Database Users

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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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.

Water Pouring On My Phone

So in the midst of some distractings, I looked up suddenly and my 21th month year old had my shift in my bathroom sink with water running over it.
I quickly began to dry it off when I noticed it, and used canned air for the next 15min to blow out any water. The phone was still running. Turned it off, took out battery and blew more air.
Anyways to make a long story short, speakers still seem to work, both making calls and listening to music. Havnt tried the headphone jack yet. MY Camera though doesnt work. Goes to a black screen and it's clearly fogged up.
What is the advice at this point? I'm sure the warranty is voided. Should I try to take it apart myself to have a look or take it into sprint and cough up the bucks?
God I'm pissed

U shoulda put it in rice as soon as that happened ..u could still try now and leave it in uncooked rice for awhile. That works
Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

e240 said:
U shoulda put it in rice as soon as that happened ..u could still try now and leave it in uncooked rice for awhile. That works
Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk
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Ya its in rice now...didnt realize until my friend told me. I put it in rice after 30 min from when it happened, so it's not that late... I wonder if camera is fried or what?

chugger93 said:
Ya its in rice now...didnt realize until my friend told me. I put it in rice after 30 min from when it happened, so it's not that late... I wonder if camera is fried or what?
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If you let it chill over night I'm sure it'll be fine in the morning bro
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA Premium App

Rice can definitely work. Worked on my Blackberry that went swimming and my girls phone, that oddly enough she spilled soy sauce all over.
Sent from my Gingerbread Speedy 4G using Tapatalk

chugger93 said:
So in the midst of some distractings, I looked up suddenly and my 21th month year old had my shift in my bathroom sink with water running over it.
I quickly began to dry it off when I noticed it, and used canned air for the next 15min to blow out any water. The phone was still running. Turned it off, took out battery and blew more air.
Anyways to make a long story short, speakers still seem to work, both making calls and listening to music. Havnt tried the headphone jack yet. MY Camera though doesnt work. Goes to a black screen and it's clearly fogged up.
What is the advice at this point? I'm sure the warranty is voided. Should I try to take it apart myself to have a look or take it into sprint and cough up the bucks?
God I'm pissed
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Click to collapse
If the HTC EVO Shift 4G was left where your 21 month year old child was able to reach, please reach out to someone to come over to your house and flog the living crap of you on your bare back with a whip of 3 feet of rusty wires until well bloody and then have the person pour molten wax on you and have to bath in a tub of rubbing alcohol for your lack of protection to the HTC EVO Shift 4G. Your poor device probably screamed as it was drowning thinking it was get the CIA water board treatment.
Now with that having been said, the rice immersion method described may or may not work and even if your HTC EVO Shift 4G does manage to come back to life, just know liquid damage is like A.I.D.S/HSV II. Sprint corporate S&R retail stores will not be able to assist you repairing or replacing it as they will be able to tell the device was liquid damaged and just refer you over to TEP if you're not eligible for any equipment discounts or do not wish to fork out $349.99 full SRP for another one.

if it doesn't work and you have insurance just call sprint and tell them you lost it or it got stolen. will have to pay 100 deductible but its better then having to pay full price for a new one or buying a used one. Then you can sell the old phone as an esn locked phone and I'm sure someone else can use it for parts or something. The screen would still be fine I'm sure and people break those all the time.

Something simular happened to me with my g1 and there was a lot of things messed up on it until It completely dried after about 2 days or so. Then everything started working fine again. Just a tip
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA Premium App

jhunterb18 said:
if it doesn't work and you have insurance just call sprint and tell them you lost it or it got stolen. will have to pay 100 deductible but its better then having to pay full price for a new one or buying a used one. Then you can sell the old phone as an esn locked phone and I'm sure someone else can use it for parts or something. The screen would still be fine I'm sure and people break those all the time.
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Click to collapse
So commit fraud to pay for your mistake.....lol

