Database Users

Today is the worst day of my life

I woke up this morning to find my 8525 sitting in my computer chair as usual. Only to reach over and grab it, and ....its sitting in three inches of water. I have no idea what happened, or how it got there. All i know is my phone wont turn on, and is totally dead. Is there ANYTHING that can be done to right this horrid tragedy? Any help would be a gift from god. Thanks

Wow.
Sorry about that.
Let it dry out before trying to use it. Since it's wet, you have nothing to lose by taking it apart to facilitate this. You could dry it faster by using a hair dryer but NOT on the heated setting.

agreed; but let it dry for a day or two before you try, you should also put it somewhere that will provide additional moisture evaporation (gas oven with pilot lights or a furnace room, behind a PC fan or the like). i saved my old Sony S710a by letting it bake in my hot car for about 6 hours while i was at work. just make sure its totally dry before you try, and considering you already voided the warranty with the pool of water incident, you might as well take it apart if you can to make sure its completely dry.

hmm, bad luck.
Try all the above suggestions. But make sure you have disconnected your battery

Tried putting the battery back in after about a good 4-5 hours of being in the sun. All i get is a crackling noise when i try to place the battery to the metal conductors

Ewww.. I know it is stressful for you not to switch on the phone, but doing that will just make matter worst. Since you said that it wont turn on, I presume that you've tried it once (Strike 1), and you did it again 4-5 hours later (Strike 2), which usually others just leave it for at least 1 day (but probably the sun does help).
Can you identify what water is it? Can there be mineral within? Which may cause a short circuit somewhere in the phone. You'll need to open up the phone and clean it up somehow.. either DIY or get some phone shop people to do it. Your warranty is 'washed' anyway.

Try This
Stop Drinking!

Read This To Possible Save You Phone
OK, this comes from my many decades in the electronics industry.
1. PULL the battery. Do not put it back in in few hours.
2. Where did the water come from? Was it really water or? You need to know this. It's real important because mostlikly the PCB is contaminated. Anything that got inside has most likely contaminated the board and will cause shorts, intermitent contacts and the like. Even rain or spring water, it's the minerals...
What you have to do most likely is disassemble the unit. Get a gallon of DISTILLED (not Spring) water. Distilled, also know as deionized is free of all minerals. You are going to have to carefully submerge the board without the LCD in the water and gently rub it with a very soft tooth brush while underwater. Next take it out and put in another bath of distilled water. Agitate it gently. This proces should remove any contamination as long as the offending liquid is not sticky or heavily acidic or base. In the case of the later 2, you are most likely screwed.
Ok, so now you have a wet board. Genly shake the excess water off of it. Turn your oven onto WARM. Nothing above 150 F. Let it warm up and then shut the oven off. Put the PCB in the middle of the oven directly on the rack, close the door and come back 8 to 10 hours later. If the board isn't dry, repeat the steps again.
If you are luck and didn't fry it from trying to power it up, it may work again.
I have saved lots of radio equipment from rain & saltwater submergence this way.
Feel free to PM me if you need to. Good Luck.

I used to have a motorola and dropped it into a bucket of water. Dried out in a few days and it was working fine.

my 8525 recently fell in the sink. as soon as i seen it in the sink i pulled the battery out. rigged the phone up on something in the floor so air could ventilate under and over, set the hair dryer on high (but without the heat) and 5 or so ventilation fans from a desktop pc wired to a 9v battery. let the hair dryer go for about 15 minutes but left the fans on over night. took the phone with me to school the next day and left it in the car during both of my classes. came out put the battery in and powered it up. works just fine now

http://www.wikihow.com/Save-a-Wet-Cell-Phone
ive heard the rice thing works, ive alway wanted to flush with alcohol, that would in theory dilute the water and the alcohol would dry out faster.

