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Hello. I hate to even make the post, but I do so love XDA-developers, and maybe somebody can help me out.
I managed to dunk the phone, lets not discuss how, in some pond water. I scoured the int3rwebz for solutions and seemed best advice was to dry with desiccant and a suggestion of an alcohol wash or use of electrical contact cleaner.
The phone was on when dropped, off when recovered. Water damage indicator on the phone was tripped, but the battery still shows red x's. Waited the requisite amount of days and the phone works! everything works.
Now the problem- I get a bit worried about the left over pond scum and I decide I'd be the mad scientist to use electrical contact cleaner on it. Sprayed the suspect areas and immediately blew out the phone with compressed air, let it sit a few nights in desiccant. Now I have some small bubbles in the screen( which was NOT sprayed...) . FML. figure they may be trapped cleaner and eventually evaporate. Not a huge deal, just a bit annoying.
THEN I realize my vibration now does not work. I attribute this to either the water or contact cleaner.
I am now one of a million posting "PHONE GOT WET HALP!!!" and I apologize for such a newbie post, but is there any hope for the vibration to begin working again magically?
Haptic feedback is a fairly big part of this phones operation, and I use silent mode at work with vibration.
If I am screwed on the vibration I have another newbie question:
Can you set different ring tones or sms tones to certain contacts? I have had phones that do this in the past but I cant seem to find anything on this one. I am using the newest version of fission at the moment- 2.6.1.
THANKS for any help/ useful information!
-Andrew
If you look in the battery compartment, I think in the lower left, you can actually see the vibration motor. I would check and make sure that nothing is blocking it. However, I would venture to say that being that it is the only (powered) moving part and being it being so exposed, I would imagine that it would be the most likely to get short circuited or otherwise damaged by the water.
Concur
-Gilgamesh- said:
If you look in the battery compartment, I think in the lower left, you can actually see the vibration motor. I would check and make sure that nothing is blocking it. However, I would venture to say that being that it is the only (powered) moving part and being it being so exposed, I would imagine that it would be the most likely to get short circuited or otherwise damaged by the water.
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Click to collapse
I would concur that it was probably short circuited. Do you have insurance?
I agree. I absolutely did not purchase insurance. Live and learn. That's why I don't mind using it as is.
On to the second question- any way to select varying tones for different contacts in phone ringer/ sms tones? Would I just find something on the market for this? again using fission ROM.
Can you change the green missed call/ sms received LED?
I should have left the phone as it was after drying and not gotten paranoid about the "left over pond scum mineral residue" Oh well.. again live and learn.
Thanks again for the replies.
-Andrew
Open the contact that you wanna change, hit menu and select "options" and it's obvious from there. As for the LED, try an app called Missed Call.
Sorry I missed those to begin with.
atothec said:
Hello. I hate to even make the post, but I do so love XDA-developers, and maybe somebody can help me out.
I managed to dunk the phone, lets not discuss how, in some pond water. I scoured the int3rwebz for solutions and seemed best advice was to dry with desiccant and a suggestion of an alcohol wash or use of electrical contact cleaner.
The phone was on when dropped, off when recovered. Water damage indicator on the phone was tripped, but the battery still shows red x's. Waited the requisite amount of days and the phone works! everything works.
Now the problem- I get a bit worried about the left over pond scum and I decide I'd be the mad scientist to use electrical contact cleaner on it. Sprayed the suspect areas and immediately blew out the phone with compressed air, let it sit a few nights in desiccant. Now I have some small bubbles in the screen( which was NOT sprayed...) . FML. figure they may be trapped cleaner and eventually evaporate. Not a huge deal, just a bit annoying.
THEN I realize my vibration now does not work. I attribute this to either the water or contact cleaner.
I am now one of a million posting "PHONE GOT WET HALP!!!" and I apologize for such a newbie post, but is there any hope for the vibration to begin working again magically?
Haptic feedback is a fairly big part of this phones operation, and I use silent mode at work with vibration.
If I am screwed on the vibration I have another newbie question:
Can you set different ring tones or sms tones to certain contacts? I have had phones that do this in the past but I cant seem to find anything on this one. I am using the newest version of fission at the moment- 2.6.1.
THANKS for any help/ useful information!
-Andrew
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, this isn't really a newb post. Not once have I seen "is there any to trick Verizon into sending me a new phone blah blah blah"
Second, I think you got really lucky here especially for the phone having been on, and ESPECIALLY that the battery didn't get wet or damaged. For what happened, the vibration being gone is pretty minor damage.
orkillakilla said:
Second, I think you got really lucky here especially for the phone having been on, and ESPECIALLY that the battery didn't get wet or damaged. For what happened, the vibration being gone is pretty minor damage.
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Click to collapse
I agree. I guess mad at myself because it was ok before the contact cleaner (d'oh). Oh well, maybe it will reduce some corrosion.
And thank you -Gilgamesh- Don't know how I missed that. I'll try that app as well.
I have a hard time contact cleaner as being the culprit. If it damaged electronics, then it would kind of defy the whole point? Not trying to argue, just seems like it would be the least likely thing to do it. Was it powdery or foamy or something? Maybe it clogged up mechanism, maybe try poking at it with a quetip or something to dislodge it? Or maybe the air pressure pushed some moisture further inside where it could do some damage? Either way, guess I'll make sure to stay away from using it myself anyway. >.<
WELL.. the electrical cleaner in question does say to re-lubricate any movable parts as the cleaner will most likely dissolve oil/lubrication. My guess is that this vibration motor was lubricated if only in a small way.