Thanks guys. I know its my fault...life gets in the way, and I was bathing my dog not realizing my phone was on the counter while he was playing with the sink water. Whateve, it happens.
I'll try it today (soon) see what happens, mabe take it apart. I don't have insurance, so full retail price for me...or ebay. Or go without camera if it never comes back to life.
So sprint won't try to repair it even if I pay a repair cost? (no insurance)

chugger93 said:
Thanks guys. I know its my fault...life gets in the way, and I was bathing my dog not realizing my phone was on the counter while he was playing with the sink water. Whateve, it happens.
I'll try it today (soon) see what happens, mabe take it apart. I don't have insurance, so full retail price for me...or ebay. Or go without camera if it never comes back to life.
So sprint won't try to repair it even if I pay a repair cost? (no insurance)
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Click to collapse
Having worked in a Sprint corporate S&R retail store, I can assure you the technicians don't have a means nor way to service and repair liquid damaged devices as liquid damage usually if not always goes down to the component level on the devices' motherboard. Before paying full SRP or heading over to eBay, you may wish to check out Swappa where people buy/sell/trade already rooted Android devices for pretty much all the US wireless carriers. TEP is something you definitely will want to add to your wireless number the next time you purchase a handset. $100 is sure better than $350 or more!

Update: After sitting overnite in rice, shut off...I powered it on after 8 hours. Booted up great, and camera is no longer foggy. Camera works! Everything seems ok... gonna try headphone jack and music, etc one last time.
So relieved....

chugger93 said:
Update: After sitting overnite in rice, shut off...I powered it on after 8 hours. Booted up great, and camera is no longer foggy. Camera works! Everything seems ok... gonna try headphone jack and music, etc one last time.
So relieved....
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That's awesome news! Everyone should definitely be aware of the rice trick, seems like it has saved so many phones from otherwise crippling accidents.

my dad used to turn the oven on for a second to dry the air out then he would turn it off and leave the device in the oven over night.
This worked a few times until my mom washed my ipod shuffle and then put it in the oven. After a while she preheated the oven to make cookies then she opened it to find a white puddle of plastic with a chip in the middle.

wireless.praying.mantis said:
If the HTC EVO Shift 4G was left where your 21 month year old child was able to reach, please reach out to someone to come over to your house and flog the living crap of you on your bare back with a whip of 3 feet of rusty wires until well bloody and then have the person pour molten wax on you and have to bath in a tub of rubbing alcohol.
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Click to collapse
Do you know someone, because all the people near me want way more than I am willing to pay?

Sprint covers water dmg, these phoes are pretty much water resistant anyhow, friends phone sat on the porch in the rain drenched. Still was powered on and everything still worked.

Water damaged phone.. Help :(

UPDATE: The phone is magically fixed!
Hey guys!
So i was at a party 2 nights ago, and I lost my S2. I finally found it in the morning, it had been outside all night, and then I realised that it had been raining heavily.
I took the battery, sim card and micro sd card out and placed the phone somewhere warm and let it dry for about a day and a half. I plugged it in earlier, and it started charging fine, and then I turned the phone on.
It booted up. The hardware buttons are working fine, and the touch buttons below the screen also work, but the screen is completely unresponsive
EDIT: Just as I posted this, i got signal, so only problem i can see is the touch-screen
Is there anything I can do, or is this phone screwed?
I cant remember if I have Vodafone's insurance or not, I'm praying to god I do :/

Put it in a bag of rice and let it dry out even more

Look this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1128594
You'll find some tips that might be useful

danstah said:
Put it in a bag of rice and let it dry out even more
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Click to collapse
I was gonna say.... put it in rice. Should dry up faster

Had good result with silicate packets (the little bags in shoeboxes and many electrical goods) and rice. But let everything dry for days and don't reassemble - left my old PMP for 5 days after a toilet swim, still working. Smells great too. Honest.

Thanks for the replies guys. I've now put the phone in a bag of rice so I guess I just have to wait and see.

Lol keep us updated!

