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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.

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

[Q] A tale of Cola and a Captivate

Hey guys,
A little help here if you can. The other day my step son spilt his coke and luckily it only caught a few drops on my captivate, destroyed my desktop's keyboard though. I thought I cleaned it all well enough since it was truly only a few drops.
That was last night, today my volume and power and the door for my usb cable are sticking to the point of driving me insane. The volume is the worst of them. They still work I only have to press them like I am wanting to crush them.
My question is can any of you post a fix for this problem. A simple one if there is one. If there is no other solution but to take it apart and clean it could some one point me to a respectable walkthrough for doing so.
Thanks.

MentalDragon said:
Hey guys,
A little help here if you can. The other day my step son spilt his coke and luckily it only caught a few drops on my captivate, destroyed my desktop's keyboard though. I thought I cleaned it all well enough since it was truly only a few drops.
That was last night, today my volume and power and the door for my usb cable are sticking to the point of driving me insane. The volume is the worst of them. They still work I only have to press them like I am wanting to crush them.
My question is can any of you post a fix for this problem. A simple one if there is one. If there is no other solution but to take it apart and clean it could some one point me to a respectable walkthrough for doing so.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U could try putting it in a bag of rice for a couple days (with battery pulled out). Rice absorbs moisture very effectively.

diablo009 said:
U could try putting it in a bag of rice for a couple days (with battery pulled out). Rice absorbs moisture very effectively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I had thought of that but this is coke. I am not having problem with moisture but with the sticky sugary leftover after it dried.

Maybe try a little rubbing alcohol or other type of cleaner that would be safe on plastic and use a toothpick with cloth to get around the buttons.

Honestly I wouldn't try this unless you're not worried about losing the phone completely. I've done it on one of my old phones and it worked so I'll throw it out there but I am in no way suggesting you try it.
Take your battery out.
Get a ziplok bag and fill it with rubbing alcohol.
Throw your phone in the bag and seal it up.
Shake the phone around in the bag for a while.
While the phone is still in the bag push the move all the moving parts that are sticking until they don't stick.
Take the phone out of the bag and put it in a bowl of rice for a day or two until dry.
It may only take a day since alcohol dries extremely fast.
P.S. This method will activate your water damage sticker. (Unless you can seal around it, I siliconed a little cap over mine)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Get yourself a can of air, the stuff used for dusting electronics and such. Turn the can upside down and spray the buttons out lightly while working them. Go easy with the trigger on the can as it will be liquid when it comes out and will be EXTREMELY COLD but it will dry almost instantly. removing the battery door will give you better access to the buttons. I have saved a few beer and soda damaged keyboards this way.

I would use a cotton swab (or ball) and some alcohol. Soak the cotton in alcohol; squeeze out most of the excess, but leave enough that some can work into the crannies around the sticky parts and rub it around where the stickiness is. Maybe use a dry tissue to suck out the alcohol afterward. Repeat until you are either happy with the way things work or you are convinced that it's hopeless.

1.) Smack your step son in the face.
2.) Even though it's Coke, try the rice method.
3.) If you wanna really clean it open it up and use a cue tip.

xThe Enforcer said:
1.) Smack your step son in the face.
2.) Even though it's Coke, try the rice method.
3.) If you wanna really clean it open it up and use a cue tip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do hope your kidding..besides ya can't do that anymore these days..the kids are smart enough to scream child abuse...lol
The teardown procedure is here if it comes to that.
Samsung Captivate (AT&T Samsung Galaxy S) Teardown | TechRepublic Photo Gallery

rpicaso said:
I do hope your kidding..besides ya can't do that anymore these days..the kids are smart enough to scream child abuse...lol
The teardown procedure is here if it comes to that.
Samsung Captivate (AT&T Samsung Galaxy S) Teardown | TechRepublic Photo Gallery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just being sarcastic, lol. And you're right about the child abuse part but as long as the kid isn't bleeding or really bruised most cops would just give the parent a high five, lol

just take the phone apart and clean it with rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab. careful with the rubbing alcohol though, it is up to 30-40% water and can damage the phone. just like water can

Well. All things are good now. Someone suggested to just keep working the buttons enough and it would clear up. Sure enough today my buttons are like new. Thanks for all your help.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App