[Q] Water Damage - HTC Incredible S

Hi, this is my first post. I am a regular reader, and recently bought the Incredible S.
I was out to watch a concert (open air) today, and it started pouring. I quickly switched off the phone.
I got back home, and restarted, but had some issues. There is this thin de-coloration at the bottom of the screen (as if water has seeped in), the four touch-buttons (home,menu etc) below the screen constantly flicker. The entire screen is flickering a little, and appears slightly dim.
I haven't tried calling, or using any other feature. At the moment, I have pulled the battery, sdcard and sim out, and kept the phone in a rice bowl.
So, the questions are:
(1) I am planning to restart the phone after 24 hrs. Is that fine?
(2) The damage - is it permanent, or have others with similar damages experienced reversing.
(3) Where is the water damage mark on the inc-s. (the one that is supposed to go from white to red)
Thanks a lot in advance

Dont swich on the phone!!!.
immediately remove the battery.
Place it on warm spot and wait at least 1 week. (not to hot).
Or..
If you have a ultrasonic cleaning bath, put it in there for 10 min, blow it dry with compressed air and then wait a week.
Good luck.
From Nameit's HTC Incredible s using XDA app!

Well, I kept the phone in a rice box for two days, and now it works as new
For prevention, I now a carry a small plastic pouch in my wallet. If caught in rain, I plan to slip the phone in the pouch.
I still couldn't locate the water damage indicator/sticker though.

the rice trick really works.
lol
good for u cos switching the phone on after contact with water could be the easiest way to fry it

lucky ol' chap you are sir !
especially considering the frying.

Related

Dropped Kaiser in Mop Bucket, not working, any ideas?