The problem could by the fact that the digitizer on capacitive screens are very sensitive, it sounds as if that may have been damaged.l I would think that the only thing you can do is to replace the touch screen, because it is gorilla glass and the fact the entire phone would need dismantling, If it isn't insured I would expect it wouldn't be cheap to get replaced. But you should be thankful that you entire phone didn't die, I mean you were quite lucky there. I broke my old hero by leaving it out side for 5-10 min whilst it was raining.

Bad news guys, its still not working.
Cant believe I let this happen, I need some trousers with tighter pockets for this damn phone! (and perhaps not carry it with me when I'm drinking haha)
Luckily its covered under my home insurance.
Do I get a new one or get it repaired?
Edit: Its also bloody ironic that I had just put a pattern unlock screen on my phone, so now I cant back up the contents because its locked! Is there any way to get round this? Or external ways to control the phone so I can get into it?
Cheers

There's insurance that covers phone water damage?

Hazlynch, you really need to keep it much, much longer than one day in the rice.
Trust me, apart from my aforementioned toilet episode, I've also lost phones and PMPs in the snow - all have worked again, but the shortest dessicating time was 3 days.
One day is simply not enough - not saying 100% it'll work after 5 days, but 100% certain it won't after one.
For the record, lost my Cowon S9 (OLED touchscreen) in a snowdrift - 5 days dessicating and worked - still going strong.

Ah right thanks for that info! From what I heard about the digitizer being sensitive I'm not very hopeful, but it wont harm to leave it in the rice longer.

I wasn't with my S9 either, but it surprised me, especially also being a touchscreen device too.
Remember to disassemble as much as you can from the phone - all cards and battery out but also in the box/bag - you need to expose as much surface area as possible of the device to the dessicant.
Try my silicate bag tip posted earlier too!
Let us know wha'ppen?

Ready to give it a try? How's it looking/feeling?

I managed to find some silica packets like you said so I put them in with the rice.
Just turned it on, but still no touchscreen responce

hazlynch said:
I managed to find some silica packets like you said so I put them in with the rice.
Just turned it on, but still no touchscreen responce
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Click to collapse
Shame - not optimistic.. A couple more days won't hurt if you have the patience!

Yeah, I wont be able to get anything done about the insurance stuff for a few days anyway, so I'll leave it in there for longer. Starting to miss it now! Haha.
Oh and thanks again for everyone's help on this!

My situation has taken an unexpected turn... Went into vodafone a couple of weeks ago and explained that the touchscreen had stopped working.
They tried to factory reset and do other things to fix it to no avail, so they sent it off to their repair centre to fix.
I received it back today, with a letter which stated that it was thoroughly tested and inspected, and that they found that the fault had been caused by water damage. They explained that water damage falls outside of the manufacturers warranty and they could not repair it.
They also sent a picture which helped to show the extent of the corrosion, which looked a bit nasty.
I turned on the phone anyway when i recieved it, and to my great surprise... it is working - apparently flawlessly.
So it is a happy ending - and has proved to me how badass this phone is

hazlynch said:
My situation has taken an unexpected turn... Went into vodafone a couple of weeks ago and explained that the touchscreen had stopped working.
They tried to factory reset and do other things to fix it to no avail, so they sent it off to their repair centre to fix.
I received it back today, with a letter which stated that it was thoroughly tested and inspected, and that they found that the fault had been caused by water damage. They explained that water damage falls outside of the manufacturers warranty and they could not repair it.
They also sent a picture which helped to show the extent of the corrosion, which looked a bit nasty.
I turned on the phone anyway when i recieved it, and to my great surprise... it is working - apparently flawlessly.
So it is a happy ending - and has proved to me how badass this phone is
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has me worried haha. My SGS2 has recently took a bit of a bath as well. The phone worked perfectly fine after sitting off overnight drying out. However after about 3 days it started random hang up and shut offs. I sent it in to a repair center a week ago and i am just hoping for the best. I dont have high hopes that they will replace it as it was water damage but i suppose its worth a shot for a $600 phone.
If they dont replace/repair it i will be taking it apart and cleaning it in hopes that i can make it work.