I agree, unless the phone was submerged in something KNOWN caustic or corrosive, then I would just dry it, and be done with it. (I do also have the new screen bubbles/ dead pixels after the cleaner too.) I read the stories of people submerging in high grade alcohol after the water based dunk so I thought what the heck and the mentioned area in the lower left- looked like a board to me- was sprayed (of course with battery out). I tested the stuff on paper and it was dry within seconds just from air. I sprayed the phone out with compressed air afterward and another few nights in industrial strength desiccant.
So now I'm wondering if I spray some lube (WD-40 just a drop?) into this area in the lower left (Vibration motor?) of course with battery out and adequate dry time?
Thanks for staying with me. I installed a few LED applications and now at least know how to set different ring tones for different contacts.
Of course I'm ecstatic that the display even works after the submersion. I was already pricing 6-700 phones and even thought of...dare I say it... downgrading.
-Andrew
I really wouldn't. WD-40 is high pressure, thus when the tiniest little squirt would prob end up coating most of the inside of the phone. With the battery out I doubt it would cause any shorts, but it may still cause via corrosion because of the chemicals. IF I were to use any type of lube on it, I'd use something made for moving parts, such as the little thing of oil/lubricant you get with a hair trimmers. That way you can easily just put a small drop. That being said, I have no idea what effect using such a product might cause. May fix it, or could permanently damage the phone. Never really tried anything like that.
Personally I would just cut my loses now. There isn't very much damage, and you don't know how much more damaged could be caused by doing something like this. Just my opinion.
Yeah probably best to leave well enough alone at this point. Working screen for the most part, everything else working, just a dead vibration mechanism.
Lesson to be learned for anyone searching- if you have no real reason to beleive the device will be corroded by the substance the device was submerged in... JUST DRY IT WITH DESICCANT! Like I said mine was on and streaming music when dropped, completely off when recovered. I thought it was shorted out for sure, or at least would have tripped some kind of fuse only to be known by verizon/ motorolla techs to be cheaply replaced for refurbished units.
Anyway... just glad to still have a working device. Now to live this down as the GF got a $0.01 droid 2 at the same time as i did, but hers works perfectly fine (I smell a sabotage in the near future.....)
-Andrew
HAHA good luck with that.
atothec said:
Hello. I hate to even make the post, but I do so love XDA-developers, and maybe somebody can help me out.I
-Andrew
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cant help you on the vibration part but for the contacts, try going to the contact hitting menu button-->options-->ringtone
edit: i was beat to it, my internet was slow to load and saw no other posts but he OP lol.
-Gilgamesh- said:
If you look in the battery compartment, I think in the lower left, you can actually see the vibration motor. I would check and make sure that nothing is blocking it. However, I would venture to say that being that it is the only (powered) moving part and being it being so exposed, I would imagine that it would be the most likely to get short circuited or otherwise damaged by the water.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HA! Decided that id add a drop of wd-40 to the vibration motor. After re-reading gilgamesh's post here I remembered seeing a turbine like piece of metal spinning with the compressed air. I was thinking the very lower left where the main board is exposed, but this is pretty much to the left of the middle of the battery. You can see a white motor with gears on the output shaft and the "spinning metal fan blade...thingy"
so, I pull my battery and.... blue silica desiccant ball! Dunno how I missed it. Removed it with a pencil, battery back in, fire it up, success!
So now I just have what im guessing is some left over cleaner under the plastic screen, but it could actually be lcd damage. Ill just have to see if it ever evaporates.
Still in the running for luckiest unlucky droid 2 user 2011!
thanks again guys,
-andrew
Oops- double posted. Anyway moral of the story is use desiccant, but block all passages (I used cotton on the audio jack and port at lower left that goes to mainboard, but forgot the vibration motor.) And don't get any cleaner anywhere near the screen as it seems to have messed up my lcd a bit.
Also- if your vibrate stops working make sure that metal fan spins freely when you blow on it/ use compressed air.
-andrew
Congratulations!! Glad to hear it's fixed now!!
Yeah I think that award is going to you lol. Glad to hear you fix it.
Damn you're one lucky mofo...for being unlucky that is...
Sent from my Evo "Z" unit on xda app.
Actually, I would say the opposite. One of the luckiest. Dropped it in a pond and came out working perfectly, in the end.
I just wanted to report on a possible fix to touchscreen issues. While this may, or may not, work for you, it is what I did, what I have done on three(3) total devices & it is what has eliminated touch screen issues for myself & two other individuals.
This is a work in progress & I will be adding pictures & more detailed instructions, along with progress updates as I use the device going forward. This modification (though it really isn't a mod) requires no tools & while it does entail some light dis-assembly, it did NOT require breaking any seals that would void the warranty outright. Doing this however, may very well void your warranty, I am not an attorney, I am an engineer & taking things apart is what I have been doing since before I could even crawl nearly forty years ago.
To begin, I will go into my Nexus 7 story, which may allow you to identify similar symptoms.
My Nexus 7 device worked well out of the box, with only occasional multi-touch issues. As time progressed, the issues got worse & at one point a couple of weeks ago, even single touch event started to lag or not register. My Nexus 7 is a batch from July of 2013 & I purchased it in August of 2013, so it was still under warranty. Asus issued me an RMA number, however, I hate broken things, knowing darn well that 99% of the time I can fix them myself far faster than the total time it would take an OEM to get my device back to me. At any rate, after the 4.4 update, my touch issues got even worse. Aside from missing even simple gestures & taps, occasionally the screen would look funny & once it even had a sttatic "snowy" screen that was remedied by a factory reset.