I accidentally dropped my Kaiser in a mop bucket. I dried it off immediately and took out the battery / sim card to let it air out. After 3 days I left it for 24 hours in a box of clumping cat litter because I was told it can pull the moisture out.
It's now been 5 days and it's doing the exact same thing as it started from the moment it came out of the mop bucket:
1) None of the hard buttons work on the face (green & red phone, start, ok, select, rocker)
2) Power & Camera buttons work but side Buttons on other side do not
3) Keyboard does not respond
4) It randomly beeps and pulls up the phone typing letters into it C D E F
5) It randomly goes to Notes and starts voice recordings that fill my memory
6) The touchscreen and onscreen keyboard work except for the Backspace key
7) The phone soft keypad works also except for the Backspace key
8) It randomly brings up voice dialing
These are my symptoms. It is obviously is a moisture problem, but it hasn't improved at all in 5 days. I was thinking about trying to unscrew things and blow a dust remover in there wherever I can. Is that a good idea or a bad idea? Should I send it for repair instead? What's that gonna cost me? I bought it directly from HTC and don't think it would be covered by any warranty. Should I just be more patient and wait another week? I'm looking for some educated opinions.
Thank you so much for your help!
Its not covered under the warranty and if you send it in they will most likely charge you the full replacement price (~$400 I believe) as they will see it was water damage due to the sticker inside that changes colors when it get wet. Its one of the first things they always seem to check.
htcoveblue said:
I accidentally dropped my Kaiser in a mop bucket. I dried it off immediately and took out the battery / sim card to let it air out. After 3 days I left it for 24 hours in a box of clumping cat litter because I was told it can pull the moisture out.
It's now been 5 days and it's doing the exact same thing as it started from the moment it came out of the mop bucket:
1) None of the hard buttons work on the face (green & red phone, start, ok, select, rocker)
2) Power & Camera buttons work but side Buttons on other side do not
3) Keyboard does not respond
4) It randomly beeps and pulls up the phone typing letters into it C D E F
5) It randomly goes to Notes and starts voice recordings that fill my memory
6) The touchscreen and onscreen keyboard work except for the Backspace key
7) The phone soft keypad works also except for the Backspace key
8) It randomly brings up voice dialing
These are my symptoms. It is obviously is a moisture problem, but it hasn't improved at all in 5 days. I was thinking about trying to unscrew things and blow a dust remover in there wherever I can. Is that a good idea or a bad idea? Should I send it for repair instead? What's that gonna cost me? I bought it directly from HTC and don't think it would be covered by any warranty. Should I just be more patient and wait another week? I'm looking for some educated opinions.
Thank you so much for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you insure it?
No, I just payed HTC the $700 or so dollars that it cost without a contract.
Next time be a real man and have your wife do the mopping!
I was installing a DSL line in a utility closet at work and I just got clumsy. There wasn't much water in the bucket and the phone hardly looked wet. I thought for sure it would work fine. When it didn't, I thought that a couple of days of drying out would fix it. I dropped an iPaq full in the toilet once and it recovered fully after about 5 days.
htcoveblue said:
I was installing a DSL line in a utility closet at work and I just got clumsy. There wasn't much water in the bucket and the phone hardly looked wet. I thought for sure it would work fine. When it didn't, I thought that a couple of days of drying out would fix it. I dropped an iPaq full in the toilet once and it recovered fully after about 5 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my friend dropped her touch in the bath and she took the batteries out and put it in a towel and place it on a radiator with a5 degrees room temperature and it worked again
duttythroy said:
my friend dropped her touch in the bath and she took the batteries out and put it in a towel and place it on a radiator with a5 degrees room temperature and it worked again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What temperature? Should I try exposing it to low heat? Maybe a blow dryer?
Wash it with distilled water. The mop water will have been ull of minerals that have now dried on the circuit boards and they are causing shorts.
Then leave all the bits on a towel in an airing cupbpard or similar for 72 hrs.
unwired4 said:
Wash it with distilled water. The mop water will have been ull of minerals that have now dried on the circuit boards and they are causing shorts.
Then leave all the bits on a towel in an airing cupbpard or similar for 72 hrs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do I need to take it apart or just rinse the outside in distilled water?
Do you have anything really nice and warm in your house you can set it on (obviously not hot enough to melt it)? Place it in a bowl covered in uncooked rice or plasic baggie with rice. My cable box/DVR, HDTV and also my computer case with that 8800GTX gets toasty.
Do you have an electric blanket/throw/heating pad? If so you can wrap the bowl/phone/rice in that to keep a raised temp over time to help it dry. During the summer most people leave it in their car in the sun for a few days.
There is a disassembly procedure in the Wiki... it's for a modification to the angle of the tilt screen... but it walks you through pulling it apart.
Back in the day, there was a hobby shop located on West Fairbanks Ave in Orlando (near Rollins College). It had a huge rocket on the outside... couldn't miss it. I think you can see it from I-4. Anywho, back when I used to tinker with circuit boards, I used to go there. They have (had?) everything you need to properly clean your board. It's basically the Super Walmart of electronics shops. They have everything there. They had some people who work there that are electronics experts and very helpful also... and can give you advice. Keep in mind, this was a few years ago and I don't know if they are in business still... but that's what I would do.
I'm surprised it still works... I think there is hope, but you don't want to make it worse.
htcoveblue said:
Do I need to take it apart or just rinse the outside in distilled water?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As per pm - good luck.
BTW... I wouldn't use anymore water. Not a good idea. Yeah, distilled water is theoretically an insulator electronically... until it comes in contact with your hands... or a circuit board... etc. There are alcohol based solvents and aerosol types that will dry immediately. I worked as electrician for 12 years and I've never cleaned anything with water... distilled or not. That's just my opinion.
Denatured alcohol is what I've always used to clean dirty or wet circuit boards. It's cheap and readily available, plus it dries very quickly pulling moisture as it goes.
Just my 2
MAN....that sucks
My son did that to my 8525......thats who I ended up getting the tilt......my dad took my 8525 and had HTC replace the mother board.......I think it's dead...sorry my friend
What about spraying the board with WD40? SHould be able to displace the water, should have done it immediately after you dropped it though
My main question was should I attempt to open it up and clean the board or am I likely to do more damage? I think I'm gonna try the distilled water thing lightly first and see if that helps. If not, I guess I'll try to open it up and clean the board directly with an electronics solvent. I'm not looking forward to that though. I'm no electronics wizard. I'll probably loose the screws.
Do not use WD40. Yes its a water displacement but it will just gunk up the insides. If you did have to rinse the device to clean out containments its best to use alcohol as mentioned (not rubbing alcohol). When I was in the Army we use Trichloroethylene (Trike) .. That stuff was the best before they started banning it.
And for what it's worth my opinion.
Dismantle
Clean contact areas particularly the d-pad and hard keyboard (under the keys).
Use an alcohol based cleaner but I'm not a fan of immersing circuit boards except as a last ditch effort.
Initially I would take out only the ribbon connectors that are essential to dismantling.
Leave apart, use a hair dryer for a while and leave in a warm place (eg radiator top) for a day/two.
Reassemble but without replacing every screw, you may well have to dismantle again.
There are clues to the problem areas in the symptoms you see eg certain letters typing themselves and the phone buttons not working so any "key" areas need thouroughly dismantled.
To be honest from what you describe it sounds hopeful but I'm worried about the phone functions. Ensure the sim card slot is completely clean and dry.
Mike
PS - personally, I would not douse in distilled water or containers of alcohol. Yes, in theory they are safe but as said above they will pick up contamination and spread it around. The problem could get worse not better. Also water and even alcohol can get trapped into microscopic areas and even penetrate multi-layer m/boards and that can take a loooong time to dry and in the mean time can disolve or corrode essential parts.
The WD40 idea above I do not like for the same reasons and also because you'd be left with a film of oil on everything - ok for a car engine not for an 8925!
You either just wait or you clean it by opening up. Cleaning may be the only reliable answer.

