[Q] Rubbing Alcohol = Blotchy LCD screen, ruined??? - Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General

I would greatly appreciate any insight as to how screwed, or not screwed i am. I poured 50% rubbing alcohol into my phone where the usb plug is on the bottom because the connection has been bad or loose. I was not thinking about the "touchy" nature of LCD screens, i just knew that rubbing alcohol was good for almost everything else. I dried the phone off, of course had the battery out the whole time... and let it sit for 13 hours. I turned it on, and after that, the screen is a lot darker (in certain spots, actually most spots) and you can see all these blotches inlaid into the screen. IS THIS PERMANENT? Can i use a blow drier with success? put the phone into rice? stick the phone right underneath a dehumidifier?? ive also read crazy things like spraying WD40 in there will displace the liquid, sounds dumb to me though. Please offer me some insight, is this happening because there is liquid in there still? or because the chemical nature of the alcohol permanently ruined or stained the LCD components? THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME.

No responses? I've gone with inserting the phone into a vent of a dehumidifier, on high, with a space heater a foot away to help with evaporation further. if this doesnt fix it, nothing will. Can anyone who has better knowledge of LCD's then me (obviously) tell me whether or not there is any hope?, waiting to see what happens is driving me crazy.

Nice troll attempt, but looks as if it isn't going to work.
No human being who's able to type is actually that stupid.

as if i dont feel like an idiot. so moisture voids a warranty, insurance with ATT doesnt care right?

I had the same problem with a blackberry.
I used a contact cleaner to clean the usb port and some of it entered into the layers between the lcd glass plates. I make circles and cloudy lines across the screen. What I did was place the phone on the dash of my car on a hot sunny day. After the day in the sun the contact cleaner had started to evaporate from under the screen. Rubbing alcholol has a very high evaporation rate as compared to the liquid used to suspend the liquid crystals. I would try a hot light buld placed 6 to 10 inches above the phone to heat it slowly and evenly. The rubbing alcohol should eventually evaporate/dispurse to the edges of the lcd glass plates and remove itself. The hairdryer may also work on medium heat. If it is no longer hot where you live the dashboard techniques may not work for you. I may take a day but it worked for me.
Good Luck.

Thanks very much for a glimmer of hope. I appreciate that. Its no longer warm here in the northeast so im resorting to methods similiar to what you said, and actually had a light bulb on the phone that i use to keep my reptiles warm, earlier today. I really appreciate your response. The thing that worries me is that it was 50% isopropyl alcohol, so the other 50% percent is water, obviously i feel like an idiot and was slightly buzzed, not thinking. Im hoping the water aspect of the solution doesnt screw me, id rather have dumped 100 percent alcohol on it. what did this cleaning solution you used consist of? Once again, thanks for your response because the stupid feeling of "im an idiot" has been eating at me all day, now i feel some hope. and possibly less stupid. once again, i do know im a freakin dummy for not thinking about this first, etc. thanks for the responses.

If you have insurance in addition to your warranty, as you stated, AT&T should cover the water damage just the same. You could just called them and ask them to confirm or deny that they would cover it, though. Otherwise, if you're using the light bulb, Make sure to keep an eye on it so you don't damage the digitizer. Plastic does melt.

I SINCERELY appreciate all the input guys, as opposed to giving me the run around. GREATLY APPRECIATED, THANK YOU! Will post the results of this in due time.

Well, after 24 hours of first putting the phone under a heat lamp, then literally shoving the phone into a dehumidifier, with a space heater nearby to aggravate evaporation, turned the phone on after all that and the screen seems improved but still far from acceptable. So i came across the old "put the phone in rice trick" im goin balls to the wall, phone is submerged in rice, multiple silica packets, and to top it off i put a heat lamp 10 inches above this rice/silica concoction, after an hour of doing this i already saw a considerable amount of water condensing onto the inside of the rice bag. Will post the results, ive heard 6 hours works for people, 24 hours, 3 days, and a couple weeks in extreme cases, most seemed to resolve. I think ill wait 24 hours, most people dont use rice AND silica AND a heat source. And ill take another dig at myself: I know most people (the majority of people) dont pour liquid onto their phone intentionally.
Just keeping the community informed. And again, thanks for the helpful responses.

ITS NOT AN OLD WIVES TALE OR AN URBAN LEGEND!!!!!
After 24 hours of my phone being in a bag of white rice, with silica packets, and a warming bulb 8 inches above, the screen looks freakin amazing! there are only a small amount of pixels at the bottom of the screen that look wet, i 99 percent have my screen back! NO NEED FOR A NEW PHONE NOW!!! Just letting it shake and bake for a little more to get that tiny remainder out. When i first heard about rice working (after having tried a dehumidifier) i thought theres no way in hell that is going to work. I was a skeptic, used this as a last resort (should have been my first resort and will be in the future), and am definitely no longer a skeptic about this method. IT WORKS!
I AM AMAZED.

