Database Users

Today is the worst day of my life

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

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

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

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

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

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

Try This
Stop Drinking!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My HD dropped in the water ... HELP

My HD dropped in the water. I dissembly it and let it dry for 3 days. Battery was only 30% charged. After 3 days when I switched it on it worked fine for 2 days but now it switched off and is not switching on again . I replaced battery but nothing happened. Any help ...

Normally speaking electronics would be able to handle the water if dried thoroughly and as quickly as possible (using a hairdryer is recommended) and it's the battery which dies on the spot and can actually explode. In your case tho it worked for 2 days after, so that's quite lucky.
If you haven't done it yet, there's a link in the wiki to the technical service manual which shows how to disassemble the phone to it's smallest parts. If you're up to it, you could see if there's anything turning brown\reddish. If so (or not) you could try clean everything as best possible (perhaps with some alcohol) and then try make use of your warranty...
Could very well be the powerswitch itself which is just sticking tho..

so sorry for you man!

That's too bad. I dunno if this will help you at this point since it's already been several days since it fell in the water, but I read that if you drop your phone in water, you should take whatever you can apart, dry them the best you can, and then submerge all of the parts in dry, uncooked rice. This is supposed to absorb all of the moisture from the parts. I actually used this technique once when my old phone fell in water and it worked perfectly.
I know this won't help you at this point, but it may help others...good luck.

BMW^Z4 said:
My HD dropped in the water. I dissembly it and let it dry for 3 days. Battery was only 30% charged. After 3 days when I switched it on it worked fine for 2 days but now it switched off and is not switching on again . I replaced battery but nothing happened. Any help ...
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Click to collapse
Just a word of thumb to all people. Once the phone / battery has been submerged in water you need to discard the battery right away. Never use a battery that has been exposed to water again in your phone. That is how you fry a phone. I bet if you would have used another battery in your phone it might still work.

Too late for BMW^Z4, but to others:
If it was dropped in dirty or especially salty water, after taking it apart, before drying it, you may want to submerge/rinse it in even more clean water. Distilled water would be even better.
Any left over residue (especially salt) will accelerate corrosion of contacts and leads and could indeed cause it too fail a few days later.

Buy another one

AllTheWay said:
Just a word of thumb to all people. Once the phone / battery has been submerged in water you need to discard the battery right away. Never use a battery that has been exposed to water again in your phone. That is how you fry a phone. I bet if you would have used another battery in your phone it might still work.
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Click to collapse
Which is why I said:
'If so (or not) you could try clean everything as best possible (perhaps with some alcohol) and then try make use of your warranty...'
If you take it back to the store and they (HTC) see you've used it as a submersible they'll turn you down and charge you for the repairs..

I dropped my phone in toilet too. Was in back pocket. I heard a clunk and turned around and noticed it was my phone. I quickly removed it. Took cover, battery, sim and sd card out and dried it with tissue. Then i used those super powerful Dyson heated hand driers to dry it as much as possible. It happened Monday night and I still have not tried putting in the battery. Now I don't know if I should try the battery or just buy a new one from the posts up. I am dreading it if it does not work. I would hate to have to buy another HD as they are so expensive. I guess toilet water is not considered clean. Hope no corrosion.
A friend send I should leave it overnight in white spirit but i did not trust him.
Hoping all is well.....

So sorry to hear this.
In another forum, somone accidentally pour coffee on his Athena.
Some one had suggested in another forum that you bury your HD with rice as the later has the moisture absorbing property. Of course, if it is dirty, you should wash it with clean water first.
I would leave it for a few days to let any water completely evaporate before trying on.
I think there may be hope still. Let's keep our finger cross.

tboy2000 said:
A friend send I should leave it overnight in white spirit but i did not trust him.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great way to dissolve the remains of your phone Hope your friend wasn't serious.

Unless he meant alcohol. He said he used to do it with laptops when they were sent in to repair to him.
What do you guys think? Should I try inserting my battery in again or not even try it and just buy a brand new battery?

tboy2000 said:
Unless he meant alcohol. He said he used to do it with laptops when they were sent in to repair to him.
What do you guys think? Should I try inserting my battery in again or not even try it and just buy a brand new battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple people above you specificly stated to NOT use a battery that has suffered water damage. Get a new battery or risk frying your phone for good.

