Database Users

These Wizards are tough devices!

So, a while back, my 8125 went overboard into the icy waters of lake Michigan while we were launching my sailboat "Adventurous". Crap! My life was stored on that device! So, one day later, I suited up for a cold water dive plan, donned scuba gear and recovered it. Water temp at the bottom was 35 degrees with 6" visability. My goal was to recover the SIM and miniSD where I had a full backup, then restore into a new 8125. This I did with no problems and have been running this way since mid May.
Yesterday, I checked my original 8125 and the water had finally evaporated out of the screen, so on a whim I installed its battery and put it on the charger. Imagine my surprise when the charging light came on! Imagine my further surprise when 2 hours later that light changed from red to green!
Imagine my utter amazement when I pressed the power button and it came right up! It's been running perfectly for 2 days now.
damn.... 24 hours submerged at 33 feet in muddy 35 degree water... :shock:
Nice work HTC... It's now my mule for new rom testing. AKU 2.3 here I come!

*amazed :shock:

will give it a try over the weekend... :lol:

Awesome!! Now if only HTC could make the paintwork so tough!! :lol:

@meschle:
next time you take a screamer off the rock, try not to land on your wizard.....

most electronics are like that these days, all u need to do is qucikly pull out the battery, take it apart, adn low dry all the parts, then it should work fine, unless, the barrary fried it.
i droped my V600 in the water like 2 times, and it still works fine.

@Ray-jai:
That's precisely whats amazing about this incident: My 8125 sat underwater at two atmospheres, powered up for 24 hours! :shock: I couldn't get to it right away to remove the battery due to the dive difficulty.

I wonder what the signal strength was like at 33 feet down...?
Andre

wow! its just a thought ........ but why not email HTC with your story you get something in return (i.e. if they use your story)

wow, lucky you!

Sleuth255 said:
@meschle:
next time you take a screamer off the rock, try not to land on your wizard.....
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Click to collapse
Sleuth - next time you fly over to this rock - don't drop your wiz in the POND - it's too deep to dive my friend :wink:

Great story, I've done similar things before and they have survived. Girlfriends Nokia went down the bog (clean one ) and it worked fine after a few days, buttons worked one by one hour by hour still working to this day.

I don’t mean to piss on your party here guys, but there is a high chance it will fail at some point soon.
You see circuit board is made from lots and lots of thin layers (waffers). What happens is that when these layers absorb water when things like that happen. That water will stay there and will slowly corrode the circuitry over time.
To stand a better chance of it surviving long term, as well as taking the battery out (good advice) to avoid short circuiting and fry sensitive components, you need to keep it in a very dry and quite warm (like on top of a radiator, with a towel between if it’s too hot) and leave it there for a few days (even a week or longer).
I was told this by a senior Nokia engineer after my old phone died. I was pushed into a swimming pool on holiday. I was amazed when the phone in my pocket was still working after being completly soaked. It worked for a week before starting to fail (backlight etc) and by 2 – 3 weeks it was completely dead.
You might be lucky, depends on how tight the outer casing is. My advice to you would be to stop using it and get it somewhere very warm for as long as you can. Keep us posted.

OMG i think i have this great idea
to prevent w00t dis guy up here sed
just put your wizard on the microwave... press like... PIZZA REHEAt.
instead of waiting it to warm on top of a radiator , u know.

zeuzinn said:
OMG i think i have this great idea
to prevent w00t dis guy up here sed
just put your wizard on the microwave... press like... PIZZA REHEAt.
instead of waiting it to warm on top of a radiator , u know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep and all the metal in it would go off like fireworks!!! BANG! :lol:

I had a Siemmens (sp?) phone that fell into the pool, the phone stayed at the bottom for several minutes while I cussed at it.
After retrieving it, I took the battery out and stuck the phone in a toaster oven. I set the oven one its lowest heat setting and left it in there for three 20 minute sets (the oven timer only went up to 20 minutes
60 minutes later, I put the battery back in and powered the phone back up. It worked, and continued to work to this day, approx 1 year later. I just semi-retired it in favor of my new 8125
I thought for sure that the chlorine in the pool would have corroded the crap out of the circuitry.

@dangerous_dom:
That's pretty much precisely what I did. I put it on top of the refrigerator (nice and warm up there due to proximity to evap coils) for 5 weeks before I tried powering it up again.

Just threw mine in with the dishes. Came out lovely and clean and still works perfectly.
Only problem being people receiving texts from me say they are wet. Sure they will dry over time though.

