Howto rescue Universal from water - JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General

Hi all
I am pretty happy as I put to work again a Universal having been drowned
in a pond!
This is how I did it. It can help some other ones.
After this unfortunate fall it did not work. Each time I plugged it on the USB, red led was on for exactly 30 minutes then went off.
PC did not see it.
I found the Service Manual on xda site, and I went on disassembling the device following the images from the document. It is perfect and you
can't imagine to do this without the manual.
Important note: What's not in the manual is the need to remove the metal radio
protections installed on groups of components. There are maybe ten of these.
You want to remove them before cleaning the board. It is fairly easy to do it with the
blade of a knife.
It does not take more than an hour to do the job.
Then I soaked the MB and each electronic component and connector with an
electronic cleaning sprayer. This spray is dedicated to clean electronic contacts and it dries very fast. It does not harm varnish or plastic.
The brand name in France is "Sitosec".
I really soaked the boards, namely let the liquid pour on the ground.
Don't hesitate to WASH the boards with the liquid.
BUT then something unwanted happened: The MB gets very cold due to the
spray. It was totally covered with mist, so WATER AGAIN!!!
I lightly warmed the board with a hair dryer, minimum speed, more than one foot away, just enough to let the mist evaporate.
Then I followed the rebuild instructions.
Soft reset and there it was, it started again.
Perfect condition, and all of the data preserved.
That's all folks
Jacques

well done!!! thats called determination and trust in universal

From the topic I was like
But I wanted to read the story till the end just in case...
THIS SHOULD BE A STICKY
Or at the Wiki pages how to resurrect an Universal and not only.

yeah call it determination man.... nice work!
i had a friend who also drowned his atom.... i think he just disassembled his atom and let it dry in room temperature... some buttons do not work up to now...
i think i will need to make him read your post... hehe!

If this happens to anyone else, I would not recommend plugging it straight into the charger. The best thing is to take it apart and let everything dry out first.

Somebody else to test ?