You should have posted before, during, and after pics of this little experiment. It would have been interesting. Perhaps you could spill some water on it and try again with pictures.

Hope for solution
The solvent that i used was a cleaner with a lubricant in it. All fluids had evaporation rates that vary on their molecular size and shape. The alcohol with evaporate first because it has a higher evaporation rate than water. Mine took a while-approx a week- of slow applied heat. If you can't get it repaired under warranty and are willing to risk it you can try this. I had a plantronics earpiece that fell into a cup of coffee. I filled a glass with rubbing alcohol %70 and dropped in the earpiece. This dillutes the water and rubbing alcolol (iso-propyl) alcohol will bond to the remaining water and increase the evaporation. You can also used denatured alcohol (methanol) avalable at Lowes. It contains no water and evaporates even faster than isopropyl. Test spot first. Make sure it doesn't damage the case. Danger is my earpiece did not have a screen. I still use the earpiece today. Make sure you take the battery out during this process and leave out untill dry. Ware flowing air will be the best thing to blow over your phone to help it dry.
Good Luck.

I have nothing to gain by saying this worked : ) only you do.
Thank you for the info, I will consider it in the future. I dont mean at all to be rude, I appreciate your time and efforts, but to me right now, my phone is as good as 100% golden!
CAJUNFLAVOREDBOB, i wish i had taken pictures of this to prove the results, but to be perfectly honest as i said, i did not expect this rice method to work whatsoever. I was completely skeptical, so to me pictures were pretty much pointless. I've had retarded anxiety for two days now thinking about buying a new phone and reloading an appreciable amount of data. So considering how much anxiety I suffered, while I am confident that if I did get my phone wet again, and take pictures of the whole rice process, it would prove it works.. I am not willing to deal with the anxiety of waiting more then six hours for my phone, I'm not a gambler, and Unemployment is a ***** lol. I was skeptical, but I have my phone back as I knew it, thats all I can say : )

This will only help you, blast me all you want
I think everyone should read this thread and save themselves from a lot of anxiety after getting their phone wet by putting it in the washer, toilet, whatever. People are gonna get annoyed because I brought this thread back to attention but guess what. I DONT HAVE STOCK IN ANY RICE COMPANIES OR SILICA MANUFACTURERS. I have nothing to gain by bringing attention to the fact that this really works, and incredibly. Hope I help someone out there. And if you have crap to spew about me posting this. I DIDNT SQUEEZE YOUR HEAD, keep it in.

I'd like to help someone. Read this thread and keep this solution in mind for the future. Thats all. Here comes the groaning because I brought this thread to the top of the list, whatever, its with nothing but good intent.

Happy New Year. Read this thread for your own benefit if you run into some kind of moisture scenario this year.

if people get mad at me for posting in this thread again, karma will come and splash water all over your phone. I dont have stock in any rice companies, nor do i know any asian people (and thats not by discriminatory choice at all) this thread is meant to help YOU. Not me.

If everyone would bump their thread to the top all the time, we'd have lots of threads with completely useless additions in the last x number of posts (so far, 4 in this thread).

ok.. good point... anyone reading this thread: There is no reason to read past post #13. everything after that isnt really important, but read everything up to post 13.

Bumping the thread once a month or so is fine, but once a week is excessive if you aren't adding any new information. Plus it gets mod's attention as spamming the board. This thread does have good information, but it would be best if you wouldn't bump it more than once a month.

Related

A terrible terrible thing happened this morning..

