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.
Related
I would like to know from someone, who has taken his Universal apart, if it is possible to remove just the front cover around the touchscreen, the part that holds the videocam and the navigation button, rather than dismantling everything?
I don't think the servicemanual is very clear about this.
I'm pretty sure I have dirt between the houising and the "window" as there is a gap in the right side, and it is VERY difficult to tab it accurately here.
Also it appears to be a bit loose, actually moving a little, when I press it.
I'm hoping to just have to take out the 6 little screws, and then be able to pry the plastishousing off, and consequently clean up things, maybe even squeze something in between the housing and the glass to make it sit safer.
Anyone tried this on a Universal?
Cheers
/HM
Noone knows? - Would be very nice to know, as I intend to undertake this operation this weekend....
/HM
I am going to take apart my universal very soon. I will post some pictures of the top part screen taken apart since nobody has. I would like to clean that part too. I will engrave silicon gel in there so dirt does not enter. I usually use 3M anti-glare screens and a 3M fingerprint and dirt cleaning cloth. Both work very well. The universal screen gets dirty really fast and i really have to clean it often and keep my hands off it.
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 ?
Last night I spilled a bit of water on my Wizard. It was so little tough, not enough to get in the phone. But for some weird reason now when I turn it on all I get is the black screen with : Press Send to restore factory default, Other keys to quit. I tried pressing all of the buttons but none of them have any reaction. I even tried pressing the green call button but it still doesn't work. I have all of my contacts in there and since my mini USB port isn't functioning I couldn't sync them. The only thing I can do is to soft reset the phone but it just turns off and comes back to this screen. Maybe it is a loose keyboard/buttons cable? Please help.
skwerlabusr said:
Last night I spilled a bit of water on my Wizard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You let the smoke out.
But seriously, micro-miniature electronics (like those in most cell phones) really DO NOT LIKE WATER. At all. Not even just a little. Hell, even 100% humidity is enough to do in most cell phones, with just a few minutes' exposure...but not necessarily all at once.
See, not only does the water short circuit things directly, but most water is...well, dirty. Dirty water breeds mold. Circuit boards, surprisingly, make excellent culture dishes for mold. So the longer your boards stay wet...even a little...the more likely you are to get mold. NASTY mold, the kind that can make you very damn sick. Also, the mold will corrode and deteriorate IC chips and other PCB components.
Open your phone, break it down into the smallest components possible, and thoroughly (but gently) brush clean the entire thing. I recommend camel hair or another non-conductive material. Try to avoid synthetic hair brushes though. Once that's done, wait. Give the phone at least 48 hours to completely dry. Like, Death Valley dry. Put it all back together, and you have a fighting chance.
Keep messing with it while it's wet, and I guarantee you'll have a brick in no time.
RE
I opened up the phone completely (done it so many times b4). But inside there isn't any water damage or water at all. It seems that basically all of the water just got onto the outside of the phone. None got in through cracks. Maybe the water got inside the keyboard pads? And somehow it is causing buttons to be pressed and making the phone think I want to reset it?
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.
So, I took the plunge after watching several videos on "how to apply a tempered glass screen protector using Loca glue", and tried it myself. I have about 7 small bubbles, but I think I can live with them?? (we'll find out).
I only used about 1.5cc, but that was way too much and it oozed out. I thought I wiped it off of everything before I cured it (with a UV light).....Shortly afterwards, I received a call and couldn't hear anything out of my earpiece? I figured I got glue down in it, so I used alcohol, a toothpick, a Q-tip and a can of air... I eventually got the sound louder, but it's still muffled and distorted. I even tried a sewing needle and poked it in all the holes, but it's too big to go in the fine holes (I pushed too hard on one, and now have a bigger hole in the earpiece - may have just killed my water protection?).
Is there anything else I can do? I'm literally sick to my stomach now.......I've only had this phone 5 weeks and already messed it up
Hopefully someone had some advice on how to fix it/get the glue out of the earpiece?
UPDATE:
Fixed, the best I can do.....
I work in a medical office, with medical supplies. I took a very small needle and poked it through every hole in the grill and it now seems about 99% better. It still doesn't sound as good as before, but that could also be a placebo effect too (because I'm upset with myself)?
I did find out the grill is a very soft metal (aluminium?)... I noticed that I dented/deformed the grill slightly, last night, while trying to clean it (as well as poked a hole in it/busted out two holes into one hole).
As stated above, I'm not sure now how water proof my phone is now??
Oh well, I know now:
1) To put tape over the speaker grill next time (maybe the buttons too?).
2) Use a smaller amount of Loca glue
3) Put the glue on as a fat strip, right in the center, instead of a 4 thinner strips that crossed over each other a few times (this is why I have bubbles)
4) Buy a better screen protector, this one isn't full coverage.
Having the same problem. What gauge needle did you use? Any chance you could look at the packaging at work and let us know?
CWayne121 said:
Having the same problem. What gauge needle did you use? Any chance you could look at the packaging at work and let us know?
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Click to collapse
Well.... I actually used the taper needle on the end of a disposable 5/0 suture. The pointed tip was sharp enough to go in the hole, but the shaft was too wide to go any further.
I was using a 29g (insulin syringe) needle at first, and that worked as well, but I bent it too many times and switched to the more sturdy suture needle.
I was also experienced the same issue, while applying the uv screen protector from a localised store, I'm telling them that please ensure may earpiece will damage, they told nothing will happen, after completion of installation process, uv light also used, before leaving out I thought I would like to call, unfortunately my earpiece not working, I mean very less sound.i thought I would have go to OnePlus service center for repairing. however after I went back to home, I just applied some alcohol based sanitizer, and I thoroughly used hard toothbrush and clean it, with in 10 minutes of duration, everything got cleaned. Now it it is working properly .