Related

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

Dropped my hermes in the toilet

Hi, dropped it in the toilet today.
Been drying it off for 7 hours in front of a heated fan. Tried to turn it on, the HTC screen comes up but it's really faint so I took the battery out straight away.
What are the chances of it working again?
ethos84 said:
Hi, dropped it in the toilet today.
Been drying it off for 7 hours in front of a heated fan. Tried to turn it on, the HTC screen comes up but it's really faint so I took the battery out straight away.
What are the chances of it working again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you took the battery out after the 7 hours? - Not good in such cases the first thing to do is always to take out the battery - However I had a similiar problem a while ago - but with a nokia phone - local electronics store took it to repair it for free but **** happens I sim unlocked it and they told me I had to pay 200 bucks for the repair - I googled a bit and found that you should take the whole device apart and try everything seperated then put every single part into ethanol (I think it was ethanol not shure :S) over night and in the morning let it dry - repeat up to 5 times - if no hardware was fried everything should work again - my phone worked again
No, I took the battery out after like 20 seconds.
I then took it apart and wiped it off and put it in front of a heated fan for about 7 hours!!!!
I dropped my 8125 in a cup of Vodka and Sprite and took the battery out right away. Let it dry out for 12 hours, turned it on and got a white screen. Took the battery out again and decided to order an 8525 to replace it thinking it was dead. Hours later, I tried to start the 8125 again and it magically started working. Guess it was a long hangover but just shows that given enough time, it might come back.
WELL... left it in the airing cupboard overnight.
It now turns on fine, the screen is working but I can still see a little bit of water but other than that it all works fine.
Going to leave it in front of the heater again today to hopefully clear the last of it up.
CHUFFED!
To my home fish tank
My old sony eriksson drop into my fish tank.!!!
Initially it don't work.
I put phone and battery apart inside a big cup and covered it with rice and voila..., after two days it was like new.
It was an old trick form my mother.
Hope it help
Hints and tips available.
The best way to recover a water damaged device is to get yourself a good denture brush and some denatured alcohol. Take the device apart down to its base components. The board, LCD board components for your soft keys ect. The biggest problem that I've experienced is that it sometimes fries out the flash for the camera which will stay on. Now with your denatured alcohol and your brush just gentle scrub the board components and the connections this will absorb the moisture upon evaporation. Also its always good to have a nice heat gun thats also a good way to reflow contact points on the board say you have connection issues with your mini USB port. I've been doing electronics repair on PDA and cell phone devices for sometime. So anyone who has questions feel free to ask. I hate hearing about people who dump 200 dollars for a repair that you can fix by spending 5 dollars.
I would like to start a thread but since my membership is at the junior status I dont see it being read. But I will post it anyway.
C Brown said:
...I would like to start a thread but since my membership is at the junior status I dont see it being read. But I will post it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I don't follow your logic. Post up what you know, based on your experience. I assure you it will be gratefully received.
Do a separate thread though, so it can be turned into a sticky by the mods.
Thanks
WB
Give it more time. I say 2-3 days to completely dry then try.
C Brown said:
The best way to recover a water damaged device is to get yourself a good denture brush and some denatured alcohol. Take the device apart down to its base components. The board, LCD board components for your soft keys ect. The biggest problem that I've experienced is that it sometimes fries out the flash for the camera which will stay on. Now with your denatured alcohol and your brush just gentle scrub the board components and the connections this will absorb the moisture upon evaporation. Also its always good to have a nice heat gun thats also a good way to reflow contact points on the board say you have connection issues with your mini USB port. I've been doing electronics repair on PDA and cell phone devices for sometime. So anyone who has questions feel free to ask. I hate hearing about people who dump 200 dollars for a repair that you can fix by spending 5 dollars.
I would like to start a thread but since my membership is at the junior status I dont see it being read. But I will post it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, the best way to clean your water damaged device and have hope of it working again.
It may take a while to work properly again; my 8525 went into water not once but twice! The first time I thought it was dead--lights on but only white screen. Had instantly removed battery and opened it up as much as I good and took some canned air to it. Kept checking it over the next week without success so went and bought another.
Anyway, about 3 weeks after the dunking I put the battery back in and on a whim turned it on and surprise!, works fine. This became my back up phone that I later took to Africa with me where I proceeded to drop it in a toilet. Since the air temp was 130 degrees it didn't take long to dry out and it's still kicking!!! Important point is to immediately remove the battery, take the device apart as much as you can, dry completely over a few days then attempt to turn on.
Hope this helps,
Steve
Mine went into the toilet this morning. I have disassembled it according to the directions (http://inuchanbt.blog54.fc2.com/blog-entry-100.html) and put it all back together after cleaning surfaces and connectors with alcohol.
It powers up now, which is far better than it was doing just after I fished it out of the pot. USB connection works, speaker phone works, etc.
However, touch screen does not. If I hold the screen at a certain angle I can see a faint outline of where water has creeped into the screen about 1/2 of the way across. Touch screen worked decently on first power up but now it does not work at all. All buttons work okay.
I am going to disassemble again after work and inspect the screen more closely. Hopefully will save me from having to replace the machine!
speckledpig said:
I am going to disassemble again after work and inspect the screen more closely. Hopefully will save me from having to replace the machine!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...and if its just the screen that doesnt work, thats a cheep, easy fix!
I just reassembled after cleaning again and touchscreen works.
I am going to evaluate tonight and we'll see!
Those disassembly photos were EXTREMELY helpful; thanks MUCH to whoever originally posted them.
I managed to spill an entire beer on mine, turned it off and let it dry as above,. everything worked great but the scroll wheel started to get confused as to which way i was scrolling it, cleaned as above with alcohol and no problems. Actually I have found that the scrollwheel on my tytn gets hinky every couple of months or so and have taken to cleaning it regularly, onve youget over the inital fear of opening up your baby it's a breeze.
That reminds me of my old Siemens SX1 *chuckles* i went swimming in the sea and i forgot i had it in my pocket.. after 15min i suddenly felt it.. I dashed to the shore and pulled it out of my pocket.. And it was still running! While water was dripping out!
And to be honest, i never cleaned it afterwards. i just let it dry in its current state.. but hell that SX1 has endured some hazzards, and its still working ^^
Altho a bit oldfashioned now
Anyway this is pretty offtopic i know sorry bout that
Hmmm. The keyboard doesn't work. It worked yesterday. Neither does the screen rotate when I slide.
I guess it will have to come apart again.
The connector had popped loose, or maybe I didn't connect it at all yesterday.
Anyway, works great, and the water in the backlight is noticeably less. It is drying on its own.
Fully functional 8525!! YAY!!!!!
O dropped my Atom in a mop bucket once.
Took battery out and tried to dry but was FUBAR. Sold it on eBay for $90AUD =D used that money to get a Hermes for $400AUD
ethos84 said:
Hi, dropped it in the toilet today.
Been drying it off for 7 hours in front of a heated fan. Tried to turn it on, the HTC screen comes up but it's really faint so I took the battery out straight away.
What are the chances of it working again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you flush before dropping the phone? If not, make sure to clean out all the "brown bits"

Has anyone had to clean their trackball?