After reading a few complaints from people about screen separation & investigating the device via the ifixit tear down, I decided I would take a look before committing to the RMA process. I gently slid my thumbnail under the bezel & slowly worked it around. Immediately I could feel the clips giving way & I eventually had the back cover off. Once the back cover is off, you will notice that the screen & digitizer ribbon cable runs across the battery, pinned in between the battery tray & the inductive Qi coil on the back cover of the device. I found it is easier to ease all the sides up slightly, then remove the back by gently lifing from the sides & upper portion, with the bottom, where the USB port is, being lifted up last. Once I removed the cover, I disconnected the battery terminal clip. After disconnecting the battery, I then followed the screen ribbon cable to where it is clipped into the screens board contacts with a plastic stay. Immediately upon applying pressure to the cable ribbon stay I felt & heard a faintly audible "click" sound. On closer inspection, I discovered that poor contact was being made by the ribbon cable & furthermore, the flex in the battery tray over time, when coupled with the heat generated at that location (due to the battery & the inductive Qi coil) can slowly loosen the ribbon cable stay & affect the quality of the connection. I used a thin piece of composite material to reinforce the cable ribbon stay & used a piece of vinyl along with a non-conductive adhesive to better secure the cable ribbon & stay. I only used a tiny amount so as not to affect the ability to safely disconnect the ribbon cable without destroying it. I also did not want a bunch of adhesive heating up & spreading to other areas. Before I performed the following step, I decided to test out a few thoughts. What I discovered is detailed in the next paragraph. So, after letting the adhesive dry overnight, I reattached the battery terminal clip & started the device. It has worked flawlessly since, without any touch issues.
While I had the back cover off, I carefully reattached the battery terminal clip & while wearing Nitrile gloves & standing on a wood floor to minimize the risk of static discharge, I would turn the device on with the display ribbon cable in various states of connection. They ranged from being angled so that the far contacts would make little or limited connection, to a full connection with varying degrees of pressure applied, to simulate a good or bad connection. Sometimes the device would not boot. Other times it would boot & have a static or "snowy" screen. Sometimes it affected all touch, from single finger events to multi-touch. It also surprisingly affected the system response. Things would freeze up & apps would FC or ANR. Again, once I improved the connection, everything was back to normal & functioning perfectly. In fact, it is functioning better than it did out of the box.
While I am sure Asus would argue that this voids the warranty, I did not break any seals. No tools were needed, just the materials I chose to use & had lying around. As I also mentioned in the opening, I did this on another household members device, that only had multi-touch issues, not all the issues I had, & their device has now been functioning wonderfully for the last several days. The display ribbon clip in their device was not completely detached on one side like mine, but it was fairly loose all the same. The third device was a friends & it was having mostly single touch issues, though he said multi-touch issues would come & go. We ran through the steps on Hangouts & his ribbon cable was in its place, but as he removed the back, the stay clip fell out. His device is also functioning normally now & he has not reported any further touch screen issues.
Since the problems people are having are oftentimes different & not consistent, it very well could be that this is exactly the issue. I would surmise that it could be the very reason why Google & Asus have been VERY, VERY quiet about the issue, since it would require returning the device for a fix, not simply a software fix.
If you try this, I urge you to be patient & use the utmost care when removing the back. While there are no cable attached to the back, you never want to force things. Be gentle & when you find the right spot for lifting, you will know it. It is not difficult & it is relatively harmless. I would caution you to use gloves & minimize the risk of discharging static electricity. I also recommend using gloves because copper sheeting is used in a couple spots & if you have ever worked with copper sheeting in electronics, you know that stuff grabs oils from your skin like crazy & you will end up leaving evidence in the form of an ultra-clear fingerprint that almost no solvent will remove. (Don't use solvents in your device unless you are a daredevil or know what you are doing).
So, that is my story & what worked for me & my small group. Ultimately, these devices are ours & it is up to each of us individually to pursue the fixes or mods that suit us best. That also means that the responsibility & consequences belong to each of us as individuals. What steps you are willing take to remedy any issues you may have with your device are decisions you need to weigh. This is XDA, where people take risks, assume that the are eventually going to brick their devices & make real modifications to devices (which this really is not). If you break something because you needed every single little detail & step spelled out for you, that's not my problem. Again, this is XDA, not some ragtime blog & anything you do here usually requires you to be able to think for yourself at some point.
Lastly, I will try to get to a step by step with pictures as soon as I can. I am not a developer, I am not a student & I don't have a ton of time to devote to answering questions. I will do what I can, when I can, but between the holidays & my job as a mechanical engineer (two large hospital projects are going on right now that take up 95% of my day), I have very little time right now. This post is the result of a large lunch review meeting, not free time, so it will probably take some time to get everything up. I have to recreate most of it, since I really figured on RMA'ing my device. I never expected this to work as it has for me.
Thanks.
Thanks for the post! If I know the issue I don't mind taking it apart to fix it.
I RMA'd it once as I didn't feel I should have to fix it, but it was such a pain jumping through all the hoops only to get it back with docs stating "OS reset" and finding the problem 30secs after resetting up my account.
I have another RMA but have waited shipping it for an update to KitKat in the hopes that it would help. It hasn't. I'll have to see if I feel up to trying your fix.
Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
No one else tried this?
I barely have screen issues, but I am curious to know if this works, after replacing my N7 2013.
Thanks and regards,
Video tuto
Need a video tutorial. I have both touch and multi reboot issue. sometimes there are 2-4 reboots occur during rebooting of system. problems persist even after kitkat update. I think this is the cause that causing me such multireboot issue.
Hope this will solve my problem. i am out of USA country so i cant give for a RMA. But need a solution look like that.
Thanks gsleon3. It always sounded like a hardware bad connection type of issue so I'm not surprised.