Ok so heres the deal. I put the battery in. Power up the phone, gets to the vp3g startup screen, then fades to white. Could someone point me in the direction of a tutorial that shows me how to disassemble a Hermes CORRECTLY.
Hopefully ill be able to give it a DI Water bath and breath a little life back into her. Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it

It's drying out slowly. I had a Hermes that did the same thing - eventually getting to the "screen behavior" you describe. I never fully disassembled it. I just let it sit open, with the battery out, keyboard pulled out, and the back off. Eventually (after leaving overnight), it was fine. Worked normal ever since that with one exception.. I had forgotten to pull the SD card. The SD socket never worked again :-(
Moral of the story: don't forget to take out the SD card.

todd_jg said:
It's drying out slowly. I had a Hermes that did the same thing - eventually getting to the "screen behavior" you describe. I never fully disassembled it. I just let it sit open, with the battery out, keyboard pulled out, and the back off. Eventually (after leaving overnight), it was fine. Worked normal ever since that with one exception.. I had forgotten to pull the SD card. The SD socket never worked again :-(
Moral of the story: don't forget to take out the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i got lucky. when mine fell in the sink i had the SD card out and in the laptop doing hw. so i guess im really lucky that the sd socket still works

Not worried about the SD card as much... Anyway, Ive popped the back off of my 8525 after removing a couple screws. On the back of the circuit board there is white material that can be wiped off with a little rubbing alcohol and an ear swab. What is that crap? Ill go further in depth here soon once it fully drys. I sure hope I can get this thing running again, birthday is the 13th and would be a nice little gift to myself to get the phone working. Thanks for the help guys

WOW Just look it here...Thats what I call the Power of Unity man. Great piece of work, info. I love all You people. If the world learns anything from XDA developers then there wont be any more human sufferings I am sure..Enjoy friends the power of forum..

If it fades to white, it is still wet.
You need to let it dry a lot longer before trying to use it.

Sterch said:
On the back of the circuit board there is white material that can be wiped off with a little rubbing alcohol and an ear swab. What is that crap?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, those are either stuff from the water or stuff from your phone that is washed and gathered to form some dangerous circuits (much like coffee water rings, that things tend to get to the edge of waters). These stuff may conduct electricity, hence making your phone goes nuts. Search and destroy all these 'crap' Good luck. Don't try the phone unnecessarily until you are sure that all 'crap's are gone. One of these 'crap' may potentially kill your phone (ok, it is usually not that serious, but just incase )

Sad story, I was lucky with similar story, but much cheaper. I left my Nokia BH-600 Blue Tooth Head set in my panties and give them to washing-mashine. 40 degrees program for 30 minutes ended by wringing on 800 turns/minute
When I found it in the pocket I just left it to wither up and it didn’t worked. So I tried to re-charge it and WOW it works and the battery has normal capacity.

Video of 8525 / Hermes being dismantled
Sterch said:
...Could someone point me in the direction of a tutorial that shows me how to disassemble a Hermes CORRECTLY ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't forget the popcorn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsljpn74SW0

Titan fell into the pool while cleaning

today i was cleaning the pool, since the leather pouch only clips on and doesnt actually have lashes to put the belt through it got lose and fell into the pool, fully submerged. it took me about 20 seconds to get to it and get it back out.
as soon as i had it out i saw it restart by itself. immediately took out the battery, put it in front of the heater and had it there for about 3 hours.
turned it back on and it works just fine. everything is try.
i guess thats nice to know, lol.....seems to be very water friendly....lol
we will see how it goes the next days, there is always the option Asurion.......

Wow, amazing! Please keep us updated through-out the lifetime of this phone. I am very curious.

I would really recommend taking it apart and letting it sit out for a day or two to completely dry out. There is bound to still be some water in the phone. But it sounds like you got real lucky

distilled water
If this happened to me I would soak it in distilled water then blow out with air compressor, then repeat

bhagwan said:
If this happened to me I would soak it in distilled water then blow out with air compressor, then repeat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bad idea. The phone works as is. Clearly the water didn't penetrate very far into the device. If you soak it in water,distilled or otherwise,your going to be worse off. If you had a little water inside,then your best bet is to dissasemble it,and clean the boards with 90% isopropyl alcohol and let it sit in a warm place for a few days. Do not get this on the display however,it will destroy it. (I destroyed a laptop panel once by using to much IPA on a paper towel so I speak from had experience)

the phone still works
just like a charm........everything is tested......all day long.........its amazing.....
i guess this is the first titan that can swim.......anybody got the telephone number for the guinness book??? lol....just kiddin

Good to hear. People usually over-react to dropping electronics in water. Water does not damage electronics just because its there, and that seems to be what people think. The water would have to cover a full surface area of open contacts and create a short which destroy's some component or the whole device.
Its like the peeing on the electric fence thing. You don't get shocked unless you are close enough to create a complete path for electricity to flow.
Anyway, good to hear your phone survived, but its no miracle. Its probably more due to good hardware and EMC design that sealed the components well enough.

