Database Users

A possible final fix of back button I FOUND~

Guys I did some search job today and have a possible final solution to the back button problem.
Luckily this is also in the forum posted by user ID:insaneturbo13
his thread is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833663
He is a Samsung Captivate user, right. Since I think if nexus s have met with is annoying problem, other samsung phones may either. So I did some search job in bed with my insensitive-back-button Nexus S, and found the Epic 4G, Samsung Focus, Captivate, etc. Almost all samsung phones got users annoyed by the problem.
Then I searched the Youtube to see if there is any Samsung user had ever achieved some success in solving the issue, and I found.(You won't know how terrible it is when you have to use a U.S VPN just to watch Youtube since it is blocked in here China mainland... really slow speed...together with facebook and twitter...ToT)
My understanding to the cause is: The picture of the back button is a thin line with an arrow, so the inside paint here may over-cover this thin line, which will definitely make the touch action less sensitive. And that's why there are less people got such problem with the other three keys.
And since capacitive buttons actually respond with the obvious temperature difference, so many frustrated nexus s users like me found under warmer environment the problem is less annoying...
Maybe this is only workable for insensitive problem. But hopefully this is a way.
Since I am a Chinese, it's impossible for me to have an exchange with the Bestbuy. So this is my only solution. But for most of you, it's highly recommended to take several exchanges before you definitely want to try this way.
Of course, try this at your own risk

what i did was tighten up the screws on the back of the phone... especially in the lower part of the phone. I haven't seen the issue since and initially it was a pretty often issue for me.

bogdi1988 said:
what i did was tighten up the screws on the back of the phone... especially in the lower part of the phone. I haven't seen the issue since and initially it was a pretty often issue for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is also a good way to solve the problem especially when you dont have to take to phone apart~
The theory may be the same, which is to make the distance between your touch and the module inside shorter cuz there is a piece of rubber under the button position so it can be possible~~
Thanks for sharing this way Dude~~~

bogdi1988 said:
what i did was tighten up the screws on the back of the phone... especially in the lower part of the phone. I haven't seen the issue since and initially it was a pretty often issue for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you access the screws at the bottom to tighten them?

Take off the battery cover. You have 6 bright screws around the edges of the phone. Tighten those up.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Although, I know this is not gonna help, but it comes from personal experience.
In the beginning, I used to be haunted by the silly back button "bizarre".
I factory reset the phone then voila. It's gone.
The reason I am confident to post this is, my brother's phone was fixed in
a same way as well. I know, I can be just lucky, but I just wanted to share.

bogdi1988 said:
Take off the battery cover. You have 6 bright screws around the edges of the phone. Tighten those up.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, I decided to watch the video on how to take apart the phone this morning, didn't do it, but it covered the screw access for the hidden 2 screws.
tightened the screws what little bit I could without fear of breaking something (they were already pretty tight), but it made no noticable difference.
I actually got my phone a few days before they were launched (friend is at&t store manager), so I 've been living with it as long as they have been available. it's annoying, and did get a little better with froyo, but not bad enough for me to tear apart the phone and risk damage to the screen...

droptopmas said:
thanks, I decided to watch the video on how to take apart the phone this morning, didn't do it, but it covered the screw access for the hidden 2 screws.
tightened the screws what little bit I could without fear of breaking something (they were already pretty tight), but it made no noticable difference.
I actually got my phone a few days before they were launched (friend is at&t store manager), so I 've been living with it as long as they have been available. it's annoying, and did get a little better with froyo, but not bad enough for me to tear apart the phone and risk damage to the screen...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are no hidden or covered screws and the phone doesn't need to be taken apart.
look here: http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/BJtxWYS4NMaMyMKL.medium
these are the 6 screws

Mine just started this thing where it presses the back button by itself. Pretty anoying and is making the phone useless. I can't do anything without it just hammering on the back button.

hi everyone,
i'm new to this forum, and joined to see if anyone has been successful in fixing the back button issue...
i've followed some of the advice from previous posts (tightening screws, reset factory settings, updating the OS) but still no luck.
hoping that someone might have discovered a fix (apart from returing the device!) they could share.
thanks!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hi everyone,
After posting the thread above, I updated OS to 2.3.3 and now back button is working fine.... I waited for a couple of weeks before confirming this, so hopefully anyone still waiting on a fix could try what I did. This seems to be a software problem more than anything else...
btw - 2.3.3 noticeably washes out colours, and there's a yellow/green tinge to white space. awful.

sadkorean34 said:
Although, I know this is not gonna help, but it comes from personal experience.
In the beginning, I used to be haunted by the silly back button "bizarre".
I factory reset the phone then voila. It's gone.
The reason I am confident to post this is, my brother's phone was fixed in
a same way as well. I know, I can be just lucky, but I just wanted to share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
I did the same and the problem has gone - just realised after reading your post that factory reset solved this problem.

