let the x1 go where all the good phones go, phone heaven.
bit of advice dont answer your phone as u take a leak, friend done that in a nightclub and then had to reach in and get it out. even my beloved x1 would have stayed there (take it as a lose lol).
ps. i hope u get it working bud

I read in an iphone forum that you should bury the phone in rice since the rice absorbs all the moisture.

rogatsby said:
I read in an iphone forum that you should bury the phone in rice since the rice absorbs all the moisture.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But don't eat the rice afterwards, its been in the toilet!

Go and buy some Isopropanol, now open your phone and disassemble everything.
Fill some Isopropanol in an cup or something an lie the board inside. (IMPORTANT: The microphone and speaker and camera shouldn't get wet so get it off the board or if you can't you must seal them)
Now let the board lie in the cup for 1 night or so. the isopropanol should evaporate. the clue ist that the isoprop. is binding the water and the salts etc. in it and evaporates with them.
With this method i rescued several phone which was gone swimming
Sorry for my bad english
Bin4ry

Bin4ry said:
Go and buy some Isopropanol, now open your phone and disassemble everything.
Fill some Isopropanol in an cup or something an lie the board inside. (IMPORTANT: The microphone and speaker and camera shouldn't get wet so get it off the board or if you can't you must seal them)
Now let the board lie in the cup for 1 night or so. the isopropanol should evaporate. the clue ist that the isoprop. is binding the water and the salts etc. in it and evaporates with them.
With this method i rescued several phone which was gone swimming
Sorry for my bad english
Bin4ry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeh that's not a bad idea, but alas it didn't work for my old ipod when it fell into the canal.
to the OP you have my sympathy, my x1 was grabbed by my toddler son this morning. I caught him just as he was opening the bathroom door.

fards said:
yeh that's not a bad idea, but alas it didn't work for my old ipod when it fell into the canal.
to the OP you have my sympathy, my x1 was grabbed by my toddler son this morning. I caught him just as he was opening the bathroom door.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine went flying the other day, got my gf's nephew to take a photo, he came running over to show the picture, my x1 went flying luckily no cracks or marks, it almost went into a waterfall

I also had this problem on my old nokia 6600 the phone did ring when i was taken a leak and it feel down to the toilete but i was quick to take it up..throw off the battery and open it to dry it i used compressor on it to dry it then let it rest in the sun for 4 days and it worked fine and still those as i have it as a reserve phone atleast that survived...but my nokia n95 was not that lucky o was stupid enough to answer a messages right before i was at sea to take a bath and i putted it back in my pocket that was my bath shorts and did take the bath gladely i was quick up of the bath and first thing i did was take of the battery opened it dry it let it rest in sun for some days..it started and worked for 3 months then i died:/

Hahhahaah ....in the toilet.....AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry about that dude , but i had to do it.
The taking apart and using hairdryer ahs worked for me in the past, but be careful not to overheat it.

orelsi said:
Hahhahaah ....in the toilet.....AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry about that dude , but i had to do it.
The taking apart and using hairdryer ahs worked for me in the past, but be careful not to overheat it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me my self was laughing harder when they were extracting it
UPDATED FIRST POST, GOT HTC HD and will conitnue repairing my X1

anaadoul said:
me my self was laughing harder when they were extracting it
UPDATED FIRST POST, GOT HTC HD and will conitnue repairing my X1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At first I as gonna reply with laughing my a$$ off but then on second though I was like "your $ just fell down the toilet" dang...

Kids...be sympathetic...
Anyway, also happened to me a while back, but with a PDA.
I dismantled it, washed it part by part and it worked like a charm after that.
The only thing was, the LCD was permanently stained or smth. One of the light diffusers into the lcd (which was paper btw) was damaged by the water.
But it was functional and I could still use it ok...until I fell on it...
And this happened (check attached file - if you look closely you can see the right part of the LCD is kinda missing)
I'm pretty curious to see your display after you manage to get it working...
Can you get some pics online?

I once accidentally dropped a Sony Ericsson device in a large glass of water - it completely recovered. Hope you have the same luck

G1/Dream phone turns on but....

Hi. So i have had a broken G1 just sitting on my dresser and was wondering if it can be repaired. Here's the thing. The reason it is not working anymore is because I dropped it on the floor of my flooded basement. Mind you, it does turn on, but the screen stays black. You do notice that the screen is on because it turns slightly gray. There have been instances where I have not touched it in months (just happened today) and it would fully work, but then after a couple of hours playing around with it the screen goes gray. So do any of you think that this can be repaired (at no cost). haha. I have a working g1 but it'd be nice to have 2! Thanks in advance.

a_q_1029 said:
Hi. So i have had a broken G1 just sitting on my dresser and was wondering if it can be repaired. Here's the thing. The reason it is not working anymore is because I dropped it on the floor of my flooded basement. Mind you, it does turn on, but the screen stays black. You do notice that the screen is on because it turns slightly gray. There have been instances where I have not touched it in months (just happened today) and it would fully work, but then after a couple of hours playing around with it the screen goes gray. So do any of you think that this can be repaired (at no cost). haha. I have a working g1 but it'd be nice to have 2! Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like some things got damaged inside the phone, there really isn't a free way because you'll probably need to replace some parts. But there's someone in the forum that sells them pretty cheaply (don't remember their name)

I thought so. But just thought I'd ask the pros. Haha. Like I said, I already have one, so it's not that serious to try to fix it. Maybe I can sell it for cheap. At least I'll get something out of it. But thanks for your help. Really appreciate it.

