HELP!!! I got my G1 wet. - G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I did a pretty stupid thing yesterday and decided to pull out my G1 while it was raining cats and dogs. At first it did not want to start up at all but I let it just sit for a few hours. Now it starts up but I cannot get into recovery.(hold home+power) It just stay on the T-Mobile G1 screen and does nothing. I also tired flashing the recovery image again and nothing. One more important thing when I connect my USB cable it does not give my the option to mount my SD Card. It only charges the G1.
Thank you in advance for helping.

I'm not sure why exposing it to rain would merit flashing the recovery image.
It might be too late, but you might try putting it in a bag of rice over night to pull all the moisture out.

xelaboy said:
I'm not sure why exposing it to rain would merit flashing the recovery image.
It might be too late, but you might try putting it in a bag of rice over night to pull all the moisture out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on the rice. take the battery out first.

Thanks for the idea. I let it sit over night and gave it a full charge. Everything works fine but I still can't boot into recovery. I tired flashing the latest recovery through terminal emulate and also through the Cayongan reboot but still no luck. I'm suck on CM 5.0.7 Test 3 and my battery is dying way to quickly.
This sucks @ss! I went to T-mobile to look for a replacement phone but T-mobile has some crappy @ss Adnroid phones. I didn't want to go through google to get a Nexus One.
THANKS AGAIN GUYS!

Whenever you get a phone or other piece of technology wet, the last thing you want to do it try to turn it on while its still wet. You might end up frying something. Next time, stick it in rice for 24 hours before even thinking about trying to put it on, or put it in your oven at about 120 degrees for a few hours to let it dry out.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/4269047
Even if a wet cellphone seems dead, there's a good chance it can be resuscitated. Just make sure you act fast--the longer the water sits inside, the greater the likelihood it will destroy the phone for good.
This is a DIY moment. While consumers are conditioned to send back broken merchandise, your phone's warranty probably doesn't cover water damage. And you may not have much luck pulling a fast one on your phone company--most of today's phones come with a "water sticker" that permanently changes color if it gets wet.
The first step: Immediately cut the power by removing the battery. I know it's tempting, but resist the urge to power up your phone to see if it works--just turning it on can short out the circuits. If you have a GSM phone (the type used by AT&T and T-Mobile), you'll want to remove the SIM card as well. Even if your phone turns out to be beyond repair, the SIM should retain a lot of its onboard information, such as the contacts in your phone book.
With the battery safely set aside, you now have one goal--dry your phone, and dry it fast. If you let the moisture evaporate naturally, the chance of corrosion damaging the phone's innards increases. Instead, blow or suck the water out. But don't use a hair dryer--its heat can fry your phone's insides. Instead, opt for a can of compressed air, an air compressor set to a low psi or a vacuum cleaner (a wet/dry Shop-Vac would be perfect). The idea is to use air to push or pull moisture out through the same channels it entered.
Finally, use a desiccant to wick away any leftover moisture. The most convenient choice is uncooked rice. Just leave the phone (and its disconnected battery) submerged in a bowl of grains overnight. If you're worried about rice dust getting inside your phone, you can instead use the packets of silica gel that often come stuffed in the pockets of new clothes. But acting fast is far more important than avoiding a little dust, so don't waste time shopping if you don't already have a drawer full of silica gel.
The most important thing to remember is to avoid heat. That means no hair dryers, ovens, microwaves or extended periods in direct sunlight. While heat will certainly evaporate the moisture, it could also warp components and melt adhesives. Those fragile glues are also why you'll want to avoid dunking the phone in rubbing alcohol (an oftÂ*prescribed tip on the Web). Alcohol is a solvent and can dissolve the internal adhesives. (If you drop your phone in the toilet, it's okay to wipe the outside with alcohol to disinfect it.)
One final, perhaps surprising, note: If your phone gets soaked in salt water, you should probably flush the whole thing in fresh water before it dries. When salt water evaporates, it leaves crystals that can damage a phone's fragile components. Just be sure to remove the battery before flooding the device.
PS: I prefer ziplock bags versus a bowl. Also, instead of rice you can use your fridge. The fridge works by sucking moisture out of the air. Or better yet combine both. Place it in a bowl of rice and then in the fridge.