My phone is constantly on 3G but whenever it dips into Edge or has a weak data signal I notice the back button issue as well. And I tried a factory reset but it did
not fix the problem on 2.3.3

Back button issue
There are a few longer threads in this forum about the back button issue on the Nexus S -- for some people the back button doesn't work at all, and for others it turns on all by itself. There were a few replies from a Google employee (ryguy) who said it would be fixed in an upcoming OTA update, etc. but some reported having problems AFTER getting 2.3.2 when the problem didn't exist before. There are also other reports of tightening the screws on the back of the phone, which haven't tried but seemed to improve things for people whose back button WASN'T working at all.
For my phone around 2-3 weeks after buying it I had the back button come on all by itself. I fixed it by doing hard resets, as suggested on an earlier thread that deals with this issue (it's like 10 pages long but has the complete story of everyone's experience and fixes with this issue). Anyway, the point is for me after the first hard reset the problem persisted, so I did it a few more times (like maybe 5 times) and now it's gone.
There are some people who tried a hard reset (factory settings restore) and the problem still persists but I think that you have to do as many hard resets as possible (like, over and over and over) until the problem disappears. I'm rooted so I did a Nandroid backup first, then did 5 hard resets through Clockwork Recovery (select the "Wipe User Data" option), and after five hard resets I just flashed by backup and I was back to where I was, minus the back button issue. You don't have to be rooted, of course, to do this, but if you are, doing that ROM Manager backup allows you to quickly reinstall everything to the exact way it was after you're done with the five or 10 hard resets or whatever.
If you're unrooted you can power off the phone, then turn it on while holding the Up Volume button. This boots you into Bootloader mode and you can navigate around to do a factory reset. Or, if you are rooted and have ROM manager, you can use ClockworkMod Recovery like I did (see other threads on how to use these programs).
Anyway, again for me I had to do a bunch of these hard resets to fix the problem, so if it persists after the first two resets, I think you have to keep doing it until it disappears. Hope this helps - TC
Samsung Nexus S with root access
Stock Android 2.3.1

tchan1 said:
There are a few longer threads in this forum about the back button issue on the Nexus S -- for some people the back button doesn't work at all, and for others it turns on all by itself. There were a few replies from a Google employee (ryguy) who said it would be fixed in an upcoming OTA update, etc. but some reported having problems AFTER getting 2.3.2 when the problem didn't exist before. There are also other reports of tightening the screws on the back of the phone, which haven't tried but seemed to improve things for people whose back button WASN'T working at all.
For my phone around 2-3 weeks after buying it I had the back button come on all by itself. I fixed it by doing hard resets, as suggested on an earlier thread that deals with this issue (it's like 10 pages long but has the complete story of everyone's experience and fixes with this issue). Anyway, the point is for me after the first hard reset the problem persisted, so I did it a few more times (like maybe 5 times) and now it's gone.
There are some people who tried a hard reset (factory settings restore) and the problem still persists but I think that you have to do as many hard resets as possible (like, over and over and over) until the problem disappears. I'm rooted so I did a Nandroid backup first, then did 5 hard resets through Clockwork Recovery (select the "Wipe User Data" option), and after five hard resets I just flashed by backup and I was back to where I was, minus the back button issue. You don't have to be rooted, of course, to do this, but if you are, doing that ROM Manager backup allows you to quickly reinstall everything to the exact way it was after you're done with the five or 10 hard resets or whatever.
If you're unrooted you can power off the phone, then turn it on while holding the Up Volume button. This boots you into Bootloader mode and you can navigate around to do a factory reset. Or, if you are rooted and have ROM manager, you can use ClockworkMod Recovery like I did (see other threads on how to use these programs).
Anyway, again for me I had to do a bunch of these hard resets to fix the problem, so if it persists after the first two resets, I think you have to keep doing it until it disappears. Hope this helps - TC
Samsung Nexus S with root access
Stock Android 2.3.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think mine is forever beat. 15 hard resets and its still there.