I've got a similar issue, don't know if anyone can help but...Came out of work one day turned on my phone and started having issues with the widgets and a few apps on my phone (A2SD). Got home tried rebooting and recovering from a nand backup but didn't help, re flashed which didn't help, rebooted 1 more time to find that my phone would boot past 2 splash screens and then just stop at a black, backlit screen. I have it under warranty, no water damage, it was dropped aaaages ago but worked fine and this problem happened like 3 months after I dropped it so...Any ideas anyone?

It might be the flex cable inside the G1, the same thing happened to my sisters, she dropped it and you could only see the backlight light up. By the way, the Flex cable is a Pain in the ass to replace... well at least it was for me.. Good Luck

But wouldnt that mean none of the screen would work?

after water damage
My G1 fell in the bath tub while showering my kids. I quickly took the battery out, blow dry it and let dry for a month. Now, it turns on but each time i hit any button it gives a power off option.
I have taken it apart and cleaned the keyboard with alcohol. but still same problem.
Did i forgot to clean something or i need to replace a part?
please help!!

tonira said:
My G1 fell in the bath tub while showering my kids. I quickly took the battery out, blow dry it and let dry for a month. Now, it turns on but each time i hit any button it gives a power off option.
I have taken it apart and cleaned the keyboard with alcohol. but still same problem.
Did i forgot to clean something or i need to replace a part?
please help!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the problem is not the phone drop into the water, the problem start when u turn the phone on after u take it out from the water, so still wet and if u turn it on u gonna damage the circuits, so what i do its let the cell phone get dry not with a dryer ok, just leave the cell phone on a place is warm enough for like a day or 2 if u can and later try to turn it on maybe u get lucky and nothing get damage just get the steam it screen well thats my theory it works for me most of the time

thephantom007 said:
the problem is not the phone drop into the water, the problem start when u turn the phone on after u take it out from the water, so still wet and if u turn it on u gonna damage the circuits, so what i do its let the cell phone get dry not with a dryer ok, just leave the cell phone on a place is warm enough for like a day or 2 if u can and later try to turn it on maybe u get lucky and nothing get damage just get the steam it screen well thats my theory it works for me most of the time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, i did that. still no good.

tonira said:
thanks, i did that. still no good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well sorry to hear that, time to use the warranty

tonira said:
thanks, i did that. still no good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
put in in a bowl of rice to remove the moisture. its probably a short thats causing the keys to be recognized as the power button. check for anything that could be responsible for the short

B-man007 said:
put in in a bowl of rice to remove the moisture. its probably a short thats causing the keys to be recognized as the power button. check for anything that could be responsible for the short
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for your help!! how do i check for the shorts. is it ok if i air blow the parts with air blaster?

tonira said:
thanks, i did that. still no good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know those little silicon gel packet things that come with backpacks and stuff? Those are AMAZING moisture removers! Try them and I wish you good luck

[Q] Water Damage

So for the first time ever, I dropped my phone in water.
Luckily I'm still under warranty, except I'm worried about the water indicator. It's still white under the battery, but does anyone know if there is other like inside the phone?
Also, I can boot the phone to the bootloader, but that's it. I can get to recovery from there, but flashing ROM's do nothing, I still always boot to the bootloader no matter what.
Does anyone know if there are more water indicators or of there is a way to temporarily fix this? I'm freaking out

Bag of rice and wait wait wait... I'd get the battery out asap!!
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Well when you get something wet, you should power it down immediately, remove the battery and all of the parts, and stick it in some rice for a few days.
Rooted/ROM Captivate (For Sale)
Rooted Atrix

I heard ppl using hairdryer or putting into oven for a little while and it becomes ok after that.

remove the battery, simcard, and other peripherals from the phone.
then put it on some uncook rice for a night.
using alcohol also is a nice way because alcohol will displace the water.. do this before putting the phone on the uncook rice..

The bag of rice is the only thing you can do. A hairdryer for a little should be ok but please dont put it in the oven. And i would recommend not using alcohol since it would probably strip the paint and mess up the plastic.

Had the same thing happen on x-mas eve. My wife did a load of laundry and forgot to check my pants pocket. after 3 days of sitting in rice (and multiple flashes), i finally got the phone semi-working. The sdcard was shot and the mic stopped woking...i can only make phone calls using BT or with the headset...but hey, I forget this thing is a phone anyway