i reccomend restarting back at rc29 if ur in the usa or rc7 if ur in the uk. if u need a for sure how to guide click here
that guide has proven to many users to work flawlessly and save time compared to the old method using telnetd lol

Thanks to everyone. I got it working. I just use ADB to erase and update my recovery image. Then used ADB to boot into recovery and it worked after that.

Related

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.

[HELP] droped my diamond in toilet

heya guys,
today I was talking on the phone and the phone droped from my hand into toilet. I bring it out fast and removed the battery. I dont know what should I do now,. any advice!!!! will Vodafone accept it for waranty!!!
Usually for any electronic device, take as many bits out as you can an stick it somewhere warm for a day or 2, should get some if not all functionality back, I've dropped many things in the bath and had them back working again. Don't, however, try and power it on until it's had chance to dry out. The touch screen may be an issue though...not dropped any touch device in some water yet to test if the same rules apply....
Stick it in a bowl of (uncooked) rice, it'll help pull out the water faster.
whatever u do dont use any thing like a fan or blow dryer, cause that will just cause the water to go deeper into the phone, use a vaccum to suck the water out as much as possable,then like he said place the phone in a bowl of un-cooked rice for a day or two, good luck.
A little combo of what has been said: put it in a bowl of uncooked rice right at the counter where it gets a lot of sun (battery should be out obviously). The BIGGEST mistake you can do is test it out after a day when you "think" all the water is out. If it isn't and you turn it on, it could cause further damage. I know you're urgent to find out if it works or not, but give it three days with three days in the above conditions. You'll also probably need a new battery.
mp.goldfinger
will Vodafone accept it for waranty!!! - - -- no
Vodafone will not accept phone Warranty
The diamond has a sensor for water
Thanx guys......but I did turn it on today Bcause I really need a number everything is alright but the screens is still fuzzy. I wont use it for at least a week and see what will happend.
i hope you flushed the toilet before you dropped it.. =) otherwise there will be some.. sh*t inside the phone and its not easy to clean
yeah, definitely make sure its in rice, and sunlight doesn't hurt..
And the moral of this story
Don't take your phone out of your pocket when in the toilet.
It's also unhygienic.
Take care of your phone and your phone will take care of you.
I went to a festival where I was so drunk that my diamond went out of my pocket when I got ready to sleep in my tent. And next morning I fond the phone in a little water pool inside the tent. But all the functions still work after I let the phone dry for 1 day.
Uncooked rice (as been mentioned before) is the best solution.
Take your time, as been said before, it will take a long time before all the moisture is out.
Nowadays the chips are very small, water easily lodges between the BGA balls, and it takes a while to evaporate.
just leave it for a week in the bowl of uncooked rice (preferably on a warm sunny place.)
Remove stylus, back cover & battery before sticking it into the bowl.
It's not under warranty: it has a moisture sensitive sticker which turns red when it was in contact with water.
Because it isn't under warranty, I personally would take the device apart, and dry the parts seperately, but that isn't very easy if you haven't done this sort of disassembling before.
Revert to this only if you have absolute confidence (and the service manual ).
Best of luck!
Please keep us posted.
EquinoXe
The problem is long term, the moisture will cause corrosion on the fine
PCB tracks etc. even after its dry, Best thing to do is pull the device appart as best u can get a tooth brush and a can of CRC CO CONTACT CLEANER
blue and white can @ any good electrical wholesaler. spray all the circtry and componets not the screen. and scrub with a tooth brush dont knock
off any small componets and then let dry for a day or 2 best bet is to use compressed air to blow off excess liquid spray from under the chips..
I am in electronic repair hope this helps
This happend to my LG 2 years ago ...into the LOO and i done the process above and its still working today the quicker u dry the water off initialy the better..
thanx guys.....unfortunately I have to buy a new LCD for my diamond as all water has gone inside the LCD and damaged the sheets inside the LCD. I have removed all parts and I am waiting for LCD delivery that cost me 40£
Aww, that is unfortunate..
Hope the LCD transplant will bring it back to life.
I had almost the same issue, but in my case, what I did was that I droped some alcohol inside the power button when I was trying to clean the screen with a tissue and some alcohol. Now the power button works in a faulty way and it tries to reboot every time I click on it. It's like the single click is always a double click on the power button. Any suggestion on how to fix it? This happened to me like 2 months ago and it is still like this.
djfuego said:
Don't take your phone out of your pocket when in the toilet.
It's also unhygienic.
Take care of your phone and your phone will take care of you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dropped an iphone inside the toilet. It rang I went to pickup and it slipped out of my hands.
Apple replaced it though. They didnt even test if it was water damage. LoL
....and I might also suggest that you don't eat the rice later!
Aww thats pretty sick
Have done the same thing, about 2-3 years ago (luckly not with my HTC TD)
All the advice above is right about drying it out, but the main issue you'll have is impurities in the water which, once the water has evaporated will leave residue. The worst is actually salts. These will dislodge components in the phone, and usually it'll never be the same again. Often the water gets under BGA components that arent encapsulated, or between pins of components, and once the water evaoprates the salt cyrstals left behind expand into those gaps.
You can wash the pcb in distilled water, or certain alcohol solutions - depending on what residue there actually is. If you use normal water you'll just make it worse, because that has impurities in it too.
You could have done the same with the touchscreen, but you would need to dismantle it.
Sometimes you get lucky and it all works ok for months.. lets hope you're lucky