You know the story - you baby the phone, buy it a protective skin from day one, and then...
..you're out to dinner with the wife and she spills her girlie, loaded with sugar drink all over the table, including your phone.
Today, the Menu button is a little sticky, and the trackball refuses to navigate in some directions (it'll go up and left only).
I know the trackball is the same as the one used in some Blackberries, and I've seen the online tutorials on how to clean them, I was wondering if anyone here had a similar problem, and if they just waited it out (if it returns to normal) or if they had either cleaned or replaced their own.
Mine kept sticking and would do it like 10 times a day so i got a replacement.
Don't know, but with the Apple trackball mice the usual suggestion is to turn it upside down and rub the trackball vigorously on a piece of paper. Perhaps rubbing it over a baby wipe or alcohol wipe might help in your case to get the sugar out?
ive just started to have this problem without any water damage, just give it a whack on the back and all sorted for another month
I'd just use a q-tip with rubbing alcohol and vigorously wipe it down, i'd make sure some of the alcohol seeps into the cracks though. I've done it on xbox controllers and it always seemed to clear it up.
cleaning alcohol, as suggested, is probably your best option. because of it's fast evaporation rate, it makes it ideal for cleaning electrical equipment. turn it off first though
If an exterior-only cleaning with alcohol doesn't do the trick then you might want to grab the service manual from the dev subforum and disassemble the phone. That will let you separate the hardware buttons and casing from the actual electronics. Then you can go to town. Working the buttons while immmersed in a deionized water bath should clear out any water-soluble gunk.
Be mindful not to immerse any items with membranes that might not be able to evaporate moisture out. E.g. lcd assy, speaker assy, etc.
Haven't had time to do it yet - it's semi-recovered since then (will occasionally move in the ordered direction, but not consistently).
The Blackberry forums had a tutorial on pulling it apart and cleaning the trackball. Didn't look that difficult, since the trackball can be pried out on the 8xxx series BB's without any disassembly.
I'm going to dig through the service manual and see how onerous taking apart the unit is; if it's easy enough to do, I'm going to free up the trackball and give it a proper cleaning. If not, I'm going to try either isopropyl alcohol or an electronics cleaning solvent as mentioned in the above posts.
Edit: After a quick look through the service manual, looks like disassembly is a no-go. Don't feel like risking the whole device to fix a wonky trackball.
Yeah, dismantling the 8100 BB was super easy but cleaning the teeny connectors was a bit tedious. I haven't checked out the breakdown procedure for the G1 but if the trackball hang-ups were anywhere near as bad as on the BB - it'd almost be a necessity.
Although navigation was more trackball-centric on the BB... I wouldn't be able to stand it. The cleaning part is pretty simple.

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.

HD2 in Washing Machine(Very Desperate!...Please Help!!!)