3 days
3 days may have not been enough unless you left it in a hot dry place. I once put an old nokia phone in the washing machine. When it came out it was full of water and the water had shorted and turned it off (obviously). I wrapped it in a couple of layers of toilet roll and pushed it down the back of the radiator. Water dropped out the bottom and steam went out from the top. This ensures there is no water left. Next (when fully dry) take some sandpaper to the battery connections in the phone and the battery. Water can oxidise the heads and you may not be getting a good connection. Try again and try a friends battery if that does not work.
Good luck (if its not already too late)

i think is too late but....
the better way to avoid definitive damages was an immediate extraction of battery and cards, rinsing in distilled water to avoid corrosion or salt deposition and put on gentle warm hair flux for a long long time.
polish any visible contact with very soft paper and replace with a new battery
pray if you believe and try to turn on
let us know good luck
giano

eaglesteve said:
Some one had suggested in another forum that you bury your HD with rice as the later has the moisture absorbing property. Of course, if it is dirty, you should wash it with clean water first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a very good idea! The rice will definitely absorb the moisture.
tboy2000 said:
Unless he meant alcohol. He said he used to do it with laptops when they were sent in to repair to him.
What do you guys think? Should I try inserting my battery in again or not even try it and just buy a brand new battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://video.about.com/cellphones/Revive-Waterlogged-Cell-Phone.htm
Check out that video for more information. I don't know if it will help but they don't mention about getting a new battery.
However I have heard differing reports.

tboy2000 said:
I dropped my phone in toilet too. ... I guess toilet water is not considered clean.
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Click to collapse
I guess that depends if it was before or after....
Seriously, while urine is salty, conductive and corrosive, the actual water used in the toilet is in fact as clean as that out of your kitchen tap.
If you took it out that quickly, and if it was clean barely conductive water, the battery may not only not be damaged, it may still hold a charge. If you have a multimeter, and you can measure between 3 to 4 Volt, I am fairly sure the battery is fine. Though I am not taking responsibility....

Phone in water
Hi guys,
i just read the HTC water story. Clean it first with pure water (best distilled water) and then use pure alcohol and submerge the electroncis in it.
The water at first replaces the dirt water and washes away particles or solids. As water takes long time to dry alcohol is used to replace the water completely. Alcohol has also a much lower conductivity - therefore avoiding shortened circuits due to salts or similar.
Hope this gives some clarification...worked once in a museum where we had mobiles and they pretty regularly fell into the toilet
Have fun with your HTC,
Nils

I used thoses Dyson fast hand dryers - the ones where you dip your hands in and out. After seeing the video I hope I have not done more damage. I was in a public toilet when it happened so had no access to distilled water, alcohol or rice.
I will find out tomorrow if my phone works and will let everyone know. Fingers crossed.
I have already started looking online for a cheap secondhand HD so if anyone knows of one let me know. London based. I guess I don't have much condidence in the phone working.

I got you beat on that one, don't ask how, but I got coffee cream (liquid) on my HD. Broke it down to component level, cleaned, reassembled and everything is working fine. No corrosion, no battery loss. Luck of the draw I suppose. Now I always have HD in protective case.

Swam with my phone for 20 min

On my last day on holiday I forgot to take my phone out of my pocket before going to the swimming pool. Now it's soaked and looks bricked. Does anyone knows if there it's a chance of it working after it's dried up.

If the phone was off and the battery was removed as soon as possible. Another major factor is how pure the water is - sea water will kill your phone unless you wash it out with water with no (or as almost none) salts in it.
The phone was to be allowed suffient time to dry out. Placing it under a gentle heat (ie near a lamp) and with those silicon bags that it equipment comes with or with rice. You are normally talking about a week for drying out time.

I've heard of dripping wet phones drying out and being okay, so it's a possibility.
There's all the usual airing cupboard/bowl of rice/little crystal packs you get in your trainers/bag of salt suggestions, but I think the most prominent one is to be 100% sure that ALL moisture has gone before you try turning it on again.
Have a search through the forums, and not just this phone as this is obviously not a phone specific problem. There's plenty of advice out there.
Good luck mate - I hope you get it working again.

