Database Develop

Water damage, maybe?

Eh, bad week. First comes the small crack in my Kaiser's screen, getting out of a car, then somehow the bottom of my cup from BK giving out in my car, pouring water into the area where I leave my phone.
I know you folks have read a fair share of water damage problems, I have searched around for the last hour or two reading threads, but to my avail, haven't came across anyone with the same problem as I.
Basically, as the phone stands at the moment, it's basically completely stock. Haven't flashed anything, added a few programs, etc. Haven't upgraded the battery; everything is how it would be buying a brand new phone, essentially. As for my problem, yes, the water sensitive sticker is pink. The phone was probably sitting in about a half inch of water for 10 minutes; only the bottom half (everything below the LCD) got wet. Then, it probably sat in my pocket for a good 10 minutes before I noticed my leg was getting drenched. I took it out of my pocket, only to see my screen going berserk, thinking that it had to do with my small crack in my screen from the day before. (The crack only runs about 1/8th of an inch in the bottom left corner. The touch screen and LCD were working absolutely fine the entire day with it there.) I noticed the bottom of the phone was wet, took the battery out, etc., and promptly took the SD card and my SIM out as well. I dried everything off, as there wasn't really much water anywhere, just streaks of water here and there, let the phone sit in front of the heat in the car for a good half hour or so, and decided to test it out to see if it works.
Normally, I'd be afraid to put the battery in so quick, but everything seemed pretty dry. On my first attempt, it booted up absolutely fine, with the exception of lasting long. After the AT&T screen and the norm, I got to my home screen where the screen ended up breaking up into pixels and slowly fading black, then to white. I decided to take the battery out and let it dry again.
I got home earlier tonight, took out the hair dryer, dried it on very low heat for 30 minutes, just to be sure, and tried again. This time, everything boots up, with the exception of the graphics. It goes to a very-bright white screen, where the AT&T logo would normally be, then dims a bit, where the green windows mobile load would be, then stays that way. After I know it's fully booted, everything works, but the screen is still white. Keyboard lights up, I can receive and make calls, speaker works. Hell, I know the camera works as well because the back-light goes the brightest when I hit the camera button, and take a picture I can hear the shutter sound.. despite no graphics.
My question is, do you guys think it has to do with the crack in the screen at all, or the water damage? If I had to take a guess, it would be the water. If I touch the crack, or any part of the screen, I don't get the normal black/white discoloring someone would normally get. Yet, why would everything be functional except the screen? Since I bought the phone off of Ebay, I have absolutely no coverage with AT&T, and never planned to anyway, my only resort would be to either mess with the phone itself, or find a repair service.. and of course buying another tilt, which, could kind of burn a hole in my pocket with the holidays and all. I'm tempted to go buy a set of T torx, but of course it'd be my first time taking apart this device and if it is repairable, I'm not trying to be the sole "act" of bricking it.
Anyone have any thoughts or comments? Anything would be appreciated.
Thanks, Scott.
Edit: Gah, just got another RLOD. I've gotten past this once already.. it ended up being my manufacturer's charger. When I toggled with it for awhile, nothing seemed to fix it. I got pissed one night, and jammed the old charger into the USB slot, and viola, amber light. I changed chargers right away, and it's been working fine since. I just tried messing with it again, but nothing happened. I guess I'm going to take apart the device, leave everything standing for a few days, and see what happens, unless of course, someone provides a decent solution to this.
Edit2: Lol, Amber light again. I hate this ****. I'm really looking into the Fuze, but once again, I'd like to get this up and running.

The first thing to do if you get water damage is pull the battery and do not put it back in until you're well beyond sure it's dry and clean. If the liquid was salt water, soda, etc, it would have to be cleaned, then dried.
Otherwise, probably garbage. Especially considering it ran for a while when wet, and you then tried to power it back up after wiping it off.

khaytsus said:
The first thing to do if you get water damage is pull the battery and do not put it back in until you're well beyond sure it's dry and clean. If the liquid was salt water, soda, etc, it would have to be cleaned, then dried.
Otherwise, probably garbage. Especially considering it ran for a while when wet, and you then tried to power it back up after wiping it off.
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Click to collapse
unfortunately this is quite true... I've been working with electronics (specifically printed circuit boards & surface mount technology) for nearly 2 decades and have seen a number of items with water damage come out fine if it was powered down, cleaned and dried properly.
Disassembly of the tilt and hermes is very easy, especially with Mike's guide. But you have a digital problem. You could take it appart and try to clean the surfaces of the circuit boards with a q-tip and some Isopropyl alcohol, possibly a short amoungst one of the IC's. I think at this point, you've got nothing left to loose. Good luck none the less, let us know what happens. PM me if you think I can help!