My apologies for bumping such an old thread... But i got a captivate to serve as a backup phone, and i slapped over ICS on to it..
Everything was super awesome.... BUT! not the Back button.
A few minutes of google'ing later, im here.
So after reading through this thread, and the one linked to in the OP, i opened up my Phone and ....well....went on with it.
50 Minutes later :
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8361/dsc03039j.jpg
http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/4579/dsc03040d.jpg
Some Tips :
1: Once your down to the frame with the LCD assembly stuck to it, first remove the Antenna Module. Under that disconnect the black ribbon connector. (This ribbon connects the capacitive button module to the main board).
2: Before starting to Pry apart the LCD from the frame, take a hair dryer and heat up the edges of the LCD Assembly's frame. This helps a freaking lot in prying it apart. Plus it somewhat preserves the 3M adhesive tape present underneath, and can easily be reused.
3: Start prying open the LCD, from the Ear piece side. Take your time and DO NOT!! And i freaking mean, DO NOT!!!!! rush through while removing the LCD assembly.
4: When your almost half way through (or slightly more , but significantly above the capacitive buttons) take a peak between the frame and the LCD assembly, youll see the "Bridging/Connecting" ribbon i mentioned earlier and it might be stuck to the LCD's back.
-> the best way to proceed further is to simultaneously heat up the "glued" parts and slowly continue with removing the LCD. This way, the glue will not stick to the whatever parts it is meant to stick to , THAT strongly and will be much easier to remove.
5: Now as soon as you reach the part where you can see the Capacitive button module sticking to the LCD assembly, go into SUPER FREAKING SLOW mode... THE RIBBON UNDERNEATH IS VERY VERY FRAGILE! ONE YANK AND YOU'LL HAVE TO PURCHASE A NEW CAPACITIVE MODULE.
*Best way to do this is, to again simultaneously heat the concerned parts while slowing pulling the LCD assembly and the capacitive button module apart.*
You can try going LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT alternatively, to slowly make the adhesive give away.
6: After you have the LCD assembly out, its pretty much dependent on how stable yours hands are at slowly etching out the Light gray parts.
-> You can hold the LCD assembly against a TABLE LAMP / some light source, to better see which parts of paint you need to etch out. *i Almost etched the whole of my back button* So be very careful and gentle as well PATIENT!
Before assembling the LCD back into the frame, i took a small piece of paper (about the size of the capacitive button module) and stuck it between the frame and the module. Just so that it makes better contact with the LCD assembly.
7: Stick the LCD back onto the frame and again heat up the edges. Also while putting the LCD back together, make sure the adhesive tape has not lumped up on any of the edges (This might have happened while trying to pry the LCD out) , if it has, then just gently even/flatten it out. Stick the LCD back and heat the edges. Rest, just take a soft cloth and squeeze the LCD's edges and frame together,so as to make sure they stick together properly. The heat really helps in bonding things here.
Assemble back the phone, blah blah.
I used a CREDIT CARD to start prying the LCD away from the frame. It was pretty easy, because of the heat.
DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU SOMEHOW MANGE TO MESS UP YOUR PHONE! Specifically the LCD and the CAPACITVE TOUCH MODULE!
Big thanks to the OP for posting this.

Dropped phone in water

So i dropped the phone in water. Took it out and dried it and after couple of mins i turned it back on. Goes after the S animation and black screen. Turn off and turn on again, now it wont go after main screen. After i used hair dryer for few minutes.
It was only in water for <2 seconds.
It constantly is restarting the phone and won't go past the i9000 screen. Am i screwed? Anything i can do to get warranty or no?

Ny friend put his phone in uncoocked rice for a while and that helped his phone, otherwise when did you get the phone? What carrier?
sent from my rooted captivate

I won it off a contest bell had. Have all papers. Got it in september and got warranty left. Never modded, except unlocked but i believe i can put lock back on
also as soon as i put battery, it turns on. in the event of repair, what do i say to samsung?