The problem with rma is that I'm not sure their repair techs would really fix anything. The cause may not have been made known even to their own techs because it would leak out and might start a class action law suit. My 2012 nexus 7 never had any of the touch issues my 2013 version is showing. Quality control has slipped with the 2013 version.
Any lawyers here?
Video might be tough, but I'll try to get to it. I will try to dedicate some time this weekend. I was thinking Saturday night, but I just learned that the Day of the Doctor is being simulcast in 3D near my house. So it may have to wait till Sunday so I can let my inner geek out.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
GSLEON3 said:
Video might be tough, but I'll try to get to it. I will try to dedicate some time this weekend. I was thinking Saturday night, but I just learned that the Day of the Doctor is being simulcast in 3D near my house. So it may have to wait till Sunday so I can let my inner geek out.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
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After what you shared with us, please DO enjoy your 3D simulcast of THE Doctor. We will be patienly waiting for your video.
Regards!!
nearly an inch long strip at the top of my screen stopped responding to touch i sent it back only had it for 6 days..
Tried this out. My clips were seated properly but I can see the reasons why they pop out.
Took about 5 mins from start to finish to test. Good job.
OP, during your disassembly of the device did you notice any random internal parts that could possibly be applying pressure to the screen from behind it? I ask because my otherwise perfect nexus 7 got a random blue dot in the middle of the screen and I know from past experience that that's typically the result of pressure physically warping the lcd panel.. otherwise the only other thing I can think of is that the lcd is being permanently damaged by the on/off case magnet but that's unlikely. or maybe heat that's causing the battery to flex into the screen. It's extra frustrating because I've had the nexus in a loose fitting hard case and the hard front flap should prevent the kind of pressure damage that would cause those blue marks... sigh.
ibebyi said:
OP, during your disassembly of the device did you notice any random internal parts that could possibly be applying pressure to the screen from behind it? I ask because my otherwise perfect nexus 7 got a random blue dot in the middle of the screen and I know from past experience that that's typically the result of pressure physically warping the lcd panel.. otherwise the only other thing I can think of is that the lcd is being permanently damaged by the on/off case magnet but that's unlikely. or maybe heat that's causing the battery to flex into the screen. It's extra frustrating because I've had the nexus in a loose fitting hard case and the hard front flap should prevent the kind of pressure damage that would cause those blue marks... sigh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if it is pressure, I've found on past devices, sometimes batteries start expanding over time, like they have a fat belly.
Touchscreen possible fix
Started reading a bit on Google Products Forum and found a guy who said that the touchscreen problem can't be fixed by software.
So he took the back of the tablet off and found that the problem lies on the screen digitizer cable not being clipped to the connection port correctly. He disconnected the cable and connected it back again, and now his touchscreen is working perfectly.
I do not want to try it because I don't want to risk anything, but can anyone brave enough try this?:fingers-crossed:
Here's the guy's profile: http://productforums.google.com/for...ioWy9HdPwsowoDCuOz8SS9uR9nzVnPi6g2kSAInwwCj94 (it's the post form Nov 19)
LittleConfucy said:
Started reading a bit on Google Products Forum and found a guy who said that the touchscreen problem can't be fixed by software.
So he took the back of the tablet off and found that the problem lies on the screen digitizer cable not being clipped to the connection port correctly. He disconnected the cable and connected it back again, and now his touchscreen is working perfectly.
I do not want to try it because I don't want to risk anything, but can anyone brave enough try this?:fingers-crossed:
Here's the guy's profile: http://productforums.google.com/for...ioWy9HdPwsowoDCuOz8SS9uR9nzVnPi6g2kSAInwwCj94 (it's the post form Nov 19)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The author of that post is the op of this thread.
sfhub said:
The author of that post is the op of this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whoops, sorry, didn't realize:silly:
ibebyi said:
OP, during your disassembly of the device did you notice any random internal parts that could possibly be applying pressure to the screen from behind it? I ask because my otherwise perfect nexus 7 got a random blue dot in the middle of the screen and I know from past experience that that's typically the result of pressure physically warping the lcd panel.. otherwise the only other thing I can think of is that the lcd is being permanently damaged by the on/off case magnet but that's unlikely. or maybe heat that's causing the battery to flex into the screen. It's extra frustrating because I've had the nexus in a loose fitting hard case and the hard front flap should prevent the kind of pressure damage that would cause those blue marks... sigh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive disassembled the device too and it has nothing specials with exception that few flex cables located right unddr the cover. Not sure if one of them is belongs to touchscreen though
Also i got this blue dot too,and one pink as well. In middle of screen.
Tim4 said:
Ive disassembled the device too and it has nothing specials with exception that few flex cables located right unddr the cover. Not sure if one of them is belongs to touchscreen though
Also i got this blue dot too,and one pink as well. In middle of screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got a blue smear too, but near the edge of the panel but since it's not very visible..I'm just gonna ignore it..
GSLEON3 said:
Video might be tough, but I'll try to get to it. I will try to dedicate some time this weekend. I was thinking Saturday night, but I just learned that the Day of the Doctor is being simulcast in 3D near my house. So it may have to wait till Sunday so I can let my inner geek out.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely no problem, GSLEON3, with profound gratitude I assure you that we really appreciate your engineering work discovering the problem. Take your time and we will patiently wait until you have the time to prepare a more complete review.
Wow! If it is so easy, I don't understand what the Asus support makes everyday.
Thanks for sharing it.
Sound really greate and promising. If you could, a tutorial video would be perfect for us, please
sfhub said:
Well if it is pressure, I've found on past devices, sometimes batteries start expanding over time, like they have a fat belly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If higher amperage is used there is an increased risk of expansion due to the higher excitation in the Li atoms. You will increase the wear of it too.