Thanks guys, I'll see what I can do.

Hi
I was wondering if the OP managed to get this sorted ? I have the same problem, due to phone somehow being exposed to water. the OS loads fine, but screen stays white.
Is there any solution ?
Thanks

Moisture under LCD? could it be?

Iv got a weird problem with my Kaiser and i cant quite pin point it, so i was hoping someone might be able to. Every now and then i get a sort of ''pattern'' under the LCD. When i push on it i can 'slide' it accross but when i take my finger off it moves back to the middle/original position.
The 'pattern' is always in the very middle of the screen and it varies in rectangular size. 90% of the time this rectangle is visiable, the screen more or less doesnt work.
This pattern can only be seen when the screen is off, and even then it needs to be tilted slightly.
The pattern ONLY seems to appear when the temperature chnages, ie if its been sitting on my desk all day i wont see anythign & it will work fine. But, if i put it in my pocket and walka roudn for 30+mins and take it out of my pocket the pattern will be there 7 the screen wont work. Once again, i have to put it on the side and leave it for 30+mins and the pattern eventually disappears and the screen works again.
Asking a few mates, they recon it could be a moisture under the screen, and its only aroudn whent he temperature chnages due to it condensing etc. Once the temperature has stablised it evaporates off. Do you think this could be correct?
And as for fixing it, would a hair dryer on it work 2 try and evaporate the water for good, or is it a LCD replacement job?
Many thanks all

Andehh said:
it could be a moisture under the screen, and its only aroudn whent he temperature chnages due to it condensing etc. Once the temperature has stablised it evaporates off. Do you think this could be correct?
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Have a look at your moisture indicator sticker(s) on the back of the device to see if they've turned pink. Have you used it in heavy rain or dropped it into water ever? I've done none of those things but often put my TyTN II in my shirt pocket and have never experienced that screen problem. If your moisture stickers aren't pink and it's still under warranty, it may be worth looking at a warranty repair for this intermittant fault (making sure you fully explain to them under what circumstances it happens). Personally I wouldn't use extreme heat like a hairdryer but mild heat like a hot water cupboard with some silica gel packs wrapped around it may help to make sure all water is removed.

Thank you for your reply mate!
iv checked the sticker on the back and it is still totally white, so obviously fine in that respect. Iv used it in rain before, and enough drops have got onto the screen for me to wipe it away but i wouldnt call it soaked!
Ill look into the HTC repair route, im guessing the instructions etc are all on their web site?
edit: iv sent off an HTC repair ticket, but are they reliable in responding? iv never really trusted these built it in web forms.

Strange circle/ring in the middle of the screen

Recently, I noticed the is a strange circle in the middle of the screen. When the screen backlight is off, it appears as a black circle. When the screen backlight is on, it appears as red/yellow/black ring. Somtimes it went away by itself, and other time I have to "wipe" it away with finger force.
Anyone know what is wrong?

2 questions
1) Have you tried removing the screen protection just to see whether its on the screen protection or on the main lcd screen
2) did you ever exposed lcd it to high electromagnetic waves??

1. I didn't remove the screen protector as I believe it's beneath the LCD film.
2. I don't think it has been exposed to any electromagnetic waves, as it appears after I pulled it out from my pocket.

I've had it too but it's gone now
I had the exact same problem a few weeks ago. The place I stayed was not well ventilated and I THINK it caused some water condensation to occur between the digitizer and lcd screen. I slept in an air-conditioned room the next day and it was gone!
My deduction is that you need a cool or cold environment for the stain to evaporate.

The same problem arises again, and this time it has been a couple days but it still did not go away.

It looks almost like a burn mark.
You may have a defective digitizer.