So this morning, still half asleep I dropped my TP2 into the toilet while it was on. I grabbed it out of the toilet, and removed the battery as fast as i could (while a string of expletives came out of my mouth), let it sit under a lightbulb for a few hours.. then put it in a bag of uncooked instant rice, and left it in my warm car for most of the afternoon.
I never have been a very patient person so after about 8 hours of drying off, i put the battery back in and tried it. Phone boots up fine, everything seemed to work.. could see some moisture on the inside of the lcd still. Seemed I got lucky.. till i tried the keyboard. Some keys don't do anything, some make random crazy strings of letters.. oy. Took the battery out again, and it's back under the light bulb (sick of cleaning rice dust out of my phone).
Anyway, i'm wondering if anybody's had a keyboard on a phone screw up like that and work properly after completely drying out? I've had a few computer keyboards that screwed up like that but worked fine after drying a few days so i really hope the keyboard comes back, especially with USED tp2s still going for over 200 bucks on ebay.. yikes. Touchscreen works fine, was able to send a text no problem using the stylus.. but man i miss the keyboard!
Sorry for the novel.. any input would be appreciated!
if you can, take it fully apart so you can dry the back of the keyboard directly
as you said, i've had PC keyboards that worked after drying, but i always had to take them apart to properly dry the innards
Urgh!
I feel for you! I sit in the bath and surf and read on my TP2 and I am so careful! But accidents can happen!
Was the toilet water, err, fresh? I would suggest always leaving things with the battery out and in a warm place for at least 24hrs, as tempting as it is to power it up.
The keyboard membrane may dry out over a few days, I would suggest you don't use it for a few days.
Let us know how you get on.
aerotec said:
Urgh!
I feel for you! I sit in the bath and surf and read on my TP2 and I am so careful! But accidents can happen!
Was the toilet water, err, fresh? I would suggest always leaving things with the battery out and in a warm place for at least 24hrs, as tempting as it is to power it up.
The keyboard membrane may dry out over a few days, I would suggest you don't use it for a few days.
Let us know how you get on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately no, had a lil liquid waste in it.. i'm thinking about getting some rubbing alcohol to swish the phone around in.
to defaultdotxbe:
I would but i don't have the proper screwdriver, looks like a tiny little allen key type deal
meadams314 said:
Unfortunately no, had a lil liquid waste in it.. i'm thinking about getting some rubbing alcohol to swish the phone around in.
to defaultdotxbe:
I would but i don't have the proper screwdriver, looks like a tiny little allen key type deal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rubbing alcohol isn't absolutely safe. It's only 70% alcohol, for one thing, and the rest is water. So you're actually putting more water INTO your phone when you use it, even though the alcohol helps it to evaporate faster.
I tried cleaning my old BlackBerry keyboard and trackball with rubbing acohol. The keyboard went nuts for a while. Eventually, after many days, it settled down, but now the trackball has a distinct tendency to bounce -- send two clicks instead of one, which is a drag when you click Delete and it instantly sends the Confirm click as well!
There's probably something better than alcohol, like ether, but I dunno where you'd get it.
meadams314 said:
Unfortunately no, had a lil liquid waste in it.. i'm thinking about getting some rubbing alcohol to swish the phone around in.
to defaultdotxbe:
I would but i don't have the proper screwdriver, looks like a tiny little allen key type deal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its a torx 5, i have this screwdriver: http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hard...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
EWAdams said:
Rubbing alcohol isn't absolutely safe. It's only 70% alcohol, for one thing, and the rest is water. So you're actually putting more water INTO your phone when you use it, even though the alcohol helps it to evaporate faster.
I tried cleaning my old BlackBerry keyboard and trackball with rubbing acohol. The keyboard went nuts for a while. Eventually, after many days, it settled down, but now the trackball has a distinct tendency to bounce -- send two clicks instead of one, which is a drag when you click Delete and it instantly sends the Confirm click as well!
There's probably something better than alcohol, like ether, but I dunno where you'd get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
most stores carry 91% alcohol too, and and some places will have 99%
although im always hesitant to put more liquid into the electronics, lol
Right.. i havent yet because it just doesnt feel right putting a 650 dollar piece of electronics into liquid. Heh.. Anyway, ran up to the local grocery store and all they carry is 50/50 alcohol/water. Leaning towards just letting the phone dry out now.. it has already been 14 hours since the dip in the toilet, and the water wasn't filthy just had a little pee in it (trust me, i stopped real quick when the phone hit the water, lol)
EDIT: So if it turns out the keyboard is shot, but the rest of the phone is fine.. is there any way of replacing the keyboard? I searched around online but all i could find was replacement lcd/faceplate/front keypads.. no keyboards.
Also.. unimportant but I thought it was kind of interesting, the water sensitive sticker on my battery is completely un-touched; looks good as new. However the one on the inside of the phone which couldnt be more than an inch away from the other sticker is completely washed out.
EDIT: (again lol) so on second thought.. the water in the 50/50 rubbing alcohol should be purified, correct? I'm really starting to worry about corrosion from the minerals in the toilet water and thinking it might be a good idea to wash it out with the rubbing alcohol. I've seen stories of people who left their phone underwater for long periods of time without a battery and once it dried out it was fine, one guy put a test phone under water for 3 days, then dried it out and it was fine. So that begs the question- take a risk on corrosion but let the phone dry out quicker OR get all the minerals/salts out of the phone but risk more water damage and deal with a longer drying time..
Note that Walmart sells 90% rubbing alcohol, and many pharmacies stock 99%.
(I don't have an opinion if washing your phone in this is a good or bad idea; just wanted to let you know where you can find it).
So after reading probably a couple hundred different "i dropped my phone in the toilet, ran it through the wash, or jumped in the pool with it in my pocket" stories and their outcomes...
Decided to put the phone back into a sealed container of uncooked rice (only because I couldn't find any silica gel) and leave it in a warm area overnight minus the battery. It'll have spent 30 hours drying in a desiccant come noon tomorrow so I'll fire it up and again and see what happens.