Best bet is to take the phone to a repair shop that will strip the phone down and acid bath the components as water damage can slowly corrode away at chips and alike. I done this with my old A1000. worked a treat after this

Great Story!

wet g1?

okay, I put my phone in my coat pocket when it (the coat)was slightly damp for at least 2 hours and later, I found that my phone kept showing the option to power off and my keys werent responding...the keys didnt seem to be stuck...I then wiped then reflashed, which in itself took a good while since my keys werent responding fast enough...but even the reflash didnt work...so did I ruin my phone because of the damp coat? And if so, anybody know how I can fix it? I'm thinking about blow drying my phone...good idea or not?

Don't try to turn the phone on anymore. Remove the battery, battery cover, memory card and SIM card. Place your phone in a bowl of rice to absorb moisture. Sometimes there's just a bit of water left in the system. Let it dry off, phones come back to life most of the time.

SolemnWishing said:
Don't try to turn the phone on anymore. Remove the battery, battery cover, memory card and SIM card. Place your phone in a bowl of rice to absorb moisture. Sometimes there's just a bit of water left in the system. Let it dry off, phones come back to life most of the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im going to try this, but just in case anybody else has any ideas, here's a few more details on my phone...it'll turn on, touch screen works, but it's when i use the hard keyboard and press the keys that the option to turn off shows up on the screen...and the phone's green and end keys are flashing on and off like the phone is turning itself on and off, on and off...never seen anything like this on the forums...weird...

naars90 said:
Im going to try this, but just in case anybody else has any ideas, here's a few more details on my phone...it'll turn on, touch screen works, but it's when i use the hard keyboard and press the keys that the option to turn off shows up on the screen...and the phone's green and end keys are flashing on and off like the phone is turning itself on and off, on and off...never seen anything like this on the forums...weird...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh and thanks for the quick response...

No problem. The lights on the buttons going on and off is the water interfering with the circuitry. I highly recommend you leave your phone off, or you run the risk of shorting it out.

If water is making it run wrong, it **IS** shorting out.

my G1 was completely submerged in a lake for 5 minutes while powered on. as soon as it came out of the water i powered off, and blew it dry with an air compressor. left battery out for 24 hours and, worked 95% ever since. only had some random touch screen sensitivity loss.

if you are ok with taking the phone apart and the rice solution doesn't fix it then send me a PM and i'll let you know how to make absolutely sure nothing MORE goes wrong. right now though you probably messed up the phone cause you turned it on and off repeatedly

ok...did the rice solution...didnt work, so does anybody know any good, reliable cellphone repair shops in chicago that does the g1? Googled , found a place called CPR(cellphone repair) but the yelp reviews werent really convincing...so I thought I'd ask the people on here... you guys seem very reliable and I thought I'd rather ask you guys' opinions than go to a repair shop with poor to average reviews...pretty please?

oh, tubaking...ty for the reply...but I looked up the service manual and taking apart the g1 seems to take a lot more skill and experience working with electronics than I have, so that solution's out....thanks a lot anyways....peace, bro

there is no fix for permanant water damage, any shop is just gonna do the same thing i said unless they have access to the main board and all proper pieces to the phone. usually at times like this i go on ebay and buy a real cheap G1 with a broken screen or some other defect that the seller wants to get rid of the phone quickly and cheaply

I left my phone in the rain for a couple of hours and had the same issue. I know this is not the best solution (due to heat) but it fixed mine completely. I removed sdcard, battery, and bback. Then placed it on an egg carton and put in my toaster oven at 150 degrees for an hour or so. Didn't touch it for another day then powered it on. Power button glitched the first time I pressed it but has worked great ever since (been about 3 months)

dumfuq said:
I left my phone in the rain for a couple of hours and had the same issue. I know this is not the best solution (due to heat) but it fixed mine completely. I removed sdcard, battery, and bback. Then placed it on an egg carton and put in my toaster oven at 150 degrees for an hour or so. Didn't touch it for another day then powered it on. Power button glitched the first time I pressed it but has worked great ever since (been about 3 months)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is awesome.