TA123 said:
On my last day on holiday I forgot to take my phone out of my pocket before going to the swimming pool. Now it's soaked and looks bricked. Does anyone knows if there it's a chance of it working after it's dried up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
open the back panel take evry thing out
dray it
dray the phone from back with an hair dryer with medium heat
for one hour
put it outside in the open for 4 hours
again one hour with hair dryer
and pray a lot
this is what save my nokia n95 ....so be optimistic
In my case I was saving a child from drowning ...so maybe it was an angel that thought it is not a good day to kill my phone
(try doing a good thing before the process)
good LUCK

20min is a long time for the phone to be in the water
It will also depend on if the phone was on or off when it went for a dip.
if it was off, there is a small chance it could be ok, leave it for a week to air and then cross your fingers.
if it was on, id take a guess that your goose is cooked.
sorry to hear bud.

Thanks a lot for all support! Well the phone was on :-( but the water was fresh. Anyway we have already checked out so no access to a hair dryer. Rice is not available until we're back to England this evening. Will report back if the phone survives.

Dissamble your phone completly (tutorial on youtube), place the mobo in a oven @ 100 degrees C for 5 a 10 min
Try first to dry your board with a hairdryer

I once fixed a friends (cough) iphone that was full of dirty water. Stripped it down, put the main components in clean water to wash it out, then put in a 50 degree oven for an hour. Left if over night then reassembled. Worked a treat afterwards, so there is hope. The secret is to give it plenty of time to dry out.

Use distilled water to rinse. Or even better, isopropanol; no baking needed.
Sent from my GT-I9100M using XDA App

it looks it's fried :-( I disassembled it and dried up but it does not show any signs of life. Will try to call my travel insurance company tomorrow to see if it's covered.

hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahah
LMAO!
TRULY SORRY for loss, but your story cracks me up.

ops.. use rice for save it.

emeky said:
ops.. use rice for save it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was covered with rice for the whole night without any results

U need to cover it with rice and put it in an box u can close so no air would come in
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

just_nos said:
U need to cover it with rice and put it in an box u can close so no air would come in
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it should be perfectly dry after everything that has been done to it.

I would be tempted to take it apart and leave it for a week it 2 to dry out. There's a good chance it will work again as long as you don't turn it on while its still wet. If it was salt water or water with chlorine wash the phone with clean water well while in pieces. It shouldn't cause any damage doing this. Its best to remove all salt & chlorine as to prevent long term damage.

Sorry to be the dictionary police but its kinda a habit of mine, swimmed with makes no sense, I think you were aiming for swam.
Sorry about your phone dude, I know its a pain when it happens. Good luck with it all.

yusuo said:
Sorry to be the dictionary police but its kinda a habit of mine, swimmed with makes no sense, I think you were aiming for swam.
Sorry about your phone dude, I know its a pain when it happens. Good luck with it all.
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Click to collapse
Oh, I was so heart-broken to watch my grammar

TA123 said:
it should be perfectly dry after everything that has been done to it.
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Click to collapse
It takes a Minimum of 2 weeks to cure a water damaged phone. If it has salt in it, it wont work at all. IN such a case you should have rewashed it with clean water. You also need to keep it air tight with DRY rice inside a airtight box for 1 to 2 weeks. This will make sure all the fluids are extracted from the machine.
It can feel dry, but it does not mean it actually is. Also, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT charge the phone with the battery in it after a water accident for the first time again.

Well, both of my insurance policies explicitly exclude mobile phones .
So it is now like either the phone will survive or I will have to use my old Hero for the next 12 months.
So I washed it again to make sure no chlorine left and put it in a tightly closed box with a lot of yummy rice
Anyway, I do not hold my breath. I think I fried it when I thought it is dry and was trying to switch it on.

Waterproof G2/DZ ...?

First I have to say, this is the first phone i have had for a year and it still looks like almost new
This morning when my alarm on my phone screamed at me to get out of bed, i accidentally tipped over a full glass of water that i had next to my bed, all the water got on my phone and my phone died (at first), i removed the battery as fast as i could and noticed that the "moist-markings" (?) on the phone and the battery had turned from white to red..
and it still works..
well ok, i used my mouth to blow very hard into the phone to get the water to disappear, but i never disassembled it or anything to dry it.. i have been using the phone all day and still can't find any malfunction :S Did i have an incredible amount of luck or is the G2/DZ waterproofed in any way?