1. You shouldn't have turned on the device until you're sure that it's dry internally
2. Moisture indicators are likely to indicate that your device has been in contact with water. Samsung may deny the warranty or give some courtesy by closing an eye. Depends on your luck.
3. You may attempt to continue drying it and prays that it functions again
4. Perhaps try entering bootloader/download mode and reflash?

I dissemble it completely. Now one thing i need to fix is the side grill (silver strip) can't seem to put it back on..

ok sweet, it was able to boot further. I will be putting it back inside rice but any help with the side strip?
Also that big black thing is kind of lose (top right). Supposed to be like that?

ok, really weird issue
At first it worked fine, after i managed to put the strip on, i turn on and see blueish screen and everything is fine except graphics looks like 98 with blueish screen on top!

There are plenty of advises on the web if you Google for your subject. The most interesting ones are to place the phone without battery into rice for a week ot so, the other one is to place the phone without battery in refrigerator, well, all of them say to NOT TURN ON YOUR PHONE at least for 4 - 5 days if not more. However, I had this problem with my previous device and now it is working like a gameboy with no radio. My home insurance payed me for this, so if you have home insurance, be prepared to claim.
EDIT : the moment problem has happened you must pull battery out and place it as far as possible from your phone for a few days.
Sent from my GT-I9000

so what do i do now???
Any way i can claim warranty - as in do something to the cell etc?
The blueish screen = nothing on internet can be found
Also its impossible for me to lock back the phone

Turn your phone off, remove battery throw it into a dehumidifier for a day. Don't touch it. The more you turn it on the more likely something will short circuit and permanently damage your phone.
Most warranties do not cover water damage and there is nothing you can do about that.

If you have insurence my advise report it lost and claim replacement i insured my sgs against everything i already replaced it once from killing it flashing it but i am covered for water and accidental
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Most devices have a moisture detector for if you ever drop it into water, voiding your warranty.

bad move turning it on worst thing anyone can do.
If your in blackpool, uk i can look at it for you.
best thing to do if this happens to anyone is.
take battery out.
put phone in a sealed pub of rice.
leave for 2 weeks and pray.
never ever turn it on after liquid thats when the damage happens

Grim, just grim!

oh boy :-(
thanks for the tip with the rice, good to know just in case..

Sorry for reviving this thread.
I too got the phone wet. I put it through a blower dryer and in a bag of rice.
the screen is fine no discolorations and it booted right up,but crashes on the desktop. i restart it and it stays at the galaxy s2 screen. i can enter recovery and so on, but i don't want to restore if i have too.
What should I do?

velvetmxo said:
Sorry for reviving this thread.
I too got the phone wet. I put it through a blower dryer and in a bag of rice.
the screen is fine no discolorations and it booted right up,but crashes on the desktop. i restart it and it stays at the galaxy s2 screen. i can enter recovery and so on, but i don't want to restore if i have too.
What should I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A crash at the desktop would normally indicate a software problem, but it is highly unlikely that the water had caused damages to the software. Rather, the water probably damaged the processors necessary to run the software. You can enter recovery mode probably because recovery mode does not require the full power of the processors.
So I think if there is any hope of saving your phone at all, you should reflash the firmware from recovery mode.

Do a nandroid backup, reflash and see if it was problem with ROM.
Sent from far, far away GalaxyS

lukaszD. said:
Do a nandroid backup, reflash and see if it was problem with ROM.
Sent from far, far away GalaxyS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i attempted a nandroid (I already have a saved nandroid) but wanted to backup this one since i'm not sure it sync some of the contacts.
when attempting the nandroid i got an error during thee backp portion of the data.
does that mean i should just recover from my original backup?

i9505 Bootloop On Any ROM (Recovery And Download Mode Accessable)