Hi guys,
i accidentally left my HTC HD2 in my jeans,which i put in my washing machine.It spent 15 mins on full cycle,after which i managed to figure out my disastrous blunder and pull my HD2 and its batt out. Im extremely desperate to restore life back into my phone.I know HTC will not repair it since all 3 water indicators are pink. From a few online tips, ive taken apart the housing and the main LCM Module. I have placed these two parts in a container of rice. I have not stripped it to the bare parts as i fear i might ruin it further. Moreover, i have not submerged it in alcohol yet. the only thing ive done is flush out the soap with water(did that only for abt 10 secs though...is it enough?) and put it in rice. Its been 2 hours since ive put in in the rice. Im going to leave it in the rice for abt 2-3 days before turning it on(hopefully it does...).I really need help fast guys. Should i use alcohol NOW before putting in rice?...Should i strip it to the bare essentials?...Should i use a vacuum cleaner?...if anyone can help,please do.Im really desperate and worried here.I really love my phone...and please do not ask me why i did this effing mistake...im still hating myself more than ever in my life for leaving my HD2 in my jeans.tks alot for your time and i look forward to your suggestions.tks again.
PS:Also, after i pulled my phone out,there didnt seem to be any patches or bubbles of water under the screen.Does that mean the whole screen is flooded or no water went inside?...And i do see water inside the camera.So is the camera dead forever?tks
Well,
i once found a Nokia without a battery in a roadside-stream of water... after drying and powering it on it worked flawless...
the real thing you have to worry about will be the water in the cam module. i have no clue as to how get it out. i once had water in the speaker of a very expensive babysitter-device. i never got it out. never. it stayed in there for a year or more. it was toilet water. very nice.
what happens to your leo when it is in contact with water while the battery is connected? do you know that?
well, if not, this is what i know: the electrical current will eventually short some circuits and thus might break them. if you are lucky the shorts will not break anything. if you are not lucky, something will be f****.
then, the energy, metal and water will lead to some "galvanizing" effect i have observed before, meaning, some circuits on the board may build some micro-connections with a whitish coating. what exactly happens there is beyond my knowledge. i have seen it on some devices which had been exposed to water and energy for a while. i could still fix them by scraping (yes, indeed) that off with a micro screw driver, being extremely careful not to harm any print circuit or smd-parts. that is a tough nut to achieve, for real. its not easy.
I am unsure, how the CPU is soldered onto the mainboard. there is a guy here who created some heatsink for those who had broken solderpoints and heat problems. he had said that, if you want to take off the chip you need break it because there is some epoxy around it. that would mean its connections (the little ball solderings) are waterproof. that would already mean you only have to spend attention to the surroundings. that is very relieving.
you might want to check the Internet for a replacement camera module if you don't figure out how to get the water out.
Make sure you keep your impatience under control and don't power on the device with the water still in the cam. it will do damage. the cam has electrical connections too, remember.
If i was in your situation i would assume the phone lost and use it to experiment a little. this will eventually help people here.
what i would do is the following: disassemble completely.
take all parts that can withstand a certain amount of heat and put it in an oven.
power on the oven with not more than 40 degrees Celsius. make sure not to put it under more heat-stress as it will loosen the solderpoints at about 60 degrees i think, maybe even at lower degrees. i am unsure.
warm it up for a while so that excess water dries away fast.
then check the mainboard and other parts for hidden spaces where water could have remained unseen (e.g. the camera).
then check for the witish coating, some hard to see, nearly transparent layers of water and/or soap residue. i am nearly sure that this witish coating i once observed came from high chalk (calcicated) water. this would be removable physically (scraping) or with citric acid and a soft cloth.
now, what to do with the screen? well, unsure here. check for water. if you think its very dry just leave it and connect it.
if it contains water i would probabyl also just try to let it dry. i cannot really advise here since i have not disassembled the hd2 yet.
i only know that replacement screens are not too expensive. you should possibly buy a new one rather then risking to further damage the phone with invisible shorts.
i need to cook for my wife now, hope i could give you some input mate.
good luck with your device. bad story man. bad story...
try to put for 24h into an ermetic box (closed), with salt in lower part and rice on the upper part (1/4 salt, 1/4 rice, phone, 1/4 empty) and close the box
this method can remove the major part of umidity
you can try for 3/4 days replacing salt and rice every day and cleaning the ermetic box
you can try too with a little oven for 10/15/20 minutes (max 60° Celsius and without battery of course) but i think that salt and rice is a better method
of course if you're able to open the HD2 (i done it 2 times and it's not so easy), you can use an alcoholic solution to clean chips and remove oxide (i use a Flux NO CLEAN)
DO NOT POWER ON PHONE UNTIL IT'S NOT FULLY DRY
Update
Hi,
my phone seems dry now(after 2 days of drying).I have not disassembled it completely though. The LCM module doesnt show any signs of corrosion,A few contacts and wires look okay.Not sure of the condition inside the module. Before waiting it out for another day or two, can i ask if i can use denatured alcohol to flush out any impurities or residue left by the laundry soap? Will it do any good or will it do any harm? cus im worried the alcohol might wet the phone again,now that it is dry,or maybe spoil some components. Also,may i ask if any data loss on the ROM or any damage to the cpu is likely?Tks alot.