Found another thread talking about this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=439410

This is the so-called 'Newton ring' in optics/Physics. It means that in that area, the thickness of LCD is slightly thicker/thinner than rest of the area. This is normally due to stress at that point. It is annoying but if there are no repeated color rings, like red/yellow/blue/red/yellow/blue, it should be fine. If you have alot of repeated color rings, the LCD may approach its life end.

frank.lui said:
This is the so-called 'Newton ring' in optics/Physics. It means that in that area, the thickness of LCD is slightly thicker/thinner than rest of the area. This is normally due to stress at that point. It is annoying but if there are no repeated color rings, like red/yellow/blue/red/yellow/blue, it should be fine. If you have alot of repeated color rings, the LCD may approach its life end.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. When you said it should be fine, do you mean it will disappear, or it just won't affect usability?

It may disappear if the stress is released, e.g., you push the area a bit or you put it into different temperature environment. But I doubt it will disappear for ever. It was not there in the first place then it came. This means some sort of stress/pressure built up there. It should not affect your daily use a lot. It is just a visual effect. But if it gets worse, the colour rings will become very dense and sharp. It will affect you visual. I had a phone pinged on LCD sometime ago. It had similar rings like yours. But it was so dense I could not see any thing behind it. I had to change it for £35.
Also I looked at another previous comment about the humidity. It could give you the same effect. Maybe you can bake your phone a bit?

Touch Diamond 2 - Circle of dead pixels on screen?

I found an interesting issue with my 2 years old Touch Diamond 2. Don't know whether someone had the same so I'd like to post here for reference.
Few months ago after a phone drop I found a circle of black pixels on the screen after I (as in the attached image), that didn't react on any actions. So I though those were dead pixels - a lot of them!!! BTW, I dropped the phone many times before that.
The most interesting I found later is that in the last winter, the screen had recovered itself - the "dead" black pixels became lighter and lighter and fully recovered - no traces at all
Last week the similar appeared again - this time 3 areas with black dots - and again, after a phone drop. Thinking about the winter time - I tried putting the phone in a plastic bag and left it in the fridge for a night. As the result the black dots became lighter. So I decided to leave it in the fridge (without battery) for the whole weekend. And as expected - the issue is "fixed" - no traces of "dead" pixels remain Already one week since then, the phone still OK.
Can anyone explain me what is behind the issue and the way it could be fixed as above?

I believe the "dead pixels" are just collapsed layers of the digitizer.
The coldness probably just firms up and separates the layers.
You could also try pulling the layers apart with duct tape.

Bruce Inman said:
I believe the "dead pixels" are just collapsed layers of the digitizer.
The coldness probably just firms up and separates the layers.
You could also try pulling the layers apart with duct tape.
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Click to collapse
The "dead pixels" I was about are "on" the inner screen, not the outer. So I think it is more likely a LCD issue rather than digitizer, which is sticked with the outer protection layer as I understand. Am I right?

Exactly the same
mttca,
when I read your post I thought you were talking about my Topaz
I really dont know why or wat is the cause of this type of circle.
Last summer i had the same issue and it disappers after 3 days like you say;
the "dead" black pixels became lighter and lighter and fully recovered - no traces at all
but aprox. two month ago i get the "dead pixels" back, but this time my screen wont recover. This pixels are darker after using for some time the phone and became lighter after some hours without use.
I`am not sure to leave the phone in the fridge.

Circle of Dead Pixels
Hi all, sorry to revive this thread - but the same thing happened to be about 2 months ago.
Got the infamous circle of pixels after dropping the phone - I thought the LCD was damaged, so I bought a new one off ebay and replaced it and it worked great.
Now I've managed to drop the phone again and have an almost identical circle of pixels on the new LCD.
So I'm thinking, does the FRIDGE TECHNIQUE actually work? Should i pull apart the phone and just put the LCD in the fridge overnight? Might even try that with the old LCD as I still have it.