Yeah it's usually not the submersion that damages stuff it's either shorting out or damage during the fall. A few winters ago a buddy of mine was bringing some stuff back home for winter break (college) and he forgot to take his computer out of the bed of the pickup truck. It got snowed and rained on all night long. He took it in the house and disassembeled the entire thing to let it dry. Put it back together and it fired right up...

I dropped my old 6700 in a bloody mary once, I did the same thing, took out the battery, and put it in the sun for a day it worked like a charm...the key is pulling the battery ASAP...water is "pretty much" harmless without electricity, it's when those two mix that you're gonna have trouble...

Likely Death to my G1

today was a horrible day...
apparently leaving your g1 in your pants while they are in the wash doesnt work so well.
does not power on
anyone have any idea what can be done to bring it back or is it most likely fried
and if it is done then does anyone want to buy it as is?
I guess this is an excuse to get a g2
*UPDATE*
I guess no G2 for me just yet.
My phone works great now. Did not do anything special. Did disassemble the phone though so I can wipe down any residue i saw on main components such as the keyboard.
My advice to anyone that has this misfortune is not to rush things. I think i turned my phone on 2 days too early but I got lucky and it did not affect my phone. I figured this out because there was a lot of visible moisture in the screen when the backlight turned on. The keyboard was not functioning correctly either.
I did leave it in rice for about 36 hours but I do not really think that did much as far as the drying process goes. Best thing to do is go to a hardware store and pick up a torx driver set(mine was $4 at Home Depot and it was 36 piece set including torx philips hex slotted and pozi) open up the phone *be careful* of course and let it air dry for 3-4 days (not absolutely necessary to take apart the entire screen but if you feel comfortable go ahead). While it was open I wiped down the main board and the keyboard. I did not take apart the screen because I just did not want to take any other risks(mostly because i knew the screen worked) even though there was moisture, I knew it would eventually dry out. But the key to all of this was patience(I know its tough to go 3-4 days without your baby).
the link for the service manual is http://mikechannon.net/PDF Manuals/HTC Dream SM (A04).pdf

Most of the time, phones can live through the washer and live. You MUST take out the battery and do NOT attempt to turn it on for atleast 48 hours, as you will likely short out the phone. Put the phone in a big bag of rice to let it soak up the water, also use a blowdryer to help dry the phone out. However, your warranty is now void, and there likely will be some remnants of water within your screen.

Yep! worst thing you can do is turn that thing on (or try) before its dry.
my g1 hasnt had a bath but other phones have (none with touch screens) and i take as much apart as possible and leave it that way till the waters gone (then like 4 more days just to me sure )
artifical drying sources reccomended (dont get too hot!!!)

I have had it in rice for about 24 hours now and its sitting on top of my dvr because it gives off a little heat so it should help the process.
just remembered that i didnt remove the sd card...
i was thinking that since it was in the washer with detergent, shouldnt i have just removed the battery and try to clean it in some type of solution...
I have read about a alcohol solutions but kind of scared and i just noticed that there is condensation around the edges of the screen

I'd say take it apart, Blow dry what you can, leave the pieces in a warm area for a couple hours, and then try putting it back together and turning it on.

anybody know how sensitive the screen is because i want to try and blow some heat on it but not sure if it will damage it

best part about handset insurance cover lost or stolen phones...hint hint

bladepbc said:
best part about handset insurance cover lost or stolen phones...hint hint
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good point but im on att network using the g1 unlocked...
plus i rather not cheat my way out of it because this is my own fault

good news and bad news...
first of all it powers on and boots fine. Secondly the screen seems to be working perfectly (touch and all)
bad news i might have turned it on too early because screen still had noticeable water spots all over it. The keyboard also just spews random letters and commands (ie one of the letters controls the volume)
other good news 1.5 has onscreen keyboard
anyone have any advice on how to go about fixing the keyboard?