The phone is in no way waterproof. But I've seen other folks on here that have had luck after getting their phones wet (even complete immersion), then had them come back to life after drying them out. Removing the battery quickly is definitely key.
I think you just got lucky, and water did not yet get to any places that could cause a short circuit and permanently damage the phone. I'd let the thing dry out as much as you can for a day or 2 (rice in bag trick seems to work wonders). At least dry it while you are sleeping. You never know, there can be some water hiding somewhere in there, that can still mess things up by flowing into the wrong place.

You, my friend, just have incredible luck.
The G2 is not waterproofed. I accidentally dropped mine into a glass of water, and let's just say, it did not fare so well... The screen colors went wonky, it stopped responding to touch, and half the keyboard keys stopped working.
Needless to say, I didn't get a warranty replacement on that one! (Thank goodness for insurance.)

Take the battery out of the phone and put it in a sealed bag of uncooked rice. This will draw moisture out of the device.
You're extremely lucky that it works currently, but you may get future problems from corrosion with any water that got into the device. You should give it a couple days in rice to pull out what moisture you can.

martonikaj said:
Take the battery out of the phone and put it in a sealed bag of uncooked rice. This will draw moisture out of the device.
You're extremely lucky that it works currently, but you may get future problems from corrosion with any water that got into the device. You should give it a couple days in rice to pull out what moisture you can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
X2. Rice works wonders!
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

Dessicant work better lol. www.ifixit.com has awesome bags fire just such emergencies. If you do go the rice route, put the phone in a panty hose our something similar or you well have rice dust in your phone forever! Lol

Okay, ex cell tech here... (oh God not him again! ) you were lucky because it was water. Soda or juice kills and rusts much quicker plus sugary residue left behind. I recommend taking it apart and scrubing all components you can with an old toothbrush and alcohol. Hand sanitizer will do just use it more sporatically. The problem is, what someone meantioned before, is the corrsive action that takes place after drying. It may happen a month later but it will unless you take it appart and dry it out. The bag of rice is okay but if you want to be 100% safe, take it appart. The warranty is void anyways, no worries. There are a few good guides on disassembly.
Good luck! Excuse my spelling... in a hurry.
I've done this for well over 200 phones and had about 70% success rate. Rice is good if you're not technical but if you want to be positive... take it apart and scrub away. The alcohol will dry up components and remove any corrusive buildup forming. Let us know how it goes...

sino8r said:
Okay, ex cell tech here... (oh God not him again! ) you were lucky because it was water. Soda or juice kills and rusts much quicker plus sugary residue left behind. I recommend taking it apart and scrubing all components you can with an old toothbrush and alcohol. Hand sanitizer will do just use it more sporatically. The problem is, what someone meantioned before, is the corrsive action that takes place after drying. It may happen a month later but it will unless you take it appart and dry it out. The bag of rice is okay but if you want to be 100% safe, take it appart. The warranty is void anyways, no worries. There are a few good guides on disassembly.
Good luck! Excuse my spelling... in a hurry.
I've done this for well over 200 phones and had about 70% success rate. Rice is good if you're not technical but if you want to be positive... take it apart and scrub away. The alcohol will dry up components and remove any corrusive buildup forming. Let us know how it goes...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm an avionics tech myself, while alcohol works wonders and it is the sure fire way, I reccomend the bag of rice trick mostly because not everyone is like us and wants to completly disemble they're cell. And a bag of rice is a no brainer lol. So long as you put it in rice and leave it in for a few days promptly after the incident you should be ok.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

ptesmoke said:
I'm an avionics tech myself, while alcohol works wonders and it is the sure fire way, I reccomend the bag of rice trick mostly because not everyone is like us and wants to completly disemble they're cell. And a bag of rice is a no brainer lol. So long as you put it in rice and leave it in for a few days promptly after the incident you should be ok.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you're right. To me and you, its just removing a few T5 screws and unhooking a few ribbon wires. The rice is good enough. Just be sure to pull the battery, sim, and sd card. Powered on device could make it corrode faster...