G1 at bottom of lake revived!
I think we should have a sticky to this Thread! Or maybe a a wet willie.
This weekend I dropped my G1 to the bottom of Lake Conroe and was able to fish it out within 5 minutes. Fortunately I was docked in about 6 feet of water. I totally took everything apart and when I got home placed the phone and parts in the direct sun wrapped in a white cloth. I suppose this is equivalent to the egg carton and toaster oven method.
That night, I put the pieces in a box of rice and put it back together in the morning and voila it worked!! For a few hours I had issues with the backlight coming in and out but after about 8 hours of use it works perfectly. I didn't even have to wipe or flash anything - everything like new.
Whew!!!

well, if people stopped playing with there phones and fingering it, it wouldn't get so wet, maybe you should try a personal lube if you can't keep your hands off

gridlock32404 said:
well, if people stopped playing with there phones and fingering it, it wouldn't get so wet, maybe you should try a personal lube if you can't keep your hands off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn it you beat me to it. I saw the title and said damn this is to easy, wet g1. haahaha.

I dropped my phone in boiled hot dog water and here's what worked for me. I took my phone completely apart and wrapped it up in tin foil. I then put it in the microwave on med-hi for 1:32. Once that is done you take it out and put the phone (disassembled of course) in a bag of bbq potatoe chips (yes it has to be bbq or it won't work) over night. In the mean time you need to feed your dog a snickers bar (this is a must). The next day you need to take magic fairy dust (found a good deal on ebay) and sprinkle it over your g1. Then put your phone back together and slap your momma. Push the power button and bam a perfectly working g1 again. I can write a detailed "how to for dummies" on this if it will get stickied.

supreme, you forgot they need to eat the bbq chips while powering the phone on.

crpercodani said:
supreme, you forgot they need to eat the bbq chips while powering the phone on.
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Click to collapse
Oh yea, I also forgot to mention with a tall glass of chocolate milk.

I'd bump your guide, if I would have had this then I wouldn't have spank the neighbor's wife's ass instead of my momma's, no wonder I still have a wet g1. Wait. What are we talking about, something about crickets and penut butter, I'm confuddle. Oh well back to spanking his wife's ass, mmmm cottage cheese thighs

Fried N1

A really bad holiday for me, the other day i've turned off my N1 at night and can't be able to boot it again the morning after! If i press the power button all i get is a vibration and it stucks, i can't boot into fastboot or recovery too, and if i live the battery inside it gets really hot, i think about a short circuit

Did your phone get wet by chance?

rcxquake said:
Did your phone get wet by chance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think so, but it should be, i was sleeping in a tent (i was in a camping) and it started raining

Well stop trying to make it worse and take out the battery and do the proper drying maintenance on it, maybe you'll get lucky.. if you haven't tried to boot it and mess with it too much already.

Take out the battery, leave the back cover off, and put it in a jar of rice. The rice will help take the moisture out of the phone.
With any luck, your phone should work by tomorrow.

Along similar lines, I was using my N1 the other day (bright sun and temp. above 30 celcius) and it became incredibly warm. I took it out of my pocket to find it smoking. I removed the battery, and left it for an hour.
I came back and put the battery back in, but to my horror it wouldn't power. I tried plugging it in, thinking it may have drained the battery, but to no avail. I now have a very expensive paperweight.
No liquid or anything, and stock rom, locked bootloader. Anyone else seen anything else like it?
Sorry, I don't mean to hijack this thread, it just seemed an appropriate place.

grandmasterethel said:
Along similar lines, I was using my N1 the other day (bright sun and temp. above 30 celcius) and it became incredibly warm. I took it out of my pocket to find it smoking. I removed the battery, and left it for an hour.
I came back and put the battery back in, but to my horror it wouldn't power. I tried plugging it in, thinking it may have drained the battery, but to no avail. I now have a very expensive paperweight.
No liquid or anything, and stock rom, locked bootloader. Anyone else seen anything else like it?
Sorry, I don't mean to hijack this thread, it just seemed an appropriate place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You were using it or it was in your pocket?
I was at the pool one day when my daughter was in swim lessons, 35C or so that day and in partial shade, and my N1 got pretty warm just doing normal stuff.. Luckily no magic smoke escaped on mine.

I had it in my pocket, occasionally pulling it out to send a message, but it was in my pocket when I pulled it out to see smoke.
Maybe just my bad luck. I'll send it to HTC and see what they say. They'd better not charge me for a repair.

If the problem is that it got wet then you need to take the battery out and dry it out, maybe in a bag of rice. Leave it for a day or two.
Every time you try to get it to work while it is wet can break it. Even the first time could have broken it completely if it was wet enough. But if it didn't each time you try it again brings more risk of permanent damage.