To condense everything I've read in the past 4 hours: Water + electricity +electronics = bad, remove the battery immediately (duh). Let it dry, do not turn it on (you'd be surprised how many people turn it on right after towel drying, and leave it on till it fries). Taking the phone apart and cleaning with alcohol and a q-tip seems to help, as does completely soaking the phone in alcohol; however I saw quite a few people who said their LCD quit working after the alcohol bath so I'd use it as a last resort only if even after extensive drying the phone still won't work (might as well give it a shot then, right?) ...just try to keep it away from the lcd.
Anyway, gonna try the TP2 around noon tommorow.. I'll let ya know how it goes.
this is horrible, its like my worst night mare, but i just recently switched to at&t and specifically didnt get the iPhone because i am a very strong windows mobile user lol, but anyway, im selling my tp2 that i had, almost perfect condition, but if i can get it apart, i would sell you the keyboard, i didn get a sale on ebay, but i dont think the guy is gonna pay ((, but ill keep in touch, i hope all goes well
thesyntax said:
this is horrible, its like my worst night mare, but i just recently switched to at&t and specifically didnt get the iPhone because i am a very strong windows mobile user lol, but anyway, im selling my tp2 that i had, almost perfect condition, but if i can get it apart, i would sell you the keyboard, i didn get a sale on ebay, but i dont think the guy is gonna pay ((, but ill keep in touch, i hope all goes well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, I'll have to take you up on that if the keyboard doesn't return to normal. Coming up on 20 hours now it's been drying in rice at not quite 100 degrees.
Just checkin up on ya before I go to school. I'll be checkin the thread all day, im really interested to hear if you get it working again, if so, I think this post thread should stay in the archives as "Opps..."
Well it's been 30 hours.. crossing my fingers and powering it up...
Still some signs of moisture inside the lcd, but definately less than yesterday.. phone still boots up properly. Keyboard still doesnt work.. when i press the buttons i can hear water inside it. Thinking the rice doesn't work as well as silica gel would so today at work i'm gonna see if i cant find a few big packets of silica gel to let the phone sit in. Starting to get pretty impatient.. i need my phone!
Starting to seriously think about getting some 99/1 rubbing alcohol and dipping the keyboard in it for a few minutes too..
tempted to just put the battery back in and bring it to work with me.. can use the touchscreen no problem.. but ARGH dont wanna damage my phone!
Sigh.. guess it's going back in the rice and sitting in my car for another baking session I work till 10pm tonight, and go back at 6am tommorow so if the keyboard's still not working by the time i'm off tommorow i'm gonna run up to home depot, get a torx 5 and take the stupid thing apart to dry/clean it better.
Oh I wouldn't "dip" the phone into alcohol if I were you, that can only make the problem worse.. Best thing you can do is open the phone (if you have the appropriate screwdrivers) and try to make it dry with a hair dryer or something like that!
And yeah you should definately try the Silica gel!
Dude I feel so sorry for you, must be harsh to drop your phone into your own piss x'D
atticus182 said:
Oh I wouldn't "dip" the phone into alcohol if I were you, that can only make the problem worse.. Best thing you can do is open the phone (if you have the appropriate screwdrivers) and try to make it dry with a hair dryer or something like that!
And yeah you should definately try the Silica gel!
Dude I feel so sorry for you, must be harsh to drop your phone into your own piss x'D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only problems i've seen caused by alcohol is with the lcd.. was thinking about dipping just the keyboard, but yeah.. thinking it might be better to get a torx 5 and take it apart.. water's been in there too long, dont want any corrosion.
meadams314 said:
So this morning, still half asleep I dropped my TP2 into the toilet while it was on. I grabbed it out of the toilet, and removed the battery as fast as i could (while a string of expletives came out of my mouth), let it sit under a lightbulb for a few hours.. then put it in a bag of uncooked instant rice, and left it in my warm car for most of the afternoon.
I never have been a very patient person so after about 8 hours of drying off, i put the battery back in and tried it. Phone boots up fine, everything seemed to work.. could see some moisture on the inside of the lcd still. Seemed I got lucky.. till i tried the keyboard. Some keys don't do anything, some make random crazy strings of letters.. oy. Took the battery out again, and it's back under the light bulb (sick of cleaning rice dust out of my phone).
Anyway, i'm wondering if anybody's had a keyboard on a phone screw up like that and work properly after completely drying out? I've had a few computer keyboards that screwed up like that but worked fine after drying a few days so i really hope the keyboard comes back, especially with USED tp2s still going for over 200 bucks on ebay.. yikes. Touchscreen works fine, was able to send a text no problem using the stylus.. but man i miss the keyboard!
Sorry for the novel.. any input would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reminds me of the time my old Ericsson T28 went through an entire wash cycle. The battery was shot, but the phone worked fine once I got a new battery. That was a full 10 years ago, and phones were a bit tougher back then (though still not warranted to be cleaned that way)!
Good luck on the phone. I gather you don't have insurance on the TP2 through your carrier?
Also, if you are willing to extend your contract, you can get a new TP2 for under $200 with a two year extension.
da9th_one said:
why are you updating this tread every few minutes like it's a blog...???
never take you phone into a bathroom people...IT HAS 3 MAJOR WATER SOURCES...!!!
there are 3 places one should never take a phone: bathrooms, beaches, battlestar galactica...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehe there are actually 4 places, because you forgot Chuck Norris! Never take your phone to Chuck Norris, he will roundhouse kick it out of your hands, right back into the toilet xD..
And some other tips that might help the guy with the broken phone:
- Give time for the phone to dry. Don't experiment with putting the battery back on to see if it works as this would risk damaging the phone with a short circuit.
- Be patient and wait. Yes - be patient! Let nature have its way; just leave it in a warm place and let the water evaporate.
- Place it on top of the vent of a cable box, monitor or TV for at least 24 hours (up to 3 days). The low heat emitted is enough to gently dry out the phone.
- Do not under any circumstances heat the battery - it could leak or explode. Lithium-ion batteries are sensitive. If you use an oven or hairdryer, remove the battery first.
- If you use alcohol for the drying process, only do so to the outside, and do not apply heat in any way shape or form, not even the gentlest of heat. Do not connect the battery until the alcohol smell goes away
- And, if it's not stating the obvious, do not put the phone into the microwave. You will fry the components and probably ruin the microwave!
atticus182 said:
- And, if it's not stating the obvious, do not put the phone into the microwave. You will fry the components and probably ruin the microwave!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was more worried about a toaster oven...