I dropped a old cell phone in water and this was the guide i used to bring it back to life...well most of that guide anyway as well as a few other notes I picked up.
1st.) you should never try and turn the phone on intill it has had time to dry, (48 hours min)
2nd.) take apart as carefully and best you can..so that you uncover as much of the phone as you can
3rd.) dont lay the phone flat. stand it inside a cup and pour rice over it till it covers it.
I had to let my phone sit for almost a week and tried it after two days and every day after that. On the third day it turned on but still acted really odd, with each day it acted better and better. finally after six days it was back to its old self.
Please also know to not use a heat source like an over, microwave or hair dryer. If you do use a hair dryer ONLY use the "cool" setting. Hot air can make it more difficult for you to get it back on its feet. You can use rubbing alcohol to try and clean up any residue left behind by the laundry soap. I've seen sites say to submerge your phone in alcohol but i would suggest to use a q-tip and wipe the inside clean as best as you can. Make sure you do this well, the alcohol will not harm the phone farther but its the minerals or other deposits from the detergent that will.
If its available, you should use an alcohol concentration of 95% rather than rubbing alcohol that usually contains only 70%.
I hope this helps you as it helped me. I was lost when it happened and didn't know what to do. I pieced together this method from different instructions found online and it worked for me perfect. If all else fails you can call t-mobile and do whats called an out of warranty exchange. Each phone will have a different out of warranty exchange price but I had to do this once with a old phone I had and at the time it was only $100 for that model phone (htc mt3gs). It could be much more, like i said it all depends on the phone.
htccraze said:
I dropped a old cell phone in water and this was the guide i used to bring it back to life...well most of that guide anyway as well as a few other notes I picked up.
1st.) you should never try and turn the phone on intill it has had time to dry, (48 hours min)
2nd.) take apart as carefully and best you can..so that you uncover as much of the phone as you can
3rd.) dont lay the phone flat. stand it inside a cup and pour rice over it till it covers it.
I had to let my phone sit for almost a week and tried it after two days and every day after that. On the third day it turned on but still acted really odd, with each day it acted better and better. finally after six days it was back to its old self.
Please also know to not use a heat source like an over, microwave or hair dryer. If you do use a hair dryer ONLY use the "cool" setting. Hot air can make it more difficult for you to get it back on its feet. You can use rubbing alcohol to try and clean up any residue left behind by the laundry soap. I've seen sites say to submerge your phone in alcohol but i would suggest to use a q-tip and wipe the inside clean as best as you can. Make sure you do this well, the alcohol will not harm the phone farther but its the minerals or other deposits from the detergent that will.
If its available, you should use an alcohol concentration of 95% rather than rubbing alcohol that usually contains only 70%.
I hope this helps you as it helped me. I was lost when it happened and didn't know what to do. I pieced together this method from different instructions found online and it worked for me perfect. If all else fails you can call t-mobile and do whats called an out of warranty exchange. Each phone will have a different out of warranty exchange price but I had to do this once with a old phone I had and at the time it was only $100 for that model phone (htc mt3gs). It could be much more, like i said it all depends on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks alot for the detailed post.I will definitely follow all the instructions in the above posts.I have already done most of them.I just have to clean my phone with the alcohol. Regarding the warranty exchange, there are many problems.Firstly,im not using T-Mobile,im actually in Singapore and my operator did provide a 1 year warranty,but sadly the warranty expired 2 months ago.Moreover,all the 3 water indicators and blazing red,and while unscrewing the modules,the 'warranty void' sticker was also torn through...so yep,im left with myself and the help of the wonderful members here.tks alot for your help so far.ill report back in 2 days time,when i power up my phone.
The phone that I sent back was the phone that had water damage. Four months after I took mine for a swim my charger port broke. I told them that the phone works fine but it does have water damage. I'm not sure why they didn't charge me the $100 they said because my water damage indicators showed bright pink also, still I was glad they didn't. Since your not through t-mobile that wouldn't work for you though.
If this comes to this, fingers crossed it don't but I have seen some with water damage sell on eBay around $90-$125. You might be able to sell it and then put an additional $30 to it to buy one that's in good working order, after all I bought mine on there for $120.
Sent from my HTC Leo using XDA App
htccraze said:
The phone that I sent back was the phone that had water damage. Four months after I took mine for a swim my charger port broke. I told them that the phone works fine but it does have water damage. I'm not sure why they didn't charge me the $100 they said because my water damage indicators showed bright pink also, still I was glad they didn't. Since your not through t-mobile that wouldn't work for you though.
If this comes to this, fingers crossed it don't but I have seen some with water damage sell on eBay around $90-$125. You might be able to sell it and then put an additional $30 to it to buy one that's in good working order, after all I bought mine on there for $120.