So if possible always use lower amperages to charge batteries(preferably around 500mA), you can limit the charging IC using a lower output charger or your computer's USB port.
Hi Everyone
I'd like to start off by apologizing that my first post is a question - as the welcome message so nicely encouraged helpful posts I promise I do have skills (not related to my question though, only software) & in future, when I have time, will hopefully manage to post something helpful. You can have a good lol at the stupid situation I've gotten myself into though.
I've looked over the internet for days but can't seem to find anyone in the exact same situation as myself... In a way I am extremely lucky but kinda not because now I've been left with a dilemma.
I have a Galaxy S5 and lo & behold it fell off the arm of the chair into a bucket of water (sadly not just any water but containing thoroughly diluted Fairy washing up liquid) which I was using to clean the floor an hour earlier. (Bucket placement fail. Rest assured I now always remove the bucket to the bathroom straight after cleaning.) It was submerged for ~2 seconds, was turned on at the time and when removed it was in the process of shutting itself down. Stupidly, my first instinct was to turn it back on (I know it's actually irrelevant but I was pretty uneducated on water damage before this happened so I thought if it came back on it was a good sign.) It began booting up normally but my second instinct was arguably more intelligent and I turned it back off again.
I went off to dissassemble it & just as I was thinking about how lucky it was that the S5 was water resistant I suddenly noticed a gap where the battery cover had come away (probably from the impact of hitting the bottom of the bucket - it fell bottom first and it was very shallow - still deeper than a phone.) That sucked. On removing it it was painfully obvious that water had got into it - everywhere - the water indicator behind the battery is so red it's half fallen off. So at this point I just consigned myself to claiming on my insurance (it is covered for this situation thankfully but there's an excess) and left it in pieces for a few minutes. I really stupidly turned it on again - just to check (please don't tell me off, I totally admit at this point I hadn't read on google this was a bad thing to do) - and the display did not work at this point, it constantly vibrated until I removed the battery again but I was erroneously relieved that it had powered on.
Remembering I had an emergency wet electronics pack - a rich name for a plastic bag with 2 big packets of silica gel in it - I thought I might as well try it (although I really did think there was no hope at this point.) I left it - and the battery - in the packet overnight and tried again in the morning - still no display (vibrating had stopped =)) I returned it to the emergency packet where I pretty much forgot about it for 3-4 days booting up my old S3 mini to use in the meantime. (Pay as you go so I still couldn't ring the 25p a minute insurance line.)
I was just about to pop to a relatives to use the house phone to make my claim when I thought I'd give it the S5 one last shot, not expecting anything, I pressed the power button & realised it wouldn't power on at all, so I wiped it with alcohol (having finally googled my problem... the cleaning kind, not the drinking kind), dried that off, plugged it in and lo & behold - again - it appears to work perfectly. This, ironically, is the crux of the problem.
I've read the insurance T& Cs over and over and whilst it covers water damage it says, in a totally unrelated section, that it doesn't cover damage that does not prevent the normal functioning of the device.
So I started googling some more. I read that water damaged devices may have some problems (namedly with the screen, audio or signal) yet I have none of these. I am ridiculously paranoid that every bit of lag is water damage but then again I have a lot of apps installed *naughty* so it's probably not... and tbh it does perform pretty well (my nonwater damaged laptop is lagging as I type & the S3 mini performs worse.) I also read that water-damaged devices frequently appear to work then give up the ghost within a few days of drowning - this also didn't happen. Aside from the indicator being red (and possibly soap residue inside knowing my luck) it's working. So, because of the fairly large excess I haven't reported it yet (there is no time limit on when you report the damage on my cover, I assume this is because most people want their phone replaced sooner rather than later.).
Soooo... phone is still working what I think is fine. Battery life sucks but tbf I think that's the case with all the droids I've had, if it did actually become a problem it's likely fixably by replacing the battery anyway. What I want to know is do I ring the insurance people anyway? There's no T & Cs regarding time of accident or when it breaks la de da but the clause that's worrying me is that the phone has to not be functioning normally. I don't want them saying "you can't have a new phone because it still works" and then snidily cancelling my insurance the next day because they know there is a heightenend future risk of breakdown. Or is water damage so bad that they will replace it anyway regardless of whether it's showing any signs of damage yet? I just want to know what the typical approach to that is.
I'd also like to know, based on the high-level of detail I've provided on what occured post-plunge - what are the odds & likely timescales of future breakdown? Is most the damage likely to have been done by now or is it still likely to turn into a brick at any second? If problems emerge are they likely to appear gradually or suddenly? It has been 4 weeks since the incident. I think I can safely rely on it day to day at this point but do you think it could last another 4 weeks? 4 months?
I guess I could dunk it again just to be sure it breaks :angel: but that seems like such a waste, both of the phone & the excess money... and not to mention stupid if there were any problems with the claims process or the new phone...
Thank you very much, Im really not much of an expert on what water does to phones. Especially not fairy liquid.
Many thanks
AngelzEye
TL;DR = Dunked S5 in water, waterproof cover failed on impact, did turn it back on whilst wet *idiot*, left it in emergency wet electronics pack for 3-4 days, works perfectly, insured for water damage but there's a clause that says damage that doesn't affect the normal functioning isn't covered - I'm guessing their talking about minor cracks here but does it apply to me? . What the hell do I do?? Should I break it properly and claim because the future risk of problems is so great, do I just wait it out and claim only if problems happen, will I get a replacement if i ring the insurance or will they refuse to replace it cos it still works and threaten my future cover.