Here is my old sgs2 after a dip in the ocean. No insurance either. What you guys think?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

[Q] Wet my phone - not starting - looking for repair opinions

I walked into the ocean (salt) water with my phone about 4 days ago.
I know, I know. Believe me, I've called myself many names along the line of stupid already.
I've been searching the net for any tips or ideas on what I should do.
Situation:
It was submerged in water for about 10 seconds.
Then removed, removed battery and left it to dry in the summer heat. (I was at a beach far away with no rice or silicon nearby).
24 hrs later I inserted my wife's S4 battery into the device and the light indicator began lighting up several colors unsteadily. Mostly Red.
I removed the battery without attempting to turn on the phone, since this was not normal behavior.
2 days later, once I had access to a bag of rice, I put the phone in rice and have left it there since. I tried this morning (after 24 hrs in rice) and the indicator light turns on still, a steady red light.
I'm thinking the phone wont magically work again. But perhaps it might still be worth having a cell phone repair guy have a try.
Anyone know what the red light indicator light means?
Im thinking the phone's main components that would be possibly permanently damaged are:
- screen
- memory
- cpu
- motherboard
Any advice on the matter would be appreciated.
Im crossing my fingers I dont have to spend 600$ for a new phone.

Insurance. Warranty.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

sstphoenix said:
I walked into the ocean (salt) water with my phone about 4 days ago.
I know, I know. Believe me, I've called myself many names along the line of stupid already.
I've been searching the net for any tips or ideas on what I should do.
Situation:
It was submerged in water for about 10 seconds.
Then removed, removed battery and left it to dry in the summer heat. (I was at a beach far away with no rice or silicon nearby).
24 hrs later I inserted my wife's S4 battery into the device and the light indicator began lighting up several colors unsteadily. Mostly Red.
I removed the battery without attempting to turn on the phone, since this was not normal behavior.
2 days later, once I had access to a bag of rice, I put the phone in rice and have left it there since. I tried this morning (after 24 hrs in rice) and the indicator light turns on still, a steady red light.
I'm thinking the phone wont magically work again. But perhaps it might still be worth having a cell phone repair guy have a try.
Anyone know what the red light indicator light means?
Im thinking the phone's main components that would be possibly permanently damaged are:
- screen
- memory
- cpu
- motherboard
Any advice on the matter would be appreciated.
Im crossing my fingers I dont have to spend 600$ for a new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You what i did on my wet Infuse... After some 2-3 day later i use hair dryer for some 10-15 min and my phone worked again. I sold it as is two days later but person who i sold said phone is working ok.

Not a lot can be done for it unless you were exceptionally lucky. Energized circuits don't take kindly to water dispersing their energy into every other circuit in the phone. Often even after placing a phone in rice or silica immediately afterwards still results in a crappy phone eventually. Like the fella said, use that insurance.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

k3rn3lkill3r said:
Not a lot can be done for it unless you were exceptionally lucky. Energized circuits don't take kindly to water dispersing their energy into every other circuit in the phone. Often even after placing a phone in rice or silica immediately afterwards still results in a crappy phone eventually. Like the fella said, use that insurance.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you guys mention "use your insurance" do you mean home insurance?

Use whatever insurance you have. Most people I've talked to on here got something through square trade or best buy, maybe you used a credit card that gives you a warranty for 90 days, maybe you can use home insurance. It depends on your policy. I personally always buy insurance on a new phone (used to get the crappy att insurance, now I have the square trade one with only 100 dollar deductible, but no loss or theft included). It's up to you whether it's worth it, if you can afford to part with 600 bucks in the event of an emergency, may not be worth it to you to pay extra for insurance.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

youtube tutorial
I have successfully repaired water damage on my handset. When I took apart my S2 last year I followed a YouTube tutorial to get it all apart and back together. Here is an excellent link for your S4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm4f2XjQLAM
I expect you will find lots of white powder type of deposits. All I did was carry all the little pieces and circuit boards to the sink and used a toothbrush under the running tap water and scrubbed it all clean. Then I submerged all the pieces and parts in rice over night. It started working again when I put it all back together the next day.

You should have let it dry a week at least
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Water damage!