Guys, care to help me out here? I have this i9505 in front of me. It was brought to me because it would randomly stop playing audio. I noticed that this audio issue only happens after the device wakes up from sleep. No sound at all after wake up from sleep. And Video Playback (SdCard and YouTube) stutter goes along with the problem. Here's what I did to get rid of this issue:
- Factory reset in Samsung Stock Recovery; didn't help.
- Flash stock tar.gz via Odin; didn't help. (Yes, I used the correct one matching my model)
- Flash CM to rule out issues with Samsung specific software/drivers; didn't help
So I concluded that there must be a hardware issue. Since the device looked pretty worn out and sticky, I though maybe dust or something else like a liquid could've destroyed the internals. I dissassembled it but to my surprise it looked very clean. So I reassembled it. Plot twist; now it wouldn't boot anymore. It passes the Samsung splash screen and gets into the Bootanimation. But within seconds into it, it reboots. This goes on and on and on unless I take out the battery. I know what you're thinking, but listen; I disassembled/reassembled almost 70 devices, almost half of which iPhones (Yes, I keep track of it, since I charge people for my work) and chances that I messed up something are very low. Not saying impossible, but you get the point. I exclusively change parts. Dispalys, middle frames, backcovers, batteries, microphones, cameras, microsd/sim trays, you name it*. Anyway.
Now, no matter what I do, I can't boot into the OS. Download Mode, Recovery, be it stock TWRP or CWM just work fine. When I format the internal storage via TWRP/CWM and boot up the device on stock, no folders are created on it. But when I flash a custom ROM, be it TW, CM or AOSP/A, I sometimes get into the OS and the standard Android folder structure is created. But the device is then pretty much unresponsive. I can barely navigate the OS before it shuts down again.
What could be the issue here? What could I have damaged during reassembly to cause these issues? But on the other hand, the S4 has a fairly simple architecture and I use an ESD pad, ESD wrist straps and only use plastic tools to pry off connectors. I even watch the humidity in my room for the record.
I gave this guy a replacement Nexus 5 already after he brought his S4 to me. That's what I usually do when I can't tell how long a "repair" could take. If it turns out that I caused the problem, of course he'll get to keep the device.
EDIT: I forgot. I have some spare parts for the i9505 and replaced one at a time to rule out malfunctioning hardware. So far I replaced every part except mainboard (Sim/SdCard Slot), Display and any cable connected to these two parts only to end up with the same problem.

nitrous² said:
Guys, care to help me out here? I have this i9505 in front of me. It was brought to me because it would randomly stop playing audio. I noticed that this audio issue only happens after the device wakes up from sleep. No sound at all after wake up from sleep. And Video Playback (SdCard and YouTube) stutter goes along with the problem. Here's what I did to get rid of this issue:
- Factory reset in Samsung Stock Recovery; didn't help.
- Flash stock tar.gz via Odin; didn't help. (Yes, I used the correct one matching my model)
- Flash CM to rule out issues with Samsung specific software/drivers; didn't help
So I concluded that there must be a hardware issue. Since the device looked pretty worn out and sticky, I though maybe dust or something else like a liquid could've destroyed the internals. I dissassembled it but to my surprise it looked very clean. So I reassembled it. Plot twist; now it wouldn't boot anymore. It passes the Samsung splash screen and gets into the Bootanimation. But within seconds into it, it reboots. This goes on and on and on unless I take out the battery. I know what you're thinking, but listen; I disassembled/reassembled almost 70 devices, almost half of which iPhones (Yes, I keep track of it, since I charge people for my work) and chances that I messed up something are very low. Not saying impossible, but you get the point. I exclusively change parts. Dispalys, middle frames, backcovers, batteries, microphones, cameras, microsd/sim trays, you name it*. Anyway.
Now, no matter what I do, I can't boot into the OS. Download Mode, Recovery, be it stock TWRP or CWM just work fine. When I format the internal storage via TWRP/CWM and boot up the device on stock, no folders are created on it. But when I flash a custom ROM, be it TW, CM or AOSP/A, I sometimes get into the OS and the standard Android folder structure is created. But the device is then pretty much unresponsive. I can barely navigate the OS before it shuts down again.
What could be the issue here? What could I have damaged during reassembly to cause these issues? But on the other hand, the S4 has a fairly simple architecture and I use an ESD pad, ESD wrist straps and only use plastic tools to pry off connectors. I even watch the humidity in my room for the record.
I gave this guy a replacement Nexus 5 already after he brought his S4 to me. That's what I usually do when I can't tell how long a "repair" could take. If it turns out that I caused the problem, of course he'll get to keep the device.
EDIT: I forgot. I have some spare parts for the i9505 and replaced one at a time to rule out malfunctioning hardware. So far I replaced every part except mainboard (Sim/SdCard Slot), Display and any cable connected to these two parts only to end up with the same problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's clearly hardware damage. Some component on your motherboard. The audio problem is/was also hardware related. No software would cause that. My conclusion based on your info is that the motherboard already was damaged. Sound problems are usually a damaged motherboard. So the disassembly probably made it worse. Just bad luck. Maybe reheating/reflowing the audio chip will fix it. If not then buy a new motherboard and charge him that.