Phone went for a swim...

Dropped my Evo in the lake over the weekend. It filled up with water and died immediately. I was able to take it all apart and blow it out with compressed air til it was all dried up. The phone now boots fully and everything appears to work (sending this from my Evo!) except for the camera. Neither front or back works and I don't have insurance so Sprint totally turned me away. Does this sound like an easy fix? The camera turns on but the picture is all fuzzy and I can't actually take a photo or video. I found replacements on eBay for around 20 bucks but don't know if that will fix it. Any thoughts?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
it's possible that the compressed air messed up some of the solder on the MotherBoard... i don't know much about phones (mainly work on PC's) but if it's anything like a pc there is a motherboard and the solder could have been weak and the compressed air blew it right off...
or maybe there is still some moisture... if that is the case... i have heard of a couple of solutions... open the phone back up and submerge it in a bowl of rice. let it sit over night... put back together see if that works.
if not... i have heard that dipping it in a bowl of WD-40 and letting it dry over night works...
i have never tried the latter but have used the former once...
as far as replacing the camera itself... i wouldn't know sorry
Replacing the camera modules should be pretty easy. The rear camera module in particular sometimes has a tendency to come loose on its own, so it shouldn't be too much work to remove it. The front camera module should also be pretty easy, though you'd need to do more disassembly to take that out. I would look up the various teardowns of the evo that are available online for details on doing that.
As for whether it will fix your issue; you won't really know until you try. That's one of the things that kinda sucks about water damage, it's not going to do the same thing with every device, that's why in general people usually don't even bother trying to fix water damage and either live with the damage or get a replacement.
Best bet for a fix is to take out the battery and submerge the phone in distilled water and let it soak, slight aggitate the water.
That should remove any deposits on the board. The problem with normal water is it has all kinds of crap in it that get left behind if you just let it air dry.
Than take it out and stick it in a bag of uncooked rice to 3 days to dry it out.
Power on and test.
Bielinsk said:
Best bet for a fix is to take out the battery and submerge the phone in distilled water and let it soak, slight aggitate the water.
That should remove any deposits on the board. The problem with normal water is it has all kinds of crap in it that get left behind if you just let it air dry.
Than take it out and stick it in a bag of uncooked rice to 3 days to dry it out.
Power on and test.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a bad idea, although it's kinda scary to try that! If you do, I would also get some of that computer duster air and dry it again gently. I used my wife's hairdryer on mine as well, and then the rice trick.
I wonder if electrical parts cleaner would work as well?
Replacing the camera modules are easy I did mine when I replaced my digitizer......bought this EVO for 20 bucks on Craigslist paid like 60 in parts not a bad deal
Sent From My "DECK'D out SAVAGE of an EVO" Using XDA Premium
Thanks for all the input guys, I really appreciate it! It now seems as though the camera is working properly, for now. If I start to have further issues, I will use your suggestions to try to fix. Thanks again! Looks like I may have really dodged a bullet here!