First and foremost, I don't promise this will fix anything as it has only worked for myself, but let me share my experience/journey and see if this can help at least another person in the same boat as I am.
If you do not want to read the entire story, feel free to skip to the break below.
Back story:
I got the phone in Hong Kong back in November. It's a 505 H815TR. (Don't ask me why I ended up with a Turkish phone, I have no idea)
The phone worked fine for about two weeks, then it would one day start to restart randomly. It also started happening more and more frequent, and the phone might fail to boot at all.
Sometimes it would just freeze on a screen and there'll be artifacts like the GPU overheated. When that happens the phone wouldn't even respond to a hard power-off (holding power for 4 seconds+) and I'd have to take out the battery.
Unfortunately for me, I have since went overseas and LG would not honour the motherboard swap. I also didn't want to sell this otherwise great new phone to another unfortunate soul either. So I'm stuck with the few hundred bux worth of not-quite junk. Determined to not let the money go to waste, I still tried to use it as a daily driver but it had gotten so bad at one point that I had to keep taking the battery off and restarting every few minutes during a meeting like an idiot.
So I tried upgrading the firmware, in hopes that it'll at least improve the situation. It was the 20c firmware. I used LGUP to upgrade it and it got better, if only for a while.
I thought, hey it ran better! Maybe I can stick it out, and sucker up the less frequent restarts. It will run okay for a week or so with occasional restarts. Then it suddenly got bad one day I opened up Maps for navigation. It would suddenly go back to a few restarts an hour.
At this point my hypothesis is that apps/sensors that would require a hike in power can trigger the crash. (duh!) So I turned off Bluetooth/GPS/disable every other app that I can think of. While it help a BIT, it certainly did not alleviate the problem. It had only gotten worse as time goes.
A few weeks went by, 20d came around. Hoping situations would improve, I upgraded the phone.
The problem got WORSE. I thought that's weird, the new version should have came with optimizations and gave less work the phone - hence it should freeze less. Puzzled and disappointed, I flashed back to 20c and was prepared to bite the bullet and accept it as lost cause. To my surprise however, when 20c finished generating cache and booted up, things started looking better again. It would run a few DAYS without problems. I got even more confused. If the problem was purely triggered by spikes of load, going back to the old firmware should have little to no effect. Something else must be going on. Before long, the problems came back and I'm plagued by the restarts again.
I came up with 2 possible hypotheses:
1 - It had something to do with cache
2 - It had something to do with Doze optimizations
Number 2 was easy to test. I went to settings and ignored every possible optimization (****ty UI on that screen by the way. It takes forever to scroll to anything and the checkboxes don't save until you exit the menu. When a restart hits before I exit the menu all progress is lost and I had to start from beginning :crying: ). I ran for a few more days and it seemed to have little impact.
So I was fairly confident at one point that it had to do with cache. Unfortunately, the G4 (at least my G4) does not have an easy access to erasing cache (which was incredibly annoying LG!). The so-called stock recovery only has an option to wipe the phone and obviously I didn't want to do that. I also did not want to temper with bootloader for the same reasons aside from the risk of bricking the phone. I had remembered that when I upgraded the firmware the cache gets wiped and it'll be regenerated on first boot. So I thought I'll just flash the same firmware and I'll be done! To my demise, apparently flashing the same kdz does NOT trigger the cache generation process. What I had to do was to flash 20d, boot that, and flash 20c again.
Things started to look better here. It ran fine. It did not crash for about a week or so. I thought it was a fair compromise. I can deal with a quick refresh(flashing 20d and then 20c again) once a week. Whenever I see signs of the restarts, I would quickly refresh when I got home that evening and it will be good for a week or so. Here I was ready to finalize my theory until...
It crashed. Soon after one of my routine refresh. I thought this was interesting? If it had to do with some kind of cache buildup, surely it would not crash right after a refresh? What's weirder still was it stopped doing that after 2-3 times. Something ELSE MUST be contributing to this. What else was related to the process of cache generation that could affect the stability of my system?
Here ladies and gentlemen, is what my little pea brain have came up with, through trial and error, no engineering background, limited tech knowledge, and limited common-sense:
It had to do with the activity of the CPU; or more precisely, it may have to do with the extended heating process that caused some component around the area to change in some kind of state, and thus improving the stability for a duration until it gradually changes back with time.
Engineers are probably laughing at me right now. I know it probably makes no sense, but it's the best that I can come up with. So I come to you guys, maybe some may help shed some light on this issue that plagues those of us who are stuck with the problematic phones that are not eligible for exchanges/repairs.
Anyway, to test my theory out, I downloaded some kind of stress tester from Google Play (I used StabilityTest v2.7)
I would wait until the phone starts restarting again (and it will, and when it does happen the stability dropped SHARPLY, from no restarts to maybe 2-3 an hour).
Then, I would run StabilityTest. I chose the classic stability test, and just let it run.
The first time it ran, it did not survive the first 10-15 mins. The phone would restart, and I would try again.
This time it ran for 2 hours without restarting (double the time needed for generating cache twice on my phone). I manually stopped the test and started using it normally.
Lo and behold! It was rock solid stable! No crashes, no matter what I did! Wifi, bluetooth, GPS, games, maps, youtube,... all of the above?!
And it would stay this way for me for about 2 weeks. When the phone starts restarting again, I would run the stress tester for a couple of hours, and it would be stable again.
I have since tried the 20d firmware, which also ran fine. I also flashed 20e yesterday, and so far it has been very smooth. I have tried various amounts of times like 1hr, 3hrs, 10hrs, but it would seem that going longer than 3hrs have no impact on the interval between restarts. So personally I find 2hrs will last me 2weeks or so and that works best for me.