Yeah, was also thinking about a reflow. But it's strange that everything works. Download mode, recovery and I can mount and access every partition in TWRP/CWM. Let's see. I'm not sure if I'm gonna charge him. It sounds obvious on first sight that I caused it, sure. But I haven't given up hope yet.
Gesendet von meinem LG-H815 mit Tapatalk

"No service" on notification bar. (J500FN) [Solved]

Hi,
Yesterday, I used the phone like normal(little bit of listening music and media etc) and drained the battery, so it shut down. Connected the charger fairly later and it started charging. In a few hours switched it on and saw that there was this white stop sign on the notification bar. Figured it might be a matter of a reboot since things like that happen from time to time. When rebooted in the morning the sign was still there.
I tried all the firmwares from Sammobile available for the region and nothing got it away, tried LineageOS and then used SmartSwitch to restore the thing.
I also got to the ServiceMode using dial code:
Code:
*#011#
and it says there that:
Code:
MIPI DEVICE FAIL. DEVICE MID=0x20c, PID=0x008
Googled a bit and it seems that the easiest way to fix this is changing the motherboard.
Some more background if it matters: the device asks for a sim pin and hasn't been dropped. Just happened out of the blue.

Solved
Hi again,
I managed to fix the issue. Seems like this is a common problem but I didn't find anything on why it happens or is, just some sites I personally haven't heard before had some same content how to fix the J500M but the same chip was faulty on the J500FN.
What I did was: re-heat the chip shown on the pictures a bit with a hairdryer that had a really small radius(kinda like put a cone on it because didn't want to heat the whole board up). And that seemed to do it. It probably will break again, since it was and is still faulty and for that reason broke on the first place. Also if you're advanced enough you can try to solder it, but that seems to be for the professionals really.. One little connection in the wrong place and you fry the damn thing!
The safe bet is to replace the motherboard(which I don't currently have money for) but that does the trick for me now. Also if your warranty still lasts you might wanna take it to the Samsung Service shop where they should replace or re-solder the chip safely onto the mainboard for free. Or change it alltogether.
What also sealed the deal for me was that the grille that was on the opposite of the chip what was faulty had this weird burn-mark thingy on it, so thats why the whole thing happened..
The pictures of the faulty component: Thegsmsolution.com
I hope that anyone who struggles in the future with this (or in the past and still hasn't found a way to fix it) can fix it now.

All Sensors are Disabled

Ok quick story first:
My 6t was exposed to a bit of water. Wasn't a lot, (not completely submerged) but water did manage to get inside. As soon as that happened, (while the phone was still on) every sensor on the device almost just ceased to exist (ambient light, proximity, gyroscope, etc. Later, the phone started to prevent itself from booting which lasted until it dried (boot animation would show for a bit before the screen went black. but recovery and fastboot mode worked fine). I opened up the device and took out the motherboard and dried everything out. upon putting everything back together, still all sensors don't work. I even used msm tool to reset everything possible back to stock. still no sensors. The device doesn't even recognize that it has any sensors. In fact, the output of "adb shell dumpsys sensorservice" returns:
"No Sensors on the device
devInitCheck : 0"
in the sensors multitool app, the only things that show up are battery, gps, and wifi. Nothing else shows up in the hamburger menu list.
Is there any way to restore the sensors functionality? my guess is that the water triggered some sort of switch that turned them all off. There's no way that ALL of them got water damaged to the point of not even being recognized by the phone that they exist?
Other than this, the phone is in perfect operating condition. Everything inside and out looks in great condition and there is no weird behavior. screen works, speakers work, microphones work, cameras work, vibration motor works, buttons and alert slider works, etc.
Please, any insights into this situation are MUCH appreciated. Thanks!