Help got my G1 wet!!

I got a G1 and got it wet now it works fine till the screen goes in timeout it dont want to came back it normally happens doring a call i already have the phone on never to time out i downgrade to rc29 then rc30 then rc33 and back to rc30 with no result same old problem after the screen finally cames back I get a notification telling me to close the program it was running before.any help will be appreciated.
Dude, take the battery out and put a fan or something on it to let it dry. The more you use it the more you risk a short. It sounds like your phone might be OK, but let it dry overnight at least.
Good Luck!
I've done that to 2 phones in the past. The deal is the phone may work for a couple of days and die out for no apparent reason. The more you use it the worse it with get. To dry out properly means putting it in a windowsill for 2 weeks to insure complete drying with the battery and sim card removed. But corrosion and rust can still take place and your phone will never be the same. BUT... you can save it with 90% success rate if wanna take it apart. It's risky but with the right tools it can be done by anyone. What you need is a G1 manual from HTC here (here ya go... www.mikechannon.net and a torx screwdriver. Take it apart following the pdf disassembly guide and dry out what you can with a dry rag and then clean it out with isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush (just dip the brush in the rubbing alcohol lightly). Just be care with disassembly and all the ribbon wires (they break and tear easily). And if the screen has condensation, I would consider taking it apart also (that part was somewhat difficult and yes I have done it for fun, lol!) Good luck!
sino8r said:
I've done that to 2 phones in the past. The deal is the phone may work for a couple of days and die out for no apparent reason. The more you use it the worse it with get. To dry out properly means putting it in a windowsill for 2 weeks to insure complete drying with the battery and sim card removed. But corrosion and rust can still take place and your phone will never be the same. BUT... you can save it with 90% success rate if wanna take it apart. It's risky but with the right tools it can be done by anyone. What you need is a G1 manual from HTC here (here ya go... Link removed - no longer valid and a torx screwdriver. Take it apart following the pdf disassembly guide and dry out what you can with a dry rag and then clean it out with isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush (just dip the brush in the rubbing alcohol lightly). Just be care with disassembly and all the ribbon wires (they break and tear easily). And if the screen has condensation, I would consider taking it apart also (that part was somewhat difficult and yes I have done it for fun, lol!) Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
taking it apart is an excellent idea. i did that when i dropped my sony erricson K750i in the bath (lol ><), left the pieces on a radiator on low heat for about 3 days and it worked fine.
thank you for the responces but.....
i did let it dry for about 3 weeks i was hoping it could be software related since it gives me those application closure pop ups. otherwise it works fine i might just go back to my trustworthy dash.
Have you done a factory reset? If not try that and see if the problem goes away.
let it dry, once its dry get a replacement
just make sure you say you have no idea how it stopped working, if you say it got wet they will probably charge you for it
Well, if you open up the back, there's a little dot there beneath the battery. That's there so that T-Mobile can tell if you got your phone wet. If they find out that you did, they will bill you for the new one.
The best thing to do would be to try using a teeny tiny bit isopropyl alcohol on the dot to see if it changes back. If not, you should take it apart and swab most of the nonelectric pieces.
i've done this to a few phones but i can usually have them up and running in less than an hour and they work perfectly, what i do is take the phone apart to every component, completely submerge each piece in ethenol, isopropal alcohol works too but i can get ethanol for free, the alcohol is highly volatile and will actually absorb water and evaporate with it, after taking the pieces of the phone out of the alcohol i scub it with a toothbrush for 5 or so minutes making sure that each part of that piece has been scrubbed from every angle, then i place the parts of my phone on a dry microfiber cloth and move to the next piece. when i have dipped and scrubbed all pieces i run them under a hair dryer on high for ten to fifteen minutes and put the phone back together. all my phones still work and one took an hour long bath in a lake, i had to go snorkeling to find it and thought it was a lost cause, the only reason i bothered to fix that one was to win a $100 bet that i could.
Keep the phone together
get a plastic freezer bag and fill it with dry, uncooked rice
place your phone in with the rice and make sure the phone gets submerged under the rice.
Let it sit for 24 hours.
I've seen this fix phones that had dr pepper spilled on them, dropped in toilets, even washed.
And hell its easy.