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

Liquid damage...Help!

So I was idiotically browsing the web on Nexus One with my right hand (I am left handed) in the rain whilst holding umbrella with my left hand. As I was crossing street the phone dropped into wet street.
Once I reached home there was water in LCD. I dried the phone. Now when I start the phone 4 out of 5 times the phone starts but the touch screen and capacitive buttons are not responsive. In this state the phone rings but I can't pick up since the touch screen is not responsive. 1 out of 5 times the phone starts normally and everything works fine.
I was originally running Froyo I switched to latest Cyanogen and back but it hasn't made a difference.
Any ideas?
Best thing to do, is pull battery and put phone in rice for 24 hours, its true, it saved my samsung galaxy just the other week. If yours only plays up some of the time there still may be moisture in phone, try it
Rellikzephyr
-------------------------------------
Sent from my Nexus One
RellikZephyr said:
Best thing to do, is pull battery and put phone in rice for 24 hours, its true, it saved my samsung galaxy just the other week. If yours only plays up some of the time there still may be moisture in phone, try it
Rellikzephyr
-------------------------------------
Sent from my Nexus One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup.
Or even just pulling the battery and letting the phone dry for a day or so should work. The rice would help to pull the moisture out though.
Yup, bag of instant rice, make sure it is instant rice. Also, in the future, you or anyone, best thing is pull the battery right away, and don't try to power on until doing the bag of instant rice for 24-72 hours (depending on how wet she got).
Water damage kills a phone 2 ways... 1, shorts, thus frying circutis (this is instant kill stuff, and why you should not try turning the phone on right away, rather wait for it to dry out first) And the second is long term corrosion of the different circuits... some, water has no effect on, others will eventually become dead circuits and the phone will stop working. This part can take as little as a couple months, and as much as a couple years, depending on how deep the water got, what metals they used for solders, et al.
Thanks for the help my Nexus One seems to be working fine now