I may not have completely solved the problem, and I still don't understand why it works, but it is sort of working for me.
And I hope it would work for you as well!
So here you go! And thanks for reading this unnecessarily long post!
TL;DR
Summary - I have found that by putting the cpu on load for an extended amount of time will dramatically increase the stability of the problematic phone. Here's something you can try:
Disclaimer: I do not guarantee this will work on your phone. I am no engineer. I take no responsibility if it causes any problem on your phone or if it explodes. That being said, it has worked for me. Please try at your own risk!
1. Make sure the area is well ventilated, the phone has sufficient battery or is charging.
2. Download and run "StabilityTest (ROOT Optional)" from Play Store.
3. Run "CLASSIC STABILITY TEST"
4. Let it run for at least 2 hours. If your phone restarts during the test, try again.
*However I would keep an eye on the temperature. I normal at around 50-60 Celsius.
5. It SHOULD be okay now. Depending on how bad your particular problem is, you may have to repeat this process every week or two. Experiment with different load times and see where your sweet spot is.
Thanks,
cbpneuma
Thanks for writing up your experience and theory. I wonder if the additional stress load is generating a large amount of heat that is curing some type of mechanically related electrical fault like a cold solder joint or marginally loose connection.
Some people bake or freeze their phones once the phone is continuously bootlooping so that they can get it to boot up and stay operational long enough to pull their data off the phone.
LG should take responsibility of their shoddy product and replace all affected serial numbers now without questions or provide a 3 year extended warranty.
Wow
That's great TC.
This is the first real lead that anyone has made ( to my knowledge)
And may be why LG is quiet on the cause of the hardware failures
Similar heading would help red ringed Xbox 360 and yellow light ps3's back in the day
cbpneuma said:
Engineers are probably laughing at me right now. I know it probably makes no sense, but it's the best that I can come up with. So I come to you guys, maybe some may help shed some light on this issue that plagues those of us who are stuck with the problematic phones that are not eligible for exchanges/repairs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not laughing if anything your patience and dogged determination is inspiring.
Great write up
I have found out something !!!
After 6 months of use of my LG G4 H815 S/N 509 Germany... When I put it over heavy load and let it heat up pretty well ( about 70-80 degrees Celsius ) I used to take the back cover off !!! I smelled it several times through out this period !!! And guess what I used to smell ??? The smell of flux !!! which shouldn't be there... I used to work daily fixing Mobos and PCBs so I know how flux smells like !!! My theory is that there is an excess of flux with the solder on the board and as we know flux helps solder to melt at lower temps, so at certain high temps on the G4, flux is slightly boiling... which is causing these fumes ( no smoke though !!! ) !!! Which could cause either of both:
1. An isolation if flux wastes get between the solder and the PCB !!!
2. If solder is deforming or melting which might cause loose contact between the components and the PCB !!!
How to fix this, it is all about burning the flux away without causing damage to the mobo :
1. Heat the hell out of your LG G4 while it is sitting still on a table !!! ( AND I REPEAT, SITTING STILL !!! NOT MOVING AROUND !!! )
2. The better solution would be to fix it like we fix GPUs !!! And this will burn the flux away so the solution should work...
a. Disassembled your LG G4 and remove your mobo.
b. Turn on your oven and heat it to 200 Degrees Celcsus .
c. Place your mobo on the Aluminium foil stand onto a cooking sheet or Aluminium foil with the EMI shield Up.
d. Once Oven has reached the 200 Degrees Celsius... place it into the Oven and bake it for 7 min.
e. When time up, leave the Oven door opened and the it stand or cool down for at least 60 min. (but I recommend you wait 120 min. to be on the safe side !!! ). Do not touch it or move it or eat it ( LOL, that sounded dirty... ) !!! Be patient.
f. Finally, reassemble your G4 and turn it on !!! It should work fine now !!!
Don't attempt this fix unless you are aware of what you are doing !!! And only if LG refused to fix your precious device !!! Don't attempt to fix it if you lack the required experience and skills !!! Learn how to do things first...
" DISCLAIMER: "
I am not responsible of any damage you cause to your device, yourself, your surroundings... or even your entire god damn country !!! LOL... I am not responsible if you cause a thermonuclear war or get the USA and Russia into war trying to fix your device !!! So please be aware of what you are doing and be careful !!!
BTW I hear a weird sound ( similar to spinning HDD if you ever heard one ) coming from the SoC area on the LG G4 when I put it under heavy load !!! I wonder if it is normal or due to the loose contact which usually causes similar sounds to come out of electronic components !!! Does anyone else hear that ??? Is it normal ???
( btw before you start saying that, I know smartphones don't have HDDs !!! I was just describing the sound !!! )
Just a comment... flux does not actually lower the melting point of solder, but rather helps it to flow better to the metal traces of the components and printed circuit board.
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_(metallurgy))
In high-temperature metal joining processes (welding, brazing and soldering), the primary purpose of flux is to prevent oxidation of the base and filler materials. Tin-lead solder (e.g.) attaches very well to copper, but poorly to the various oxides of copper, which form quickly at soldering temperatures. Flux is a substance which is nearly inert at room temperature, but which becomes strongly reducing at elevated temperatures, preventing the formation of metal oxides. Additionally, flux allows solder to flow easily on the working piece rather than forming beads as it would otherwise.
The role of a flux in joining processes is typically dual: dissolving of the oxides on the metal surface, which facilitates wetting by molten metal, and acting as an oxygen barrier by coating the hot surface, preventing its oxidation. In some applications molten flux also serves as a heat transfer medium, facilitating heating of the joint by the soldering tool or molten solder.
cbpneuma said:
First and foremost, I don't promise this will fix anything as it has only worked for myself, but let me share my experience/journey and see if this can help at least another person in the same boat as I am.