In the summer I've rescued a phone by putting it on top of an air conditioner vent to dry out. The key is you want to bathe it in VERY DRY air - you want to dry it quickly. You don't want too much heat - but you need it to be very dry.
The isopropanol suggestion is probably good, although I'd be a little concerned that it might damage some of the plastics. You're basically washing off the water with another solvent, and that other solvent will dry off much more quickly. Isopropanol and ethanol are relatively easy on most plastics - I'd avoid anything like acetone as that is more likely to fog your screen/etc. Solvents that aren't miscible with water (ether, toluene, etc) won't work.
Oh, and those solvents need to be fairly concentrated. Many household solvents are more water than anything else - you're not going to get as effective drying if you're using something like 30% ethanol (it is still 70% water).
Above all, take out the battery IMMEDIATELY after getting it wet. Once the battery is gone your only real concern is rust, and that takes a while to build up.
Oh, if you get it wet with salt water you might want to wash it out with clean water first (again, remove battery first). You don't want salt deposits left behind. Do that before rinsing with a solvent - the solvent isn't going to effectively remove salt (depending on the solvent).
With proper care (and assuming no serious shorts already happened) there is no reason you can't dry out a phone. Half of those components were probably washed with water during manufacture anyway. As long as you get rid of contaminants like salt, prevent rust, and make sure there is no residual water when power is applied you will probably be ok.
Regarding putting the phone in to the bag of dry, uncooked rice.....
Did you leave the back on the phone, or did you remove it to get better absorption?
Regarding drying out the phone in a bag of dry, uncooked rice....
Did you take the back cover off the phone to get better absorption, or did you leave it on?
Homer says "Doh!"
Well I washed my G1 in the laundry last night for 10 minutes before I realized where it was. (Thank you Thank you for the <insert stupid group here> nomination...)
I removed it from the laundry, removed the battery, soaked up all the water I could with paper towels, put the vacuum cleaner on it for several hours (moving from hole to hole to try to pull all the water out).
It booted this morning, but there was a fine film in the display and I had the same problem as the thread creator turning the screen on after it timed out.
So at work I put it in a vacuum chamber for several hours today.
Now the screen and rest of the phone looks perfect, all radios, touch, gyro and other hardware widgets work fine and all software seems fine.
But, I still have to hit power several times to get the screen to turn on without it either turning itself back off or it washing out to some random color (red or green or blue or white).
I think it is actually turning on quicker now, so maybe it will completely recover. Fingers crossed. Once on it seems to work fine.
WET PHONE - my two pence worth
WET PHONE - CLEAN WATER is the best hope you got (not going down the toilet route!!) :-
(( NO HEAT, unless really good air flow!! ))
1 - hold vertically upright, give fluid chance to run out ((pref opposite from where it came in!!))- WHILST - removing MAIN battery ASAP
(even the internal one - if you know how,) and can do it quick (can 'O' air!), aswell as, remove the covers <<Disassemble IF YOU CAN>>
((( NO HEAT, unless really good air flow!! ))
2 - centrifugal force ! <swing in one arm, around afew times> forcing fluid out wards (BETWEEN BOARDS!'"
"give fluid chance to run out ((pref opposite from where it came in!!))",
say 2 times with top outermost, then say four times with the bottom outermost -
arm outstreached fully infront of you, and go FAST "like winding a 6 foot wheel" think of ball on record player.
3 - small tin of "silica gel satchets", get them in lots of packaging <keep them or (or DRIED pasta, rice, peas)> mines in
attic next to entrance hatch, Tape box shut to keep agroscopic properties until needed, during, and after using!!!!!!!!!!!!
never personally had to do anything else **most times skipped 2**- maybe rest may help you !!!
a - compressed air (can / keyboard cleaner 'AIR') < never had a compressor / gone to the garage > - blow the EXCESS fluids out -
<<BEWARE screen, speakers, mics, DON'T LIKE THIS>> but under S.M.IC's, "connectors" (ribbon/wire) and (brown/see through) ones only (not the tri coloured foam stuff 4 LCD's!!!
b - internal battery maybe still powering things, while still wet=(short circuiting parts/portions of parts) starting the corrosion
c - if you try to use it before completely dried, will probably cause, either/both of:-
<"corrosion" of (circuit board) or (full/part -component) which is RUST!!> This will extentivly shorten the life of, and WILL eventually kill it
<instant failure of some components> due to short circuit, ( HOW MANY <replaceable> FUSES ARE IN YOUR PHONE ? ) -
(( NO HEAT, unless really good air flow!! )) THEME running through this!!
#===#===#{[_d.b_]}#===#===#===# . . . : . . .: "Not so many replaceable parts for disposable technology!!!"
i dont have rice in my house atm (no idea why), will lentils work?