Sent from my HTC Leo using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
alright dude...but you mean your HD2 went for a swim? So did it work after that or was the broken charger port the only damage?...and regarding the eBay sales,i dont mind if i can get a good price,but i also need to buy another used HD2(preferably an unlocked T-Mobile one)..but lets just hope i dont go there...i want my phone to come back to life and wreck havoc on the iPhones and LGs like before
Yea after I did the above mentioned steps it work just fine. Then after a few months the charger port stopped working. It getting wet didn't have anything to do with the charger port malfunctioning.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
htccraze said:
Yea after I did the above mentioned steps it work just fine. Then after a few months the charger port stopped working. It getting wet didn't have anything to do with the charger port malfunctioning.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow...thats reassuring news.tks
Update
Hi,
i am very pleased to say that my HTC HD2 is back alive and kicking. I followed all the useful steps provided by the very helpful members here and its working well. A few niggles of course, include a few patches of slight texture variation at the top of the screen if tilted about 150 degrees,but it is very hard to see otherwise,so no worries. Secondly, the mic is dead since no one can hear me on the other side. Other than everything is perfectly fine!...didnt expect such a recovery after that washing machine incident. So, thanks alot for your help and also thanks alot to HTC for making a good phone!..now,a small question.any ideas on where i can buy the mic module separately? tks alot
I would look on ebay. There is also several repair shops you might have some luck contacting. Here in the US there is a company call cellphone CPR or something along those lines that could probably help find and install the mic for you.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
htccraze said:
I would look` on ebay. There is also several repair shops you might have some luck contacting. Here in the US there is a company call cellphone CPR or something along those lines that could probably help find and install the mic for you.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the thing.here in Singapore,most of the repair shops fear to dissassemble the phone and repair the components.those shops that do are not well established,so I wouldn't really trust them on my phone.my best bet is to send it to HTC,but I need to order the warranty and water indicator stickers from eBay,else they wont repair it.and I've checked eBay,they don't sell the Mic on its own.I suspect its a whole module by itself,but I don't mind soldering a new Michael myself.just can't find one.
It's a difficult job as the microphone is assembled to the main board found at the base of the unit.
This entire mainboard would have to be replaced and it houses the Qualcomm CPU and other items.
If you do dissemble there is a rubber black protector on it. Try removing it and cleaning it. Perhaps some dirt or something got in there and has blocked the microphone function.
Good luck...
xlr8me said:
It's a difficult job as the microphone is assembled to the main board found at the base of the unit.
This entire mainboard would have to be replaced and it houses the Qualcomm CPU and other items.
If you do dissemble there is a rubber black protector on it. Try removing it and cleaning it. Perhaps some dirt or something got in there and has blocked the microphone function.
Good luck...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if theres some dirt, theres gotta be at least some sort of noise audible to the person on the other side...i suspect the whole mic to be broken.anyway, cant expect all to be well after a ride through the washing machine haha...ill ring HTC and ask for the repair cost.doubt it would be anywhere near affordable though...
Well, i'm following this with great interest. I am very happy to hear how good the recovery went.
Kawshigan, please update the thread once you know what htc said. I'd be interested to hear too.
Thanks
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
I had ordered the HTC water damage stickers and the little void stickers for the screws on the back off ebay.
I know its not ethical but i just couldn't afford what HTC wanted to repair the phone ($185) so i got it back and
sent it to T-mobile instead. HTC told me if they find water damage on the motherboard that it voids the warranty
as well as if the stickers are red/pink. I don't know what they can trace on the motherboard or if T-Mobile is the
same but i didnt have a problem returning it to them. I was never charged the $100 T-Mobile said it would
be for a out of warranty exhange either.
kawshigan said:
That's the thing.here in Singapore,most of the repair shops fear to dissassemble the phone and repair the components.those shops that do are not well established,so I wouldn't really trust them on my phone.my best bet is to send it to HTC,but I need to order the warranty and water indicator stickers from eBay,else they wont repair it.and I've checked eBay,they don't sell the Mic on its own.I suspect its a whole module by itself,but I don't mind soldering a new Michael myself.just can't find one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a module, it's just the mic itself, but you need some skills to desolder and solder it back on motherboard.
If you have no other solution, PM me your adress and I'll send you one.
---------- Post added at 09:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 AM ----------
xlr8me said:
It's a difficult job as the microphone is assembled to the main board found at the base of the unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kind of true, but not for a skilled service guy (a 15 minutes job)!
xlr8me said:
This entire mainboard would have to be replaced and it houses the Qualcomm CPU and other items.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally false!

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