Water Damage

We've all seen the various posts of HELP I HAVE WATER DAMAGE. In fact a global search of XDA will net you with a LOT of posts asking for help.
Everything from I dropped it in the snow, to my kid put it in the toilet, and my personal favorite, I was listening to music while in the shower and it vibrated itself into the toilet. :good:
But in all these cases the poster is asking what to do, their beloved device won't power on and they have something "important" that they forgot to back up and need off of the device.
I've seen such things as put it into a bag of rice (usually about a 25% chance of recovery), and wrap it in paper towels. Even 1 suggested to put it in the microwave.
Lets put some of these myth's do rest shall we. Lets start with the microwave. DUDE WTH are you thinking? Electronics, microwave, BAD IDEA! No ten seconds, no 5 seconds, not even 1 second. You are just begging for BAD to happen, DON'T EVEN THINK OF IT!
Wrap the device in paper towels, while YES paper towels are absorbent, they are NOT going to get the water out from the inside of the device, no matter how "open" you have it.
Putting the device in a bag or jar of flour. AGAIN BAD IDEA! While YES flour is very good at pulling moisture it is just going to cake up and actually cause even MORE damage to the device.
Hair dryer, Ok this does have SOME merit, but again heat to an electronic device is not something that you REALLY want. Especially with many devices being made of plastic now days. This will end up with permanent fogging of the glass and render the device virtually unusable.
Rice Rice Baby....duh nah nuh nuh nah nuh nuh, put it in a bag of white rice baby. Rice is a FOOD, while it does react to water well, it is not a very good idea, but then again it is a FAR CRY better then the ones above. This could work, but I would rather leave the device as open to the air as possible and let it air dry for a week then put an electronic device into a bag of rice.
Silica Jell, Silica Jell WILL pull moisture out of the air, and in fact in an enclosed space such as a zip locking bag, they work VERY WELL at pulling moisture out of electronic devices. Now I've heard of complaints about how expensive these little baggies are to the average consumer, but NO they are not.
You say you can't afford to buy silica jell packs? Well why not? Many of you are married, and have had to take that HORRID trip to the shoe store. Instead of just playing with your phone or what ever, while your wife is off looking at some new pumps or heels that she "needs," go up to a store clerk and ask them if they have any of the little bags of silica sitting around. Tell them what you need it for, and 9 out of 10 times you will walk out of the shoe store with not just new shoes for your wife, but a FREE insurance policy for your beloved electronic devices.
Hit up several shoe stores, get yourself a bag full of them. Get them home and hide them away. I prefer to put them into a vacuum seal jar and vacuum seal the jar closed. This does a couple things. It keeps the silica jell from absorbing any free moisture in the air, and often makes it so that little hands won't mess with them. All in all you want about 200 of the little baggies. WHY. Because I told you to, no really the reason is, that some will already be full, and others will not, you just never know for certain.
When that inevitable moment comes that you need to recover from your arse hole brother in law pushing you into the pool with your new device, open that jar up, grab a zip locking type bag, drop your device in it, then cover that sucker with all you can fit. Leave your device in the bag for AT LEAST 3 days with the battery out and all in the bag. let those little insurance policies do their job for you. There is of course a level of failure in this but it is by far more effective then any of the above posted "methods."
I did a personal test over the last 2 weeks with an old HTC Tilt. That dad burned thing has been sitting in my desk for a couple years now BEGGING to have something done to it. Well now it did.
I filled a mixing bowl with water and turned the phone on, and waited for it to get done booting up. Once it was done I dropped it into the bowl and waited 5 seconds. Reached in, grabbed it out and yanked the back off and took the battery out. Put the phone, battery, back and all into a zip locking type bag, and removed the sim card and sd card. Opened up my handy dandy jar of silica jell packs and poured them into the bag.
I zipped it closed and left the phone in there for 5 days. Pulled it out, and looked over the phone. YES the water indicator had been tripped I put the battery back in, put the back on, put in the sim card, and pressed the power button. Then out of no where I heard my phone come to life, and the screen was just fine. The phone has been sitting plugged into a wall socket and left on for 5 days now. So far no issues, not even a speaker issue.
After I pulled the Tilt out of the bag, I decided WHY NOT, and dropped my old Tilt 2 into a bowl of water and did the same thing. And now, it too is sitting plugged in to a wall socket and left on for a couple days. Only issue with it so far is that it OCCASIONALLY has a bit of "static" with certain alert tones.
So here I sit with a 100% success rate for 2 devices intentionally put into what would normally be the end of life for an electronic device.
So do yourself a favor, and get a bunch of those little baggies and save them up for when you need them. I would however recommend replacing the ENTIRE LOT of them every few months, even if you have them vacuum sealed. Why, because i told you to. No, really, it is because everything has some sort of expiration. Better to keep them refreshed then to find out that you didn't change them out 2 years ago and they absorbed all the moisture out of the air in the bathroom where you hid them.
Rice is hygroscopic and works just fine as a drying agent since you're not drying your phone for a month. better than open air.
gel, not jell
I got a cracked up screen, i'm really hoping I don't have to fight water damage... (i know how to replace the glass and I plan on doing it sometime sorta soon)
I think I'd prefer cracked screen to water damage if I had to pick.
Way back when I had a little iPod nano that went into the wash with and old Samsung flip phone the phone died but the iPod survived. I had put them in front of a wall heater, basically equivalent to a hair dryer i guess.
just be smart don't get your phone wet
OH any thoughts on Liquipel? http://www.liquipel.com/
sounds like they use a vacuum to coat everything inside.
I'd be interested to try some of NeverWet's product with my vacuum pump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7is6r6zXFDc
http://www.neverwet.com/index.php
But it sounds like they aren't in production yet.
Ok. My wife dropped her two week old GS3 in the toilet and few weeks back. She claims it started making weird noises and the screen was flashing. She turned it off and let it dry out in the sun. A couple of hours later she returned home and I turned it on. There was a green hue to the screen.The touch screen was unresponsive. I turned it off and took out the battery, sd card and sim card. I shook the phone and felt some water come out. We put the phone in a zip lock bag filled with rice and a handful of those little descicant packets. Her idea. We let the phone sit there for around 36 hours. We then turned it back on and everything did and still does work fine.
I doubt the rice or packets actually did anything. I think just giving it time to dry was all that was needed. Just my personal experience.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
jjm3175 said:
I doubt the rice or packets actually did anything. I think just giving it time to dry was all that was needed. Just my personal experience.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The rice and silica absolutely did something - its the chemical equivalent of vacuuming the moisture out of every nook and cranny. You'll never air dry it as much.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
Silca gel does 999x better then air drying,it even takes the moisture from water spots. Do not air dry please. You will build corrosion from water and oxygen on electronic parts
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Saiboogu said:
The rice and silica absolutely did something - its the chemical equivalent of vacuuming the moisture out of every nook and cranny. You'll never air dry it as much.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
The air in your home has some moisture/humidity already, making air drying much less effective than silica gel or rice.
I guess I should be thankful for my wife's shoe buying habit since I'm the one who paid for the phone lol.
Good thread.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Mineral water "bath" - will my phone evenutally die?