Water damage questions

Hello,
I recently did one of the stupidist things ever-my tilt was water damaged. It was a whole 3 to 5 minutes before I figured it out. As soon as I realized it I hopped out, removed the battery, SIM, SD card, and wrapped it in a towel.
When I got home I did some breif reading on the ATT forums, some people said that you should completely dissasemble it. After taking out some Torx screws and having no idea how to take it apart, I saw some little "tamper strings" under the cover above the battery and decided to leave it alone.
This was in a residential pool with light chlorine. I read that if you get salt water in it, you should rinse it with distilled water, but I'm not sure if I should do that now?
It's been about 24 hours since it happened. It is currently sitting in a plastic bag with several silica gel packets. Luckily I can't see any water behind the screen.
The most interesting thing is that the little moisture indicator hasn't really changed. When I got it (refurbished from ATT) it was white with a tiny hint of pink at the very top. It doesn't look any different now. But I could see how a very grumpy ATT employee could mark it as water damaged.
How long should I wait before trying it out again? Should I discard the existing battery and buy a new one? Any other advice?
I would really appreciate your help. I know that there is info out there but I didn't see any that specifically dealt with chlorine and also I was wondering what you all thought about the water sensor.
Thanks, have a great day.
I don't pretend to be an expert, but I would not allow it to "air dry" because of minerals and rust setting up. I would use compressed air to force the moisture out, followed by a blow dryer to clear up any residual moisture. I'd then let it sit in a nice sunny window for a while, just in case. Never dealt with it in a phone, but this is the method I've used for other electronics, including a Nintendo DS. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. I think it really depends on the initial short.
Thanks for your response. It's not drying in open air, it is drying inside a small ziploc sandwich bag along with a three silica gel packets. Are you suggesting that I take it apart and then blow it out with the compressed air? Seeing as my water sensor hasn't really changed much color I'm hoping there's a sliver of a chance I might get a help at an AT&T store.
How long do you think I should wait before giving it a try? Do you think the battery I have is safe to use?
You are on the right track:
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index....t=3475797&referralPlaylistId=search|cellphone
Well sadly after 4 days drying out in the silica gell, I put the battery in and right away the LEDs at the top were flickering on and off-blue, white, green, etc. Then, I pushed the power button. The vibrator buzzed lethargically but nothing came onscreen.
Now when I plut it in I get the dreaded "red light."
I tried to start opening it up, but I couldn't even get that cover above the battery off. I don't want to damage the plastic even though it's out of warranty.
Any suggestions on places to get repair? If it would be under $100-120 it would probably be worth it to me to get it fixed.
you do not need to take it apart, dip in rubbing alcohol (prefereably a high percentage) then let sit for a while, depending on the amount of water you will need to soak or longer or several times. using a toothbrush after soaking can help.
No -- don't soak it in anything -- you'll get fluid inside the touchscreen.
Better to let it dry then try it -- and if it still doesn't work properly take it apart and clean each piece.
Check out www.ppctechs.com they did excellent work on both of my Tilts.
Wow they are expensive! $60 just to diagnose probably not going to be worth it. Anyway, I think I'll just wait another 3-4 days and then try it again. I'm a little wary about taking it apart cuz I can't seem to get the hang of it, but my warranty is over anyway so what's to lose?