sino8r said:
Okay, ex cell tech here... (oh God not him again! ) you were lucky because it was water. Soda or juice kills and rusts much quicker plus sugary residue left behind. I recommend taking it apart and scrubing all components you can with an old toothbrush and alcohol. Hand sanitizer will do just use it more sporatically. The problem is, what someone meantioned before, is the corrsive action that takes place after drying. It may happen a month later but it will unless you take it appart and dry it out. The bag of rice is okay but if you want to be 100% safe, take it appart. The warranty is void anyways, no worries. There are a few good guides on disassembly.
Good luck! Excuse my spelling... in a hurry.
I've done this for well over 200 phones and had about 70% success rate. Rice is good if you're not technical but if you want to be positive... take it apart and scrub away. The alcohol will dry up components and remove any corrusive buildup forming. Let us know how it goes...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thus is what I do for my phones, and customers phones.

Wow you're lucky! But indeed don't expect it to be safe if you never got it dry in the first place. In fact yuo should follow all the advise in this topic before ever powering it on again! Anyway do it .

Exanimus said:
First I have to say, this is the first phone i have had for a year and it still looks like almost new
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think about buying second-hand phones after I opened a beer with my "almost new" DZ...

Water Damage

So I dropped my N1 in water. Took out the battery as soon as possible then I dried what I could with a towel.
After this I tried hours of the rice method (putting my N1 in a bag of dry rice to dry it out). And I was able to successfully boot up my phone again, almost everything works fine but the digitizer/touch screen has some issues.
The rightest side of the screen, about an inch worth is completely unresponsive, so if I load up my app drawer and try to click anything on the right it won't work at all just so you know what I mean.
What can I do about this? Is this a simple fix? Do I just need a new digitizer? Or is it something else?

Water damage can affect anything. Luckily the digitizer is only $25 and there are tons of videos on how to disassemble the phone.

Sounds to me like you've still got a short somewhere inside your N1. Here are some suggestions.
1. Rice is a desiccant, it takes a LONG TIME to actually dry-out something like the internals of a phone. If you can part with the phone for that long, I'd suggest leaving it in the rice for more like 72hours!!
2. If you can't give it that much time, and you've got some tools, skills and a willingness to take apart your N1? Then search youtube for "nexus one disassembly" and take it apart, being extra sure to manually dab dry all areas possible (especially in the digitizer area as you've stated issues around there).
3. Finally, if those steps don't work, you're looking at a digitizer replacement. Which, if you've already taken apart your N1 from step #2, will be an easier swap out for you to handle.
My N1 too went for an unwanted splash as well. Total submersion for a good few seconds as I had to fish it out. Water had gotten into the screen, EVERYTHING was wet.
I had the tools and the mindset that my N1 was likely dead anyway so taking it apart couldn't hurt any further. So I took it completely apart, used a paper towel to dab dry everything possible that I could. Then I left everything out on the table overnight to dry.
Next morning I put it all back together and to my delighted surprise everything worked!
Our N1s are troopers! I'm confident you can bring yours back to full life!
Good luck!

Thanks for the responses!
I will definitely try taking it apart and I'll post back soon on the outcome, if I get lazy though I'll just buy a new digitizer.

How is it possible that water doesn't hurt your N1? It's completely incredible. Few years ago i had a samsung player (my son in fact) that was in contact with water (no immersion!!) and after drying for a week (air then hair-drier!) it was impossible to get it on again.
Is N1 that strong!! So lucky you are!!

abccg said:
Thanks for the responses!
I will definitely try taking it apart and I'll post back soon on the outcome, if I get lazy though I'll just buy a new digitizer.
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Click to collapse
Well if you buy a new digitizer you're gonna have to take it apart anyway haha.
Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

abccg said:
So I dropped my N1 in water. Took out the battery as soon as possible then I dried what I could with a towel.
After this I tried hours of the rice method (putting my N1 in a bag of dry rice to dry it out). And I was able to successfully boot up my phone again, almost everything works fine but the digitizer/touch screen has some issues.
The rightest side of the screen, about an inch worth is completely unresponsive, so if I load up my app drawer and try to click anything on the right it won't work at all just so you know what I mean.
What can I do about this? Is this a simple fix? Do I just need a new digitizer? Or is it something else?
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Use rice is a real bad idea, hairdryer is the best and i'm pretty sure you can find one in your house or borrow one from your neighbour
Seems like there is still a short in your cellphone and i would recommend you call your manufacturer for this. Anyway, it's risky to repair a cellphone by yourself.