Clarkster said:
If the problem is that it got wet then you need to take the battery out and dry it out, maybe in a bag of rice. Leave it for a day or two.
Every time you try to get it to work while it is wet can break it. Even the first time could have broken it completely if it was wet enough. But if it didn't each time you try it again brings more risk of permanent damage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's broken already next monday i will send it to the technical service

Dropped in water : The Saga Begins

Dropped the Slide in the garbage disposal (yeah), pulled it out, was still on, pulled the battery within 30 seconds.
Dried it out the best I could for about 30mins. I know I shouldnt have but I turned it on, it got to my CM6 lockscreen and froze, after another restart it would not get past the logo.
Fastboot worked but said touchpanel : fail, instead of Touchpanel : Synaptics "XXXX".
So I did complete dissasembly and the board and the panel is in a box of rice.
I will update as I go along for those who may be curious about the effects of a dunk on this device.

OK. First off, that sucks. I have been there a few times myself, and it was worse. One in the toilet, one in the dish water, and one in the swimming pool (deep end). Second, you need to take it completely apart (look for an assembly manual on XDA), use 90% rubbing alcohol to clean the boards without getting any under anything you cant get it out from (this will remove contaminates), and leave out for 24 hours before re-assembly. It sounds simple, but take a lot of attention to detail. I have done this for people about 40 or 50 times (ex-T-Mo employee with a heart), and only lost about 10 of them. If you're up for it shoot me a PM and I will help you as best I can.

I am a repair technician by trade so the assembly was the least of my concerns. I noticed the inside did not get wet very much at all, I think the touchpanel connector got a drop in it, i made sure it was clean and i used a razor to skim a fresh metal surface for all the contact points on the phone. The phone is 100% functional as of right now.
It was quite a scary moment when the panel tested as fail, and the ROM seemed to be MIA.

Wow, only 30 min. I accidentally took my phone into a lake with me one and was swimming around for about 5 min before i remembered it was on me lol. It had alread powered itself off. I gave it 2 days to dry before powering on. A little excessive but at least it was a little longer than 30 min 0_o so lucky nothing fried. Glad your slide is still working
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App

i dropped mine in a puddle. immediately tore it apart and placed it in bags of rice. it worked after a day of being in rice. didnt need to do anything else other than that. i did notice some sms and call issues after that but rooting it resolved the issue so i doubt it was a hardware issue

donepate said:
I have done this for people about 40 or 50 times (ex-T-Mo employee with a heart), and only lost about 10 of them. If you're up for it shoot me a PM and I will help you as best I can.
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Click to collapse
never dropped a phone in water myself, my g1 hit a puddle once(not deep at all) but i still tore the thing apart and got the battery out before anything bad could happen. i try to help out my custs as much as possible, but so many of them just leave it on and don't think anything is wrong until it stops working a few days later.
the best thing to do is what was mentioned with the alcohol, my uncle dropped his phone in the lake and he turned it on a few times and i was still able to get the thing up and running within a day for him.

RIP - Drowned Galaxy S

Went to fix the boiler yesterday, thought best take my Galaxy S out my shirt pocket in case it falls in the toilet.
You guessed it. As taking it out dropped it in the bloody toilet!
Its resting in rice at the moment but as it was turned on I am not holding out much hope.
3 months into a 24 monther!
Oh well looks like one of those Palm Pixies that O2 are knocking out cheap is on the cards.
Best dam phone I ever owned!
SS

I posted a HOWTO further down as I tackled a similar problem succesfully yesterday;-)
May the force be with you
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

simonsteele said:
Went to fix the boiler yesterday, thought best take my Galaxy S out my shirt pocket in case it falls in the toilet.
You guessed it. As taking it out dropped it in the bloody toilet!
Its resting in rice at the moment but as it was turned on I am not holding out much hope.
3 months into a 24 monther!
Oh well looks like one of those Palm Pixies that O2 are knocking out cheap is on the cards.
Best dam phone I ever owned!
SS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easy! This phone might not be dead (only in comma).
This same thing happened to my wife last week with an Omnia2 and it looked dead, but she proptly removed the battery and after drying it... It's alive and well again.
Just pray... and wait
You may want to wait a full day before you turn it on again. Please let us know

let it dry thoroughly
and you may want to try another battery
10 years ago i dropped a motorola startac in the loo as I was cleaning it
it still works on the charger!!!
just be patient and let it dry well (two days)

oh man that sucks, update us if it's still alive..