@noodles21o2, do you mean to take it apart before soaking and brush the inside?
Thanks everybody for your suggestions.
no, just dip the thing in rubbing alcohol. it is proven to work...which is because alcohol is highly volatile. will absorb the water and evaporate much quicker. the brush is for if that doesnt work completely and would have to then take it apart. and worst case senario...it still doesnt work
before trying the alchohol thing, I plugged it in with the battery in. for about 10 seconds the orange lights up, but then switches to blinking which I haven't seen before. when i try to boot it up, it buzzes as normal but the LCD doesn't come on. then it just randomly buzzes likes it's trying again after a few seconds. this is after 5 days.
this is better than when I tried it after 3 days-it was red when I plugged it in, then when I tried turning it on all of the LED's flashed randomly.
I am going to suggest that you follow the advice of the guy who said submurge it in rubbign alcohol.. You really hsoudl do it right away... it will prevent minerals and otehr corrision inside it that will ruin it, the alcohol will displace the water inside, and as you have probalyl noticed if you ever spilt any rubbign alcohol, it evaporated very quickly... It is better to do it sooner than later before you get rust and other currosion inside it
Well I bit the bullet and submerged it in isopropyl rubbing alchohol in a covered plastic container. How long do you figure I should leave it in there?
chambo622 said:
Well I bit the bullet and submerged it in isopropyl rubbing alchohol in a covered plastic container. How long do you figure I should leave it in there?
Click to expand...
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generle rule i follow is to let it sit there about as long as it was in the water, probably longer. though by turning it on you may have screwed it, so good job
You should have just listened to me in the first place.
Well sadly I didn't even get in into the silica gel until about 6 hours after the initial submission as I was far from home. Unfortunately this probably will be a lost cause, had I had better luck and followed procedure immediately it probably would have been fine.
I left it in there for about 30-40 minutes, now it's drying. Quite a bit of the liquid got behind the screen. But I'm pretty sure the screen is shot anway. This poor thing will probably end up on ebay unless I'm insanely lucky. But thanks for your help I appreciate it.
I decided to take it apart to see if I could dry out the screen faster that way. Anyway there was a lot of corrosion on the screws, plastic, etc. in the battery compartment, but as I got further in, it didn't look too bad but definitely not new lol.
I think I'll put it together in a few days and see if anything has changed. Not sure if its worth spending $$ on a new screen cuz if that doesn't work I don't know how to fix anything else.
Rubbing alcohol is good if you can get good air supply to the parts, which in this case, you weren't. High purity alcohol does dry quickly with little to no residues, but it also wreaks havoc on ink, glues, etc. I would have NOT gone with the alcohol dip. If you were able to disassemble it, then I would have gone with the alcohol/canned air route.
Also, silica gel packets only absorb water, they don't "refresh" once they dry (to a certain extent). Consider filling a ziplock bag with dry rice, and then sticking your phone inside. This is actually a very effective way to absorb moisture that continues to work, versus silica gel packets which decrease their absorbancy as time goes on, especially in a sealed ziploc.
If you are seeing corrosion inside the phone, you're most likely SOL. The fact that the phone was ON when you jumped into the pool greatly decreases your chance, as the water likely had time to get into the phone while you had electricity running through the circuit(s). At best, you can now try and clean the board(s) with a good quality circuit cleaner (not just rubbing alcohol, it will likely not touch any corrosion).