Hi all..
Saturday(8/3/13) morning I was out by my pool with my five year old daughter and her friend that spent the night making sure they were "ok". I hadn't planned on going swimming but after a while I got bored and hot and decided I was going in. I was wearing my "gym shorts" and didn't mind if they got wet and typically do Not put my phone in the pocket of these shorts except for this particular morning I did have it in there for whatever reason and needless to say my phone was in the pool for over 5 minutes before I noticed. DAMNIT!!! I am really depressed over this as I had tons of photos/emails/texts/passwords/other info stored on it. Basically that phone had been an essential part of my life since I had it and had everything set up JUST the way I want it. I put it in rice as soon as I could but with very little hope. I left it in the rice for over 24 hours before trying to put it back together and of course, No power! =( I figured the warranty was voided so I took it apart to see if I could see visible damage. I didn't notice anything but a little dirt, put it back together and tried it again. It did not come on, But I noticed after a few seconds about the middle of the screen and middle of back started getting warm to the touch. Doesn't this mean power is coming from Somewhere? Is there Any hope here? Thanks for Any information and for reading. Sorry this is so long but I had to tell the story to "someone" and I feel too stupid to tell anyone in real life.

If it still has the ability to use power, the screen may be the only thing damaged, assuming all the chipsets are fine.
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Most people keep it in rice longer than 24 hours. Sometimes several days is necessary. You could also try pulling it apart and submerging the parts in as near pure isopropyl alcohol as you can find. Then, hit it with a blow dryer for a while. Isopropyl evaporates at a much higher rate than water, it displaces any water that might be there, and it does not corrode parts. Then, put it back in the rice for a day or so to make sure all of the moisture is gone. Of course, it might already be to late, but it might be worth trying.

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Rule of thumb is 3 days in rice. The obove comment is also viable. I personally have had success with using an oven at 200f for about 4 hours, but you have to disassemble the entire device.
It seems that you screwed the pooch by trying to turn it on after 24 hours.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Thanks all for the info. I took the phone apart, cleaned each piece with 91% alcohol + toothbrush, then put it back in rice (sealed) until this afternoon. I have just taken the parts out and put the phone back together. I plugged it in nothing. I put the battery in, pushed power and still nothing.(I didn't really expect anything just small smidgen of hope). When I put battery in and push power button and leave it a few seconds though, it starts getting pretty warm to the right of the rear camera. The battery is not warm at all, does this mean battery is fried? And if there is heat being generated should I still have any hope? It seems if it was totally "dead" no heat would be generated?

It means that it is getting power, but something fried...
Sent from my SGH-I337 using xda premium

K, thanks for info! Guess I will try a different battery. Wish I had a friend with an S4, sadly most of my friends(even my wife) are all part of the apple sheep.

I doubt the battery is the culprit... It can't hurt to try though...
Sent from my SGH-I337 using xda premium

Kilhd said:
K, thanks for info! Guess I will try a different battery. Wish I had a friend with an S4, sadly most of my friends(even my wife) are all part of the apple sheep.
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Click to collapse
I doubt its your battery man. If the phone is heating up, it could only do that if it was drawing power. The heat also means ur CPU has to be working too, i think your screen is shot.

I think you're probably right about screen. I guess I should give up but I just got a new 2-yr contract when I bought the phone (on release day). I really just want to get all my photos(including ones of my now 9 month old, most of her pics were on there). I've never done anything like this to a phone so never bothered to get insurance or anything. Bet I will now!

You could have the screen replaced. Might be a bit pricey, but it's better than spending anywhere from 400 to 650 for a whole new device.
Sent from my SGH-I337 using xda premium

I dropped my phone off at a cell phone repair shop. They called today and said "water damage repair was unsucessful" is there still a chance replacing lcd screen may work?
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Something could have fried when it was dropped into the water. It could be anything from the battery to the motherboard or even the daughterboard. Also insurance wont help. It doesn't cover water damage. You could try a new battery because it could be just that. You should also let it in rice for a few days. Take it apart as much as you feel comfortable with and put it baggy of rice
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