Went fishing last week and after a full day on the boat I realized my dad had put my bag (with ipod) in the live well instead of the dry area. The thing was DEAD for about 3 days and sitting in the rice jar for 48 hrs AMAZINGLY brought it back to life.
Ow and since I´m in Brazil an iPod here costs ARM+LEG so I´m a very happy camper now.
Wait and be happy!

Latest news after a few days drying.
Turns on but screen is grey. It used to show very faint lines. Like the screen matrix lines.
Now it turns on and screen is just grey.
Occasionally get flashes of the Samsung splash screen and I did try the 3 button recovery mode and once I saw a flash of green and the little robot.
Maybe all is not lost. Its back in the rice at the moment! Not sure what we are having with our sweet n sour tomorrow night though!

simonsteele said:
Latest news after a few days drying.
Turns on but screen is grey. It used to show very faint lines. Like the screen matrix lines.
Now it turns on and screen is just grey.
Occasionally get flashes of the Samsung splash screen and I did try the 3 button recovery mode and once I saw a flash of green and the little robot.
Maybe all is not lost. Its back in the rice at the moment! Not sure what we are having with our sweet n sour tomorrow night though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought it got wet yesterday?
let it dry for a few days DO NOT use it before that
take the battery out!!!

Once I silly took my iPhone to the bathroom and drowned it. It took three days in rice for it to completely recover. So, don't lose you hope. We all support you
*If completely dead, I am ready to have a virtual beer for it to rest in peace*

chiffa_ua said:
Once I silly took my iPhone to the bathroom and drowned it. It took three days in rice for it to completely recover. So, don't lose you hope. We all support you
*If completely dead, I am ready to have a virtual beer for it to rest in peace*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should we be drinking beer together so close to the Ashes and the Rugby? lol

allotrios said:
i thought it got wet yesterday?
let it dry for a few days DO NOT use it before that
take the battery out!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No sorry was Saturday.
I keep the hope but have always fancied a play with a Palm WebOS.
Still I am missing the Galaxy S. I want it back! Live damn you live!!!

You never know, my son poured a glass of sticky fruit juice on my laptop. Came out of every hole. Turned it off quick. Stripped it down as much as possible, got to unlock all the ribbon connectors, water sits right in there. Soaked it in Isopropyl alcohol. Binds to the water and draws it out. Let it dry for a few days and it fired right up. Also had to strip my SGS, screen was messing about, found the main screen connector hanging off. Anyway comes apart quite easily, just a few small screws and some gently pulling on the bezel edge.

simonsteele said:
Should we be drinking beer together so close to the Ashes and the Rugby? lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what? We all are under the same Queen!

Still just the grey screen but it flashes the Galaxy S splash screen for a second now.
Been quoted £64 to fix it by a place in London

simonsteele said:
Still just the grey screen but it flashes the Galaxy S splash screen for a second now.
Been quoted £64 to fix it by a place in London
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
take it and get it fixed LOL
64 quid is better that whats its worth for the whole two year contract lol

Last time I drowned a phone i managed to rescue it by sticking it infront of a dehumidifier and max for a day. Also dont forget if u drown a phone take the battery out ASAP so not cause any further damage.

As soon as I saw the title of this thread, my heart sank. Hope it works but if not its definitely worth the Money to fix it

Put it on a hot place(not to hot)
That help it to dry.
You can also use a hairdryer over the backside. Do it gently and don't make the phone to hot.
When foe put it in the rise jar again for a day or two.
Sent from GT-I9000 jpo. My own kernel for z4mod and with 341MB Ram

Well guys it is at a Samsung service centre being looked at.
They give cause for hope and think up to £60 to fix it.
Should know if it is viable to fix by tomorrow afternoon.
Keep your fingers crossed!

Good luck with the repairs. Hopefully you get it working 100% without costing you too much.
One warning I have for people with regards to the alcohol bath. I spilled beer all over my old BlackBerry Storm and after I dried it out the buttons were all sticking but at least the phone worked. People kept suggesting to bath the phone in 99% alcohol. I decided to try it. Well it definitely cleaned out all the sticky beer but it also leeched in between the layers of the touchscreen and left some permanent clouds and wet spots under the screen. The phone worked fine but the display looked a bit messed up. I'm not sure if the Galaxy S could suffer from the same effects but I thought I would share this experience in case someone is thinking about trying it.