A little over a year ago I washed my Nexus One in the washing machine. Extra bleach, long cycle with an extra rinse cycle since it was a bunch of dirty clothing.
I remembered it was in my pocked when I went to remove my clothing, I was sure it was dead.
I pulled the battery and put the phone on the dry air vent of my dehumidifier for two days. The vent blew warm, completely dry air directly into the open back of my phone.
I popped the battery back in and it's been working like new ever since. The camera colors are ever so slightly off, however.
Let the phone dry out before you try to turn it back on.

Recently had the same issue. In my case was a bit easier.
What I did - removed back cover, battery, SIM, sd-card..
Switched my laptop and loaded it with compiling linux kernel. Then decoding HD video with handbrake. The aim was to get a constant flow of warm air (abt 70 degrees Celcius). And I put my phone close to vent fan out of my laptop. It is not overheating too much (like you can with air dryer).

I had a water damage as well, sliped with phone into the while geocaching. The salt walter wasn't good for my phone... :-(

CCpotter said:
Use rice is a real bad idea, hairdryer is the best and i'm pretty sure you can find one in your house or borrow one from your neighbour
Seems like there is still a short in your cellphone and i would recommend you call your manufacturer for this. Anyway, it's risky to repair a cellphone by yourself.
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Click to collapse
I always thought rice, particularly instant rice because it is so absorbent, or any dessicant was a good strategy.
On the other hand, hair dryers seem a very bad idea. Heat from the dryer can be damaging, but the real damage from a hair dryer is that is sends the air at a strong velocity and it blows the water further in the device.

CCpotter said:
Use rice is a real bad idea, hairdryer is the best and i'm pretty sure you can find one in your house or borrow one from your neighbour
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Click to collapse
cyberstoic said:
I always thought rice, particularly instant rice because it is so absorbent, or any dessicant was a good strategy.
On the other hand, hair dryers seem a very bad idea. Heat from the dryer can be damaging, but the real damage from a hair dryer is that is sends the air at a strong velocity and it blows the water further in the device.
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Click to collapse
Rice is actually a very good thing to use just like cyberstoic says. It sucks the water into the rice and gets it out of the device.
The reason he listed for the hair dryer is valid, but it isn't the main reason. The main reason is that the hair dryer will just cause the water to evaporate, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the super humid air will leave the device, so as soon as it cools back down, you will still have that moisture in there.\
This is why rice or other desiccants (like all those silica gel packets that come with a lot of packaging) are used. They actually pull the moisture out of the device.

Rice worked for me when my N1 spent a night soaking in seltzer. (not completely submerged, but enough to get a big batch under the screen) But first I used a vacuum to suck out as much of the seltzer as I could. Then I put it in rice for about 30 hours.
Sent from my Atrix 2 using Tapatalk...

cyberstoic said:
I always thought rice, particularly instant rice because it is so absorbent, or any dessicant was a good strategy.
On the other hand, hair dryers seem a very bad idea. Heat from the dryer can be damaging, but the real damage from a hair dryer is that is sends the air at a strong velocity and it blows the water further in the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about the dirt in the rice? If you use rice to dry those water inside, the dirt with rice will melt with the water inside and make damage to your elements.
If you use hair dryer in a proper way, it can dry your water inside without causing any damage. Have seen after-sale repair workers do this many times.

CCpotter said:
If you use hair dryer in a proper way, it can dry your water inside without causing any damage. Have seen after-sale repair workers do this many times.
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Did you read my response at all? While it is possible for the hair dryer to fix the problem, it can also cause the problem to remanifest itself if that humid air doesn't actually leave the casing. That is the point of the rice. Dirt in the rice is irrelevant. We aren't talking about that much water, and the phone is still in its casing. The rice is just removing the moisture from the air.