Nexus 5 Water Damage Thread

THIS THREAD IS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE A WATER DAMAGED NEXUS 5, OR HAVE JUST DROPPED THEIR NEXUS 5 INTO WATER. READ NOTE BEFORE REPAIRING
NOTE: The water indicator (shown as the red square in the photos) is located just above the sim card tray. It is only a few millimeters away from the edge of the phone which makes it VERY SENSITIVE to water. It turns from white to pink/red if it has been exposed to water.
My phone dropped into the toilet and was submerged for only 0.5 -1 second. This was enough for the indicator to go off. If you do not want to open up the phone, check the sim card as mine had small pink/red residue on it after I took out the sim card.
The location of the indicator makes it very easy for the indicator to go off. I can easily see how rain, extreme humidity, or even a small pool of tap water could make it go off if the sim tray is not inserted properly, let alone if it was submerged.
Helpful Resources/Guides: Nexus 5 dropped in toilet, recovered: http://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus5/comments/1wf4gu/guess_who_dropped_their_nexus_5_in_the_toilet_a/
Nexus 5 water repair SUCCESS STORY: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2618121
How to open Nexus 5: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5+Teardown/19016
Opening Nexus 5 (more detailed) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2542873
Repair guide (some steps are controversial, caution) : http://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/1npt9v/this_actually_works_if_you_drop_your_phone_in/
REPAIRS:
Read links/stories above for steps to recover Nexus 5, my method has not proved successful thus far. Please read the thread for other methods too.
The general consensus is to:
1. MOST IMPORTANT: Turn the off phone immediately. If your phone is off, don't attempt to turn it on or you will risk damaging the internals.
2. Use a cloth/paper towel to immediately soak up water around phone.
If you do not want to open up the phone for warranty purposes:
3. Place phone in an airtight container with activated silica gels, or with rice for few days.
Note: This is not the best method if the phone was submerged for a relatively long period or if you spilt coffee/soft drink on your phone. There is a high risk of corrosion with this as the water may be trapped inside for a long period of time causing internal parts to corrode. Other methods have proven more successful. Alternatively people have had success (in this thread, please read) by drying out their phones via traditional methods like using blowdryers etc. when the device was exposed to water for a SHORT period of time. Make sure you err on the side of caution when using heating methods as to not damage the internals, never use anything that would make the device too hot.
OR
If you don't mind opening up phone (fairly certain indicator has gone off and want to void warranty). If I could go back in time I would probably use this method:
3. Open up the phone by prying off the back (method in the link above), remove the battery and carefully assess the areas and components that have collected water. Remove the water and dry it out as much as possible. This may be enough if the phone was not fully submerged.
For more serious cases: For coke/coffee/saltwater or if the phone has just been sitting there a long time after water exposure:
- A lot of people have had success by washing the phone with deionised water first and then submerging it in pure ethanol (without battery). This serves to clean the phone of the contaminants and to prevent corrosion. (especially if you dunked in it coffee/soft drink). Theoretically the water/ethanol would not conduct electricity due to the lack of impurities in them.
-If you have left the phone untouched for a while without cleaning it, there may be some build up of corrosion. People suggest scrubbing the white corroded area off using small/light brush strokes of a soft bristled toothbrush either after the wash phase (deionised water) or just after the submerging phase (ethanol)
Many different methods suggested in links above. Make sure you read through the thread, there are various success stories here too.
My case:
As soon as I dropped it into the toilet, I turned it off straight away. I dried it off with a paper towel and stuck it in rice for a few days. Then I moved to a sealed container of silica crystals for about 5 days. Then I let it dry on table for another 2. Then it did not turn on, unresponsive. Did not charge or get recognised via USB. This was probably not an optimal repair method. The methods above may be more useful. But if you know the indicator has gone off, it would be best to open up the case straight away to drain the water out.
Then I opened up my Nexus 5 (after a week of deciding what to do). I could see small amount of corrosion around the sim tray area, usb insert area and others around the phone. Then I dipped the motherboard and into a bowl of isopropyl, enough to submerge it for 5-10 minutes. Then used gentle movements of a toothbrush to focus on corroded areas. I am now just letting it dry.
I will update this thread if the repairs are successful.
Update: Phone is still unresponsive, it may be that the battery is dead or one of the parts do not work at all. Any suggestions?
UPDATE 2: Ended up just buying a new Nexus 5 back in March, old one is just sitting here in the cupboard still unresponsive. I may try to buy a battery to see if it's a battery problem but for now I'll just leave it. Not sure if it would sell much for parts.
Please feel free to post other helpful resources or your own experiences on saving a water damaged nexus 5.