You need to disconnect the battery and completely dry it, now.
The device if not already permanently damaged will be, sooner then latter...

blackhawk said:
You need to disconnect the battery and completely dry it, now.
The device if not already permanently damaged will be, sooner then latter...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well thats the thing. i already did disconnect the battery and dry it out. but if it was permanently damaged how come it is every single sensor and nothing else? wouldn't it make more sense if only some of the sensors were damaged? and if a sensor or two was damaged wouldn't it be likely that something else got damaged too? however thats not that case. Every single sensor is just completely gone as if they were all disconnected/removed from the phone entirely (as opposed to present but not working correctly). Thats why physical damage just doesn't seem likely to be what happened.

How did you dry it out?

blackhawk said:
How did you dry it out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i completely disconnected and removed the motherboard out from the phone and let it air dry alongside the rest of the device with a fan blowing on it

Riley.davies2716 said:
i completely disconnected and removed the motherboard out from the phone and let it air dry alongside the rest of the device with a fan blowing on it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long?
The BGA chipsets may not have dried out. The solder pads are underneath...
One reason I recommended using the drying agent anhydrous isopropyl alcohol... with care.
Then heat plus fan for 72 hours.

blackhawk said:
How long?
The BGA chipsets may not have dried out. The solder pads are underneath...
One reason I recommended using the drying agent anhydrous isopropyl alcohol... with care.
Then heat plus fan for 72 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was only a bit more than overnight, so I guess I could try for longer :/
However, it has already been over 2 days since the incident so I would have thought everything would have dried out by now.

Riley.davies2716 said:
It was only a bit more than overnight, so I guess I could try for longer :/
However, it has already been over 2 days since the incident so I would have thought everything would have dried out by now.
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If it gets under the chipsets it going to take a lot longer than that. A temperature of 100F or so would help as would the anhydrous isopropyl alcohol. Also sit on edge rather than flat.

ok. I should also mention that when I would try to boot up the phone, it seemed like it would take just a little bit longer to boot than usual. not sure how or if it's related but that's what I noticed.

Riley.davies2716 said:
ok. I should also mention that when I would try to boot up the phone, it seemed like it would take just a little bit longer to boot than usual. not sure how or if it's related but that's what I noticed.
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If it's still wet you don't want power applied; electrolysis and accelerated corrosion may occur. If that happens on a BGA chipset and damages a pad by shorting it out or causing an open circuit there's no practical way to repair it.

I guess it really was leftover water. I let the motherboard dry out in the sun, then put it all back together again. Immediately I noticed that it boots a lot quicker now (like it used to) and now all the sensors register (and work as they should).
So at the end of all of this I am left with much the same suspicions as I had when the issue arouse. There must be some sort of contacts on the board that disable all the sensors (to prevent further damage) when they have continuity, like in the case of water. There might also be another pair of contacts that prevents the whole OS from booting like I initially experienced with the phone shutting off mid-boot like I explained earlier.
So I guess what I got out of this (and for anyone else in the future with similar issues) is that whatever it is that isn't turning on, it's probably not damaged. Instead, it's probably just disabling itself as a safety measure to prevent further damage and will work normally once all water is completely dried. The best you can do is to dry out all the water as quickly as possible, and don't use your device until then.

Riley.davies2716 said:
I guess it really was leftover water. I let the motherboard dry out in the sun, then put it all back together again. Immediately I noticed that it boots a lot quicker now (like it used to) and now all the sensors register (and work as they should).
So at the end of all of this I am left with much the same suspicions as I had when the issue arouse. There must be some sort of contacts on the board that disable all the sensors (to prevent further damage) when they have continuity, like in the case of water. There might also be another pair of contacts that prevents the whole OS from booting like I initially experienced with the phone shutting off mid-boot like I explained earlier.
So I guess what I got out of this (and for anyone else in the future with similar issues) is that whatever it is that isn't turning on, it's probably not damaged. Instead, it's probably just disabling itself as a safety measure to prevent further damage and will work normally once all water is completely dried. The best you can do is to dry out all the water as quickly as possible, and don't use your device until then.
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Yay.
It may still fail in the future though.
Water damage to electronics and electrical systems like a car's is insidious. I do not use the word insidious lightly or as an exaggeration here.
There's absolutely no internal circuit water protection. The C ports have external water protection on most models now though.