The fridge technique does seem to work. A few months ago I dropped my phone and got the "dead" pixels in random clusters on the screen. They were blue in my case when the background on the screen was white. They went away after a day or so.
With the more recent second drop, they did not go away. They did seem to become lighter over night (phone screen off, thus no heat) and became darker when I used the phone. After waiting 4 days and the blue stuck pixels not going away, I decided to try the fridge technique.
I took out the battery, SIM and SD card and put the phone in the fridge for an hour. After removing the phone and powering it on, I noticed that most of the blue pixels had vanished, but some still remained. The ones that did remain were indeed lighter. I did not put the phone in the fridge again that night. The next day, the blue pixels that had vanished because of the fridge technique had come back, but this time it seemed like they were forming a slightly different pattern. In fact they started forming small vertical lines. I guess that's why it's called a Liquid Crystal Display?
Anyway, this time I decided to put the phone in the fridge over night. So again I took it apart and wrapped it in a plastic bag. The next morning I had a perfectly clear screen - all the stuck blue pixels / line fragments had vanished. A few hours later of me using the phone, two or three adjacent blue pixels appeared.
It has been two days now and the two or the pixels that reappeared turned into a group of about 20, again tending to become small vertical lines. This, however is a small percentage of the stuck pixels originally showing due to the second drop. The rest of the stuck pixels seem to be gone.
My plan is to put the phone in the fridge again over night, hopefully eliminating all stuck pixels for good this time.
P.S. Sorry for the long post, I got a bit carried away

your touch screen will die soon
It means your touch screen will die soon. I sggest replacing the digitzer or whole front cover. More details are here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22821614&postcount=18

DroidConvert said:
The fridge technique does seem to work. A few months ago I dropped my phone and got the "dead" pixels in random clusters on the screen. They were blue in my case when the background on the screen was white. They went away after a day or so.
With the more recent second drop, they did not go away. They did seem to become lighter over night (phone screen off, thus no heat) and became darker when I used the phone. After waiting 4 days and the blue stuck pixels not going away, I decided to try the fridge technique.
I took out the battery, SIM and SD card and put the phone in the fridge for an hour. After removing the phone and powering it on, I noticed that most of the blue pixels had vanished, but some still remained. The ones that did remain were indeed lighter. I did not put the phone in the fridge again that night. The next day, the blue pixels that had vanished because of the fridge technique had come back, but this time it seemed like they were forming a slightly different pattern. In fact they started forming small vertical lines. I guess that's why it's called a Liquid Crystal Display?
Anyway, this time I decided to put the phone in the fridge over night. So again I took it apart and wrapped it in a plastic bag. The next morning I had a perfectly clear screen - all the stuck blue pixels / line fragments had vanished. A few hours later of me using the phone, two or three adjacent blue pixels appeared.
It has been two days now and the two or the pixels that reappeared turned into a group of about 20, again tending to become small vertical lines. This, however is a small percentage of the stuck pixels originally showing due to the second drop. The rest of the stuck pixels seem to be gone.
My plan is to put the phone in the fridge again over night, hopefully eliminating all stuck pixels for good this time.
P.S. Sorry for the long post, I got a bit carried away
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have u kept the phone in the freezer or just fridge ?

happened to me last winter. i thought it's going to be dead soon.... and circle disappeared after 2-3 months without any intervention. no clue, but the screen still works and no dead pixels/circles since

[Q] Screen Flipped and Mirrored after drops of water went inside

Alright so basically 5 weeks ago I had my phone in the pool with me, just a shallow backyard pool. And somehow water got into the flaps tripping the water indicators.
I felt it overheat and the camera button being held down, so i basically turned it off and drained its battery. For a few days it was fine, but couldnt hold a charge and everything was fine, but some water in the screen. And then it decided to invert and flip itself. From then on it hasn't been turned on.
I sent it off to Sony but they send it right back to me unfixed, which kinda confused me, because i got a message saying the Claim was approved and they'll be sending a new device out to me. And then when i recieved it, it was my phone, with the loudspeaker grille nowhere to be found.
So now ive decided to take things into my own hands. Where do you guys think the problem is?
Currently its like this
No Water In Screen
Phone Works Perfectly
Screen Mirrored and Flipped
Top of Digitizer not responding so cant pull down menu
Ill be opening it up pretty soon so Im just trying to get an idea of where i should focus my search.

The speaker is also where the screen/digitizer is connected at.. so if there is no loudspeaker there you may have a problem because of that!
Also opening the phone is very tedious and I advise against that.. they should fix it!
There has to be some kind of app that can flip the screen.....