phone fell in liquid, help

hey i have an htc dream that was just recently dropped into a cup of malibu. The phone turns on but it has entered safe mode. Well sometimes its in safe mode. i think the power key is messed up cuz it thinks im holding it down and keeps poppin up the phone options. i dont know what to do or if this can be fixed. please help
The best procedure for dealing with phones falling in liquid is to remove the battery immediately and let it dry completely.
What kills phones is not the liquid as such, but trying to use them while still wet, the current supplied by the battery causes what is known as 'dendritic growth' between the end caps and pins of the many surface mount components, and in the process can actually strip the metal off, leaving a greyish fuzzy deposit.
Plain water is actually not that bad, but sugary liquids, such as fruit juices, or carbonated drinks are the worst, followed by alcoholic drinks, beer, coffee, tea, etc.
If you do spill or drop you phone in anything other than water, you may still have problems, since the residues will be water soluble, and even condensation or high humidity may cause issues.
If it was my G1, ( I don't have one, yet...), then I would completely strip it, and wash everything except the lcd screen, in warm soapy water, then rinse in clean cold water, followed by at least 3 hours in an oven at 60-80 degrees Celcius to dry it off.
The above procedure may save your phone, but it's not a task for anyone not used to disassembling phones, be aware that it will void any warranty you have, and that it is possible to completely kill your phone this way, ( although leaving it with malibu in it will also do that eventually).
I actually read a post, on lifehacker.com I believe, that stated you could submerse the phone into a bowl filled with dry (uncooked) rice... Do not know if it works, but I intend on trying it if my phone decides to take a bath... Could not hurt...
L8r
Open it up, take out the battery and stick it in a bowl of dry rice for a day or so. Don't try to use it while it's wet.
Dry rice will certainly help remove any water, it may leave some water soluble residues, such as sugars etc, which will become 'active' when exposed to a humid atmosphere, the dry rice solution is perfect for water, but may not be as good for other liquids.

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