NOTE: I am from Australia. The cost to repair a water damaged Nexus 5 was a fixed cost of $290 AUD (16 or 32gb) if you send the phone to manufacturer (LG). Water damage is not covered under warranty but LG still accepts repairs out of warranty at a fixed price. The lady on the phone said that they would replace the motherboard. Opening up your device will void your warranty so please be aware of this before you try to repair it.
NOTE 2: If you live in the US, google has confirmed it does one time replacements no matter what. Read below: http://gizmodo.com/google-will-apparently-replace-your-nexus-5-no-matter-h-1630258357
You did it wrong. You must pull battery asap, and clean evening with alcohol
I feel this needs to be asked, had you conducted business before your phone went for a swim in the porcelain pool? ;D
GR0S said:
You did it wrong. You must pull battery asap, and clean evening with alcohol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At the time I was still considering whether to send it back for repairs. Pulling the battery out requires taking the phone apart and voiding warranty. But looking back I probably should have opened it up straight away.
Phone is still unresponsive, is there any way to check which individual module or part of the phone doesn't work? I have a feeling some are working while others are not. Do electronic repairs shops have tools to test this?
Parts are easy to obtain: http://www.etradesupply.com/lg/android-models/lg-nexus-5.html but it is just a matter of knowing which part to get, that is assuming the main motherboard/CPU is still functioning.
eastpac said:
Phone is still unresponsive, is there any way to check which individual module or part of the phone doesn't work? I have a feeling some are working while others are not. Do electronic repairs shops have tools to test this?
Parts are easy to obtain: http://www.etradesupply.com/lg/android-models/lg-nexus-5.html but it is just a matter of knowing which part to get, that is assuming the main motherboard/CPU is still functioning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say phone is unresponsive do you mean that it won't come on at all?
sent from my neXus 5
OuncE718 said:
When you say phone is unresponsive do you mean that it won't come on at all?
sent from my neXus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it didn't turn on after I took it out from the silica gels. Also after I cleaned/submerged the phone parts in isopropyl and reassembled it doesn't turn on at all. I tried plugging into computer too but it didn't work either.
eastpac said:
Yeah it didn't turn on after I took it out from the silica gels. Also after I cleaned/submerged the phone parts in isopropyl and reassembled it doesn't turn on at all. I tried plugging into computer too but it didn't work either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The computer did not recognize the phone? Most times when a phone is off the computer would at least make a sound once plugged in. How was your battery life before the incident? Was the phone almost dead?
I would probably take the phone back apart, clean it one more time with the alcohol and a soft brush toothbrush, dry it with a blow dryer (on its coolest setting so you don't damage anything) and then put it back together.
Use this site as a guide and do a side by side comparison. Maybe you forgot to plug a cable back in. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5+Teardown/19016
Good luck!
sent from my neXus 5
OuncE718 said:
The computer did not recognize the phone? Most times when a phone is off the computer would at least make a sound once plugged in. How was your battery life before the incident? Was the phone almost dead?
I would probably take the phone back apart, clean it one more time with the alcohol and a soft brush toothbrush, dry it with a blow dryer (on its coolest setting so you don't damage anything) and then put it back together.
Use this site as a guide and do a side by side comparison. Maybe you forgot to plug a cable back in. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5+Teardown/19016
Good luck!
sent from my neXus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I tried it on a few computers, didn't manage to make it get a sound or anything. Battery life was normal before I dropped it. I can't remember what percentage it was on exactly when I dropped it, if I had to guess i think it was on 10-30%?
Yeah I'll give it another go with the cleaning. Should I submerge the screen in isopropyl too? I've only done the motherboard, bottom grill and cables so far. I left the battery out.
Also with the brushing I'm scared I'll break something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QHn3ItE7ME But am i meant to use as much force as this guy in the video? I was way more gentle than that
If its a soft tooth brush and only a soft tooth brush then I'd say go in for the kill. Lol. That's about how much force I used on my Galaxy Nexus when it had water damage and I recovered it with no issues at all! Use your discretion though. Use as much force as your comfortable with and make sure to thoroughly dry it. I'd also clean the battery connector but with a DRY brush. Maybe that's where the issue lay.
sent from my neXus 5
Were there number 2 floaters when you dropped it? Did you soak it in rose water?
Sent from Nexus 5 (?) on Slimkat
yeh found a couple of mars bars on the screen when I took it out and mountain dew dripping from the sides.
haha nah it was clean at the time, just fell in from the towel rack
Phone probably short circuited when powered on
Sent from my Nexus 5
Little bit of trolling, sorry,