Yesterday my phone got spilled with sparking mineral water. I found it in sort of boot loop, realised what happened, pulled the battery, tried to dry it a bit, tried turning it on (not a good idea, I know now), then turned it off again and left it to dry with a fan. My phone sort of turned on then, only the screen was still a bit weird, shortly flashing from time to time from brown color to home screen. Anyway, today it seems to be OK. BUT I read now that any water that is not distiled water can cause corosion because of mineral content. Obvisouly my water had lots of mineral contents. So my phone is now just hanging by the thread before it dies? I am not about to go get it all wet now to wash it down with distiled water, alchol or one of those repair kits they are offering. I might just make things worse. Does this mean I better start shopping for Note 3?
Water just heavily increased the probability for your phone early retiring.
If say for healthy phone the time before 50% fault chance is 5 years of everyday service, you shortened it maybe as twice.
Yet it may be fully conditioned for next 10 years. Or be killed tomorrow from other reasons...
I'd start to collect money for the next device. But would never rush to buy it before the days of the current one are over. it's not a too long wait those days, you have plenty of sellers.
I always have near my old Motorola Atrix with a parallel SIM card. Helps me when I overplay to much with ROMs and kernels.
Well that sounds pretty encouraging in a way. Thanks!
I have a N1 which was in the washing machine for at least 20 Minutes back in 2009. The bluetooth chip was fried but everything else is still working.
If you wanne be sure that the problem is note getting bigger you have to make sure the phone is completely dry before using it. I'd turn it off, remove the backcover, put it in a rice bowl and let it sit in a warm and dry enviroment for a few days. Mineral water is one of the better things you can wash you're phone with .