Advise for fixing the keyboard: take it apart and clean it.

ok well im taking it apart to clean it out and i see some residue but what should i use?
microfiber cloth?

cleaned out as much as i could but seems like the menu button is now acting up while the keyboard is still messed up

Aside from parts made of paper, parts with thin films (like the lcd), speakers, batteries, or fine parts that are difficult to dry, you can do a very neat job with 99% iso alcohol followed by deionized (aka distilled) water. This includes most (but not all) plastic casing, buttons, pcb boards, etc. Follow up with a hair blowdryer set on low heat (or if you have an electric heatgun, even better).
Get a semi-shallow dish, fill it with the solvent, submerge the part and scrub it lightly with a soft toothbrush. (probably don't scrub for polished surfaces like the exterior casing). Then directly rinse it under a stream of the deionized water. Finally, clean the dish out, fill it with the di water and scrub with the brush.

^ almost exactly what I did to recover a "dead" water soaked phone. Worked great, and learned a lot about how the phone is built

couldnt find 99% near by but got 91% which im assuming should work...
is it ok if i use bottled water(kirkland)?
oh and the spots on the screen are still there (light and dark areas)
thanks for the help guys

kp126 said:
couldnt find 99% near by but got 91% which im assuming should work...
is it ok if i use bottled water(kirkland)?
oh and the spots on the screen are still there (light and dark areas)
thanks for the help guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought my 99% iso from Safeway. It comes in a 16oz container. Look for it in the medical supplies aisles. Don't use bottled spring/mineral water, as that contains... minerals. You need buy deionized (also referred to as distilled) water. Distilled water contains a significantly lower amount of mineral ion, which for the purpose of cleaning electronics would be considered contaminants.
Do the spots appear to be blotches of moisture? Perhaps there is fluid trapped between the various layers of the lcd.

ok ill go check out safeway tomorrow morning. thanks for clearing up the water thing.
it looks like its moisture because after leaving it off for about 5 or 6 more hours i saw a few spots fade a little bit.
I will take the screen apart tomorrow as well. Any special instructions on handling the screen or even cleaning it?

You might want to search for the service manual for the G1. It details a complete teardown and rebuild of the dream hardware.

some sort of a miracle just occured because my phone is not acting up at all anymore and i didnt even clean it with the alcohol solution yet.
Just woke up in the morning and turned on the phone and worked perfectly, with absolutely no problem with the keyboard(except that i think i forgot a screw and a few keys are a little loose) everything works fine.
only problem is that the screen still has what looks like condensation.
but the blotches in the screen seem to be slowly fading. Gonna pop it open right now and leave it out overnight.
thanks for the help
oh and the manual has a few mistakes in it as far as procedure goes but any person with common sense should be able to get past those

Damn, thats rough man. I dropped both my old phones in the toilet(damn you superbowl, damn you!!!)and both of them worked after taking them apart and drying them off but never really worked 100% the same...
Just a note too, those were non-touch screen phones.
Best of luck.

Took my HD2 for a swim

Hi folks!
Just wanted to post this, as it really surprised me.
I went to a swim the other day (about 2 weeks ago) and forgot, that I had my HD2 in my Pocket.
It was about 0.5 hrs under water. Afterwards I yelled... then took out the battery and tried to dry it with a hairdryer.
It did not help. It stayed dead (The paper indicator are in a bright pink now)
Then about 1 week later I finally found the time to buy a new battery. I put it in and then... it worked.
After about 5 or 6 hrs using time, the last bit of water in the screen (a nice 3D effect ;-) dryed and I have absolutely no difference whatsoever. Working like a charm, no problem.
Maybe it helps so.
JoC

lucky you ;-)

Wow, happy you. Don't try this at home

lol, how many hd2's have been sold? thats a one in that many chance occurance, and no mistake.

just wow
Wow I cant believe it still works. Id wanna shoot myself!

If you get your phone wet don't use a hair dryer to dry it coz it overheats metal parts so the circuits melt.

In the words of homer simpson DOH! cant believe it worked after

as long as the internal complete dry, u shouldn't have problem to turn it back on.