Feel really sorry for the guy who lost his nexus 5 coz of water damage, but I couldn't help but giggle at times at the process he was making himself go through trying to save the nexus, all because of a 0.5 to 1 second of water. Here is the process that I went through with my phone.
Dropped my Xperia Z Ultra a few days ago in a bubble bath tub, then spent about 5 - 8 seconds just looking for it, because of the bubbles.
Then I found it, Wiped it off immediately on my chest, it was soaked, then I turned it on. then I got into the bath tub with it, then watched some YouTube, visited xda forums, after that decided to watch some porn, then my wife started banging at the door "what the hell are you watching!?" then I got out, Wiped phone with towel. Then ate some chicken with rice, with my phone next to it not inside it.
Anyway think the nexus 5 is a gorgeous phone, that I would of have definitely wanted it if I hadn't experienced relaxing bath tub times, that all started with the original xperia z.
I still envy people that I had seen using it, I think it's the most beautifully designed phone ever created. With Sony and Htc as close second.
Sent from my C6833 using xda app-developers app
dicecuber said:
Phone probably short circuited when powered on
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are the chances of a short circuit fairly high in circumstances like this? Any way to confirm if all components are dead? I'm assuming that would probably kill off the motherboard/cpu so cleaning it won't do much in that case. But might i'll give it another clean just in case
bucho2004 said:
Wiped it off immediately on my chest, it was soaked, then I turned it on. then I got into the bath tub with it, then watched some YouTube, visited xda forums, after that decided to watch some porn, then my wife started banging at the door "what the hell are you watching!?" then I got out, Wiped phone with towel. Then ate some chicken with rice, with my phone next to it not inside it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL cheers man, i'll be sure to quote that at my nexus's funeral to remind it of the life it could've lived
How about getting wet with Salt Water !
Hi all, great thread, glad I found it. Want to hear another "got wet" story?
My Nexus 5 (and an iphone5) was in an Outdoor Products "dry sack" on an ocean boat ride in Brazil. This one at outdoorproducts.com, their 3-pack-ultimate-dry-sack
Caution! It was properly sealed, but still let saltwater in through the seams from splashes. The phones basically sloshed around in a cup of water before I knew it. Defective or wrong material to trust. In any case, the phone didn't work after, dead. To repeat, neither phone was ever submerged or dunked.
So I didn't have any isopropyl alcohol, but here they have something similar, ethyl alcohol (for cleaning, usually 46% solution). I knew that the rest was "hydrated" so I searched for a more pure form; found a 98% bottle. It is very hard to find (banned from sale because flammable) but I found a source. So I submerged the phones in this ethyl alcohol for 5 min. then let them sit in rice inside one of this company's "dry boxes" (which I should've used instead, kick to rear).
After 2 days, my Nexus 5 turns on! And, charges... and connects to wifi and receives messages. but the phone screen is like a tie-dye t-shirt. "Touches" won't unlock the screen, so I can't access apps to retrieve data. And, the phone won't connect over USB to the Android file manager.
I'm hoping a technician/hacker back in MA can open the phone, take out the 16gb internal storage (Sandisk SDIN8DE4 16 GB NAND flash) and get my valuable photos/videos off !
---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------
I was just googling... from ifixit's forum a moderator said that it was possible to read data from a NAND chip. He mentioned some sites, and from their I found a data firm, eprovided.com -- fyi this is no endorsement. I'll have to call them Monday to see if they can do chips from wet phones!
@placker have you tried hooking it to a different computer? Have you had the android file manager connected with this device before this incident, or did you install it just now? Have you tried booting to fastboot?
Just curious if it recognizes via fastboot
Sent from Omni Nexus 5
@AndroidSlave
thanks for the reply -- the phone had previously worked fine with the Android File Manager (used on Mac). That was my big hope... but alas no.
I don't know how to do fastboot... I've started/hard-shutdown the thing many times. Believe it or not, the phone's alarm clock just went of at 8pm. No way to shut if off since I can't bypass [what I think is] the lock screen. I can see the wacked video screen changing in response button presses of volume or the 10-second power button press.
I'll google the technique...
placker said:
@AndroidSlave
thanks for the reply -- the phone had previously worked fine with the Android File Manager (used on Mac). That was my big hope... but alas no.
I don't know how to do fastboot... I've started/hard-shutdown the thing many times. Believe it or not, the phone's alarm clock just went of at 8pm. No way to shut if off since I can't bypass [what I think is] the lock screen. I can see the wacked video screen changing in response button presses of volume or the 10-second power button press.
I'll google the technique...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a PC in your home? I am curious to see if anything gets recognized on a PC. My Mac (I am a Mac user) is finicky while my windows device works fine.
If u can get it recognized in fastboot you may be able to pull your data without issue...
If I were you I would first see if I could get it to be recognized on a windows PC
Sent from Omni Nexus 5

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