If you do not want to read the entire story, feel free to skip to the break below.
Back story:
I got the phone in Hong Kong back in November. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting. Keep in mind that almost all of the bootloop problems are fatal - the phones won't boot up unless placed in a freezer, and eventually many of those phones won't boot up at all, even if placed in freezer. And the oven method doesn't provide for a long term fix.
For most of us, once it starts to bootloop, the phone is basically dead.
kwarwick said:
Just a comment... flux does not actually lower the melting point of solder, but rather helps it to flow better to the metal traces of the components and printed circuit board.
From Wikipedia...
In high-temperature metal joining processes (welding, brazing and soldering), the primary purpose of flux is to prevent oxidation of the base and filler materials. Tin-lead solder (e.g.) attaches very well to copper, but poorly to the various oxides of copper, which form quickly at soldering temperatures. Flux is a substance which is nearly inert at room temperature, but which becomes strongly reducing at elevated temperatures, preventing the formation of metal oxides. Additionally, flux allows solder to flow easily on the working piece rather than forming beads as it would otherwise.
The role of a flux in joining processes is typically dual: dissolving of the oxides on the metal surface, which facilitates wetting by molten metal, and acting as an oxygen barrier by coating the hot surface, preventing its oxidation. In some applications molten flux also serves as a heat transfer medium, facilitating heating of the joint by the soldering tool or molten solder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably misunderstood me... But it is okay !!!
Flux helps the solder to melt faster ( not lowering the melting point of solder ) cuz it allows better heat transfer... It also helps soder to better stock to the PCB and the terminals of electronic components !!!
Flux with solder works like oil when you want to fry potatoes... It will make them get cooked faster !!! Without oil they will take longer time !!! I hope you get my point....
starfcker69 said:
Very interesting. Keep in mind that almost all of the bootloop problems are fatal - the phones won't boot up unless placed in a freezer, and eventually many of those phones won't boot up at all, even if placed in freezer. And the oven method doesn't provide for a long term fix.
For most of us, once it starts to bootloop, the phone is basically dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel like this more because of the **** implementation of CPU, since I disabled 2 main cores almost 3 or 4 weeks ago my phone is running pretty well and I'm even on a custom ROM.
Adam Myczkowski said:
I feel like this more because of the **** implementation of CPU, since I disabled 2 main cores almost 3 or 4 weeks ago my phone is running pretty well and I'm even on a custom ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What was your phone doing before you disabled those two main cores and do you feel any performance decrease with them disabled?
divineBliss said:
What was your phone doing before you disabled those two main cores and do you feel any performance decrease with them disabled?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My wasn't completely dead, it was booting up sometimes, rarely but usually in the really low temps, I tried baking the mobo, worked for few hours and phone died, I put thermal pads on all the components what made pressure on them pushing them apart into the processor, phone worked, but again in REALLY low temps if it got up to like 27•C the phone constantly rebooting. ( I was on stock Marshmallow btw ). Then I found this reddit thread about disabling big cores, somehow it worked. Works only on 5.1, just saying. Anyway even though I disabled only 2 cores, the phone have been booting up only on 1 (WTF), what made it really slow and laggy. Fortunately, if you root your device you can enable all 4 cores in device manager. Or if you have H815 with unlocked bootloader as I do, you can flash any AOSP, CM, AOKP etc based ROM, with root and enable all for cores as well, I don't feel that big difference since I'm on pure android really. I already found a bug that disabling 2 cores is causing, on SUPERXE AOSP ROM this is somehow causing lockscreen settings to crash as I am not able to have any screen lock, weird bug... I didn't try any other ROMs.
LG G5 *Note Verizon acknowledged this was indeed an issue!
I wanted to mention something quickly to perhaps save others heartbreak.
I run and use the eleptical for extended periods of time. Mind you, My pockets are not wet but perhaps damp After an hour or more. I took my phone out and made sure I was not drowning. To my surprise the phone was dry except a small amount of moisture near the rear finger sensor.
It seemed nothing of concern. After exercising was completed, the fingerprint sensor was non responsive and intermittent. I got home, looked at the device, it was acting erratic. Screen was turning on and off as if someone was pressing the sensor 50 times a second, battery got very hot (not note 7 hot).
I could no longer power down phone, pulled battery. When battery was inserted phone booted but back button was no use, can't power down, turn off screen.
I read somewhere, don't quote me. Exercise creates a barrier of 2 inches of 80% moisture barrier when doing hard cardio.
Too lazy to find article, not good at story time.
Fix: 5.00 waterproof pouch with lanyard.
The best!
Thank you so much for taking your time writing this! I'll thank that to my attention as someone who lives in an extremely humid area in terms of, my sweat never dries unless i wipe it on a different object, and since the sweat wouldn't evaporate, it will build up and can reach situations where it's dropping off my forehead when i stare down the ground, so my clothes could get extremely wet when I sweat, never thought about it harming the phone, preheps since I don't really exercise.
But sure as hell gonna keep that in mind when it comes to heavy duty!
Fukken Israel
Hello,
I just had something similar happen with my LG G5.
I got hot & sweaty picking berries, with phone tucked in my bra. The phone seemed fine at the time, but within an hour of finishing, the phone stopped working. The water damage indicator is fine, as if no water damage. But unable to use the screen or back power button.
Is the phone just trash now?
It's been 3 hours of letting it sit with the battery removed, and still no improvement.
Thank you for your help.