The best thing you can do with a phone that has been for a swim (completely submerged in water) is to pull the battery off and soak it in isopropyl for 30 min or so. This should get the water out of it. Then leave it out to dry until completely dry.
Iven if a wet phone works initially, it generally wont be long before the components begin to corrode. The isophopyl will drive out any water and then completely evaporate.

u are one lucky guy lol

very very lucky, my friend sneezed on his and it stopped working...

Built HTC Tough

Sentinel196 said:
The best thing you can do with a phone that has been for a swim (completely submerged in water) is to pull the battery off and soak it in isopropyl for 30 min or so. This should get the water out of it. Then leave it out to dry until completely dry.
Iven if a wet phone works initially, it generally wont be long before the components begin to corrode. The isophopyl will drive out any water and then completely evaporate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even better, since this phone already soaked for half an hour, with the battery out soak and then flush it well with distilled water to remove all the minerals that could cause corrosion, then stick it in a container of desiccant or rice if you're cheap
Alcohol especially soaked that long could be harsh on adhesives, surfaces and components in the phone.
Water itself isnt bad for electronics, its the minerals that are in the average tap, pool, beach, lake water. Distilled water has none of these minerals. Also any liquid tends to damage things like the camera and LCDs where it can get between the glass covering and LCD and backlight causing water spots to develop that are hard are just about impossible to remove.
If you do go the isopropyl route, id say do a very quick flush with it, and then make sure you are using 90%, usually in a red labeled bottle at the drug store, normal isopropyl is something like 65% alcohol and the remainder is water!
Really the best option for either route is to completely disassemble the phone then flush and dry while disassembled, but i know thats hard for some people to do without completely damaging it cosmetically. Remove things like the LCD, Camera, and speakers as these could be further damaged by subsequent soakings in either water or alcohol. These parts may need to be completely replaced depending on the existing damage

im supprised no one has asked this but,
HOW DO YOU GO FOR A SWIM WITH YOUR HD2??????
Did you go fully clothed or something? or do you normally keep your HD2 in the pockets of your swim shorts?

Me too
Hi,
I also took my leo swiming. Now loud speaker isnt working. can anyone help where i can get one?

Oooo, that's interesting...for your next test...microwave the phone for half an hour.

Yes.. I had it in my swim shorts. Before I went to the pool, I thought: "Be aware of that phone, don´t forget it in the pockets..." -> That didn´t help...

Yeah, our HD2 is a great phone.

Redeyedrichard said:
Oooo, that's interesting...for your next test...microwave the phone for half an hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xD hilarious

and distilled water won't screw up your device? so lets say, if I want to clean my screen randomly, I should use that?

[Q] Waterproof Epic!!

<---- Idiot jus dropped his epic in sum water & of course it's not working!! I dried it out w/ a towel & blow dryer after it happened. When I connect the battery the keyboard keys still lights up, but when I press the power button all I hear is a ringing type noise (sounds like a fan spinning) and no bootup. I cannot boot into CWM or Download mode either. Has anyone experienced this or found a solution w/o having to replace the whole phone.
** Also, my battery has the red marking on the top of it stating it's been wet.
EDIT: If I plug in my usb the LED light comes on, but it's blue & my phone was @ 80% when I dropped it.
Thanks in advance!!
UPDATE: [ I couldn't wait the 48 hours!! (36 Hours) -- LoL ] I just removed my phone/battery from the rice bags & everything is working!! Yes, even the battery is good @ 72%!! I can't believe it worked!! Thanks Matrix!! And thanks to everyone for your great suggestions!! This phone is truely EPIC!!

Turn it off and remove the battery now!!! Do not put the battery back in.
You're going to mess it up by turning it on when things are shorting out!
Take the battery and the phone. Put them (separately) in a zip lock bag full of rice. Wait a day or two. Then try it out.
PS: Everyone should ingrain themselves in this reflex: If your phone hits water, remove the battery NOW. Do the rice trick, and try it later. Resist the urge to see if it still works.

