Why I love my GS III - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S III

I went on a road trip this weekend to visit family. It was a nightmare. All my personal trials behind, when I finally arrived well behind schedule, I reached for my phone as I got out of the car and noticed it was sitting in a cup half full of melted slushy, and based on when my Sync said it disconnected from bluetooth, had probably been sitting there for at least two hours (I was more worried about driving in the mountains with a fussy baby than why my phone's bluetooth shut off, so I didn't give it a second thought). It refused to power on so I put it in some rice overnight. The next morning it still wouldn't turn on. I plugged it in and tried again and still nothing, but after a few minutes I got a consistent blinking red light. I didn't think there was much hope, and I didn't have any way to look up information as I was basically in the middle of nowhere.
When I finally got home, I took it apart and was impressed by how easy it was compared to my last several phones. My GSIII was in mint condition before this incident, so I hadn't needed to disassemble it yet, but I was surprised that there was no need to pry open taps with a credit card or anything silly like that. Everything was sticky, but I cleaned it with lots of isopropanol and made sure all of the circuitry above the screen was nice and shiny. I put it all back together and to my amazement it booted right up! It wouldn't charge because the battery overheated but I applied a little thermal paste to where the processor sits (there is a pad that looks like thermal paste there that was a bit tattered) and now I've been running Pandora for an hour and my battery temp is sitting between 19 and 25 C. I'm sure there are lingering issues, but I am so satisfied and so happy that the phone was this resilient. I'm posting this to share my joy but also to give hope to anyone else that might come under similar circumstances. The phone is apparently very well built and a little cleaning can go a long way.

Awesome! Glad it survived.
Unfortunately, I have high expectations for my GS3. I beat the hell out of my Epic and it kept on going. I am planning to be nicer to my GS3, but honestly, it's probably like a new year's resolution....

Related

Dropped in water

Yes, i know, stupid move.
Got it out right away and dried it up with paper.
When i try to turn it on it gets past the T-mobile white screen to the green windows mobile one and then the screen shuts down but the keyboard is still light-up.
Does anyone know what i should do in this case? This happened 5 minutes ago and it's still drying up. Anyone have any tips?
What are the chances that it's bricked? Should i be looking for a new cell?
Take out the batter asap and leave it out for around 3 days. Next, put the phone in some sunlight or some rice to dry the water out. After that you can try putting the battery back in and hope it's back alive.
cool thanks. I guess it was a bad idea of me taking the battery in and out and turning it on and off to see if it's still working.
I got it under my lamp right now which emits a reasonable amount of heat.
I'll leave it here and hope for the best.
Ok well i had it dry up in a bowl of rice with the lamp over it.
Everything seems to be working fine... except,
it shows as if the cellphone is plugged in and charging when it's not.
Battery went from 89% to 100% with the cell just sitting on my table...
Anyone has any hypothesis on how that might have happened?
noooooop said:
Ok well i had it dry up in a bowl of rice with the lamp over it.
Everything seems to be working fine... except,
it shows as if the cellphone is plugged in and charging when it's not.
Battery went from 89% to 100% with the cell just sitting on my table...
Anyone has any hypothesis on how that might have happened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well electricity and water are never a good mix, i droped my first pay and go "Nokia Ringo" down a toilet "not my toilet even worse" and dried it, it was under guarantee so just phoned up Nokia didn't tell them what i had done just stated it wasn't working, sent it away and got a replacement.
I have to say I think you should have been a little more patient. I know its hard but this has happened to me twice, once with a Magician and once with an iPaq. The first time I panicked and turned the device back on to see if it was working. It spluttered to life and then died - never to work again. The second time I removed the battery, left the case open, etc for two full days and when it came back on everything was fine.
I know its so hard to leave your device off when you are panicking. But if this only happened last night you should really consider giving it at least another 24 hours. Even though it may appear to be dry now there is obviously still some small problem with power discharge - and if that problem is due to even a tiny bit of moisture near the battery it could rapidly turn from a minor glitch into a full scale breakdown.
Actually the fact I am so damn clumsy probably explains why my first post to this forum concerned backing up my phone! LOL
I hope it all works out for you.
GS
I know i should i have been more patient but it's just so hard...
I got a replacement for now tho, so it'll stay in there for at least another day.
Thanks for the advice guys.

Rice Works

For any doubters, here's a story. My Captivate Glide decided to take a little swim in the toilet Friday night (don't ask how or why, because even I don't know), so I dried it off and all the works. I also decided to take part in that rice myth for waterlogged devices. I checked it the next morning, and it still didn't work. So later that afternoon, I was ready to go to the AT&T store and make an insurance claim, and to my extreme delight and surprise, it turned on. Only a couple keys on the keyboard are sticky, but I don't use the keyboard nearly enough to justify a $125 deductible.
So moral of the story is that
A.) the rice myth works
and
B.) the Captivate Glide is one resilient phone!
Keys are sticky? Try wiping them down with lens cleaner ive done that for sticky keys
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda premium
Rice always works butbu need to give it more then one day usally then would boot prlly weird the first time cause might still be moisture on th board the steams off. Even if the keys were "sticky" they would eventually get back t proper working condition.. I took a dive with mine in my pocket down 10 ft of water so
phatryan69 said:
Rice always works butbu need to give it more then one day usally then would boot prlly weird the first time cause might still be moisture on th board the steams off. Even if the keys were "sticky" they would eventually get back t proper working condition.. I took a dive with mine in my pocket down 10 ft of water so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hopefully, at least, you took a picture with it, while you were down there.
(Before it died, that is. And auto-saved to sd card, of course.)
From speaking with people who specialize in remediating electronic devices (smoke, water), it seems the single most important thing is to get all forms of power away from the thing as soon as possible.
Including what would be the CMOS battery in a computer.
Apparently it's the (micro?) corrosion between power and water that kills it.
If I had done the dive, I'd be freaking out and ripping the case apart to get at any battery. Probably doing the case in in the process, in my panic.
Good to hear you, and yours, survived. One less thing to live down (if you're married)?
-----
Rice thing? Pack a dunked device in a bag of rice and leave it for a couple of days? Perhaps with a good fan going nearby? (When my basement flooded, even though only a couple of inches deep, they brought in some industrial fans for several days. Even if the water seems gone, the humidity is still way high, and that's gotta come down, too.)

[Q] Dropped My Galaxy S4 in Water. What next?

First off, I'd like to apologize for my first post to the forums being a stupid situation such as this one, but you know, it's noob friendly :laugh: Secondly, I'm in a pretty bad spot right now. Of course me being the idiot I am took my phone to the bathroom with me, I went to grab my shorts and little did I know, I left my phone sitting on them. When I pulled the shorts out the phone fell straight into the toilet (guess you could say my situation is pretty "crappy"). It was in the water for no longer than 10 seconds and I removed the battery and SIM card from the phone in no longer than a minute. The phone was not completely submerged, but it did fall top first. After my phone had been in the rice for an hour, my curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to see what would happen if I put the battery back in my device. When I tried to, I head a sizzling noise. Does this mean my phone or battery is "fried?" The red LED was still on the front of my phone so I'm led to believe that the phone is still working, but I'm not sure. Any tips will help. Thanks in advance!
You probably blew it up by putting the battery in.
You may get lucky if you dismantle the entire phone and let it sit in front of a small fan OVERNIGHT to dry properly.
Reassemble in the morning, good luck.
Pp.
PanchoPlanet said:
You probably blew