HTC One M9- Alcohol Got Under Display When Cleaning

Alcohol problems
So, I was rubbing off a sticker from the back of my phone using a small towel dipped in pure alcohol. This phone is supposed to be waterproof and I put my back cover on the front for extra security. But, after I was done, dried it and everything, I realized that some alcohol had gotten inside the screen, I have no idea why. The whole display was dark pruple-ish and covered in stains and some weird things like dark dark spots and lines. I researched it ans found out that it was okay because alcohol evaporates really easily, so I decided to use it for a bit, since I have huge overheating issues (often going up to about 45-50°C upon usage). After half an hour of usage (it had gotten pretty hot), the display seemed to become a little bit clearer and less dark, but I decided that I should stop using it in fear of moving some bubble or ruining my already dying screen, so I put it to charge and left it alone. I was relying on my country's hot weather to finish the job, and I was checking on it every once in a while. At first, it seemed to get better but suddenly, after about 2 or 3 hours, the screen stopped turning on at all. Neuther the display nor the touch were working anymore, but sound (modifying volume) and vibration (haptic feedback for holding down "power") worked really well. I tried to restarted (volume up + power), but nothing more than some vibrations and jingles. Currently, my phone is turned off (volume down + power) and I'll leave it like this overnight, to see if anything improves tomorrow.
So, I need to know. Is my screen ruined and needs changing, or simply evaporating the alcohol will fix everything? Also, if I have to change my phone, is there a way to use HTC backup to transfer data without the "old" phone?
Thank you in advance!
Laslas19 said:
So, I need to know. Is my screen ruined and needs changing, or simply evaporating the alcohol will fix everything? Also, if I have to change my phone, is there a way to use HTC backup to transfer data without the "old" phone?
Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello mate, bad luck with that happening..
First off the phone is not waterproof, it does have an ip rating but it's not up there with phones you can take with you for a dip.
As for the moisture, try a silica gel pack in an air tight bag for a few hours or over night, there are packs you can buy online for this specific treatment, if the alcohol has hit something critical then it could be game over..
Try the drying out techniques, you can find many of them online..
Drying the alcohol up shouldn't be hard but like I said if damage is done then it's done mate.
Just one question, why use alcohol on your phone? Wouldn't a baby wipe or a damp cloth do the same?
dladz said:
Hello mate, bad luck with that happening..
First off the phone is not waterproof, it does have an ip rating but it's not up there with phones you can take with you for a dip.
As for the moisture, try a silica gel pack in an air tight bag for a few hours or over night, there are packs you can buy online for this specific treatment, if the alcohol has hit something critical then it could be game over..
Try the drying out techniques, you can find many of them online..
Just one question, why use alcohol on your phone? Wouldn't a baby wipe or a damp cloth do the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, thanks a lot for your help, I will try your suggestions and keep you up to date.
Second of all, by "game over" do you mean for the screen or the entire phone? Because the phone itself seems to work just fine apart from the screen.
And, finally, that was a really tenacious sticker that I tried to remove for days. I know it sounds stupid that I used alcohol but nothing else worked. Good thing I didn't resolve to boiling water first. There is one positive point about this whole story: the sticker is now completely gone.
EDIT: I forgot to say that I made a mistake: the phone is not supposed to be "waterproof" as I previously said, but it is clearly stated on its booklet that it is "splash proof". I guess that does make a difference and I ask to be excused from my dumbness.
How much alcohol did you use... You're only meant to damp a cloth an rub lightly.. It would seem to me you poured it on.
I wish I stole my HTC M9. It's a pile of ****.
shivadow said:
How much alcohol did you use... You're only meant to damp a cloth an rub lightly.. It would seem to me you poured it on.
I wish I stole my HTC M9. It's a pile of ****.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well "rubbing lightly" surely isn't the word because it didn't work but I did damp a cloth and rubbed strongly enough for the alcohol to actually come out of the cloth and slide off the sides of the phone. I did meticulously dry it with tissues tho, but it must have been too late.
Oh, and by the way, I do hear my new email jingle coming out of it (because turns out power+volume down can't turn it off, I can just restart it with power+volume up) when I get an email notification from xda. So I am guaranteed that wifi, gmail and the speakers still work at least. I think the main problem is the screen.
I think something either controlling or part of the screen has popped by shorting out.
It's tough to call but the fact the phone still responds is promising!.
Give htc a call and just tell them it went off one day and wouldn't come on. Any evidence should have literally evaporated into thin air by then. Hopefully they'll arrange something.
I wish I stole my HTC M9. It's a pile of ****.
shivadow said:
I think something either controlling or part of the screen has popped by shorting out.
It's tough to call but the fact the phone still responds is promising!.
Give htc a call and just tell them it went off one day and wouldn't come on. Any evidence should have literally evaporated into thin air by then. Hopefully they'll arrange something.
I wish I stole my HTC M9. It's a pile of ****.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your help! Unfortunately if I want to send my phone to HTC I'll have to send it to another country because there's not much support here and it will be really complicated. But, if I understand correctly, just changing the screen should fix the problem. It won't be cheap but definitely cheaper and easier than getting and setting up a new phone.
Thanks again for the advice!
Laslas19 said:
Thank you for your help! Unfortunately if I want to send my phone to HTC I'll have to send it to another country because there's not much support here and it will be really complicated. But, if I understand correctly, just changing the screen should fix the problem. It won't be cheap but definitely cheaper and easier than getting and setting up a new phone.
Thanks again for the advice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Changing the screen should work, just as long as it is 100% the screen and not some controller on the motherboard. Personally I agree with the other user who suggested sending it to htc, in all fairness htc should help you out in this case, it's obvious that it shouldn't have went off in that fashion.
I've sent my prime off overseas before, I get it back in around 5 days, great service. At the very least, speak with HTC and see what can be done and expected timelines. Changing the screen even on a one x was a tedious process, I've broken a device in the process, wasn't even mine so please take care if you go down that road, not to mention it's not exactly cheap.
BTW when I said game over I was referring to a simple method not being available to fix your phone and lastly, if you swap out the screen, you will more than likely lose your warranty.
Click thanks to the ppl who've tried to help you BTW
---------- Post added at 08:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 AM ----------
shivadow said:
I wish I stole my HTC M9. It's a pile of ****.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
? Can't think of a better phone out at the moment, in fact I know there isn't.. Maybe the one plus 2? Nah I'd stick with the HTC.

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