Thanks for your quick replay & suggestion matrix!!
I am currently trying your method, but I'm hoping I didn't further short anything on the circuit board by trying to get it to work earlier.. It sounds like a good plan because the rice will absorb the water and probably be ready for consumption in a day or two!! LoL

Forget the bag of rice, you need to take the phone apart immediately, to the last screw and board and wipe down everything with alcohol and blow it out and dry it with a hair dryer. Otherwise even if you get it to work in a couple of days, corrosion will start to build up on the contacts of various things inside and you'll end up having to get another phone.

And this is why that extra $7.00 a month is worth it.

hdnet1 said:
Otherwise even if you get it to work in a couple of days, corrosion will start to build up on the contacts of various things inside and you'll end up having to get another phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forget about taking it apart... you're garonteed t miss somthing and the corrosion will kill it anyways. I know for a fact
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

hdnet1 said:
Forget the bag of rice, you need to take the phone apart immediately, to the last screw and board and wipe down everything with alcohol and blow it out and dry it with a hair dryer. Otherwise even if you get it to work in a couple of days, corrosion will start to build up on the contacts of various things inside and you'll end up having to get another phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Soo .. which 1 should I do?? They both sound right to me!! I checked on YouTube & I seen a vid about using the rice technique, but no vid about completely taking it apart to dry off the components??
styckx said:
And this is why that extra $7.00 a month is worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have the warranty -- Doesn't water damage void it?? They can tell by the red marking on the battery.

No, just means you gotta pay them whatever the current fee is for water damaged phones. Used to be 50 bucks, but I think the crooks doubled it. As for taking it apart, forget about that nonsense. Bag of rice for a couple days, take it out, if it boots up you are fine.

muyoso said:
No, just means you gotta pay them whatever the current fee is for water damaged phones. Used to be 50 bucks, but I think the crooks doubled it. As for taking it apart, forget about that nonsense. Bag of rice for a couple days, take it out, if it boots up you are fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool .. I really didn't wanna take it apart. I would have prob did more damage to it!! LoL I will wait out the 2 days & post back w/ an update then.
Thank you all for your help!!

CRC Mass Air Sensor Cleaner
You can find it at auto parts stores, its an electrical component cleaner that displaces water, removes grime, grease, corrosion and dries with no residue.
You have to take it apart to use it and don't get it on plastic stuff. CRC makes several different electrical component cleaners and some of them will eat plastic so be careful with it.
Saved my Sprint Hero with this stuff after it landed in a puddle and spent about two minutes fully submerged in the water before I found where it landed. Luckily I was home, ran inside, took it apart and grabbed a can of CRC I had in the garage on a whim.
Granted, I never tried turning it back on while it was still wet, that is often the killer for wet electronics.
Just figure that its dead, whatever you do to it at this point isn't going to hurt it anymore but I would HIGHLY recommend taking it apart to make sure you get all the moisture out of it. I don't put much faith in the rice trick

D`Nyed said:
CRC Mass Air Sensor Cleaner
You can find it at auto parts stores, its an electrical component cleaner that displaces water, removes grime, grease, corrosion and dries with no residue.
You have to take it apart to use it and don't get it on plastic stuff. CRC makes several different electrical component cleaners and some of them will eat plastic so be careful with it.
Saved my Sprint Hero with this stuff after it landed in a puddle and spent about two minutes fully submerged in the water before I found where it landed. Luckily I was home, ran inside, took it apart and grabbed a can of CRC I had in the garage on a whim.
Granted, I never tried turning it back on while it was still wet, that is often the killer for wet electronics.
Just figure that its dead, whatever you do to it at this point isn't going to hurt it anymore but I would HIGHLY recommend taking it apart to make sure you get all the moisture out of it. I don't put much faith in the rice trick
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, it prob is near dead at this point. I will try this solution if the rice trick doesn't work tomorrow. Hopefully, one of these solutions work out!! Thanks for your input!!

It's def dead if u already tried to turn it on.
Just tell them you dropped it off the side of a boat.......then you wont have to show it to them

My buddy dropped his epic4g in the toilet bowl, he was paying insurance ($7.99 a month.) He did the samethings you did and did the rice trick and nope didn't work. Ended up calling sprint and spending 150 I think for a replacement phone.
- Its just going to be Epic!

Silica Gel packs are better than rice if you have any of those.

BUMP!! Please read my update to my OP!! Rice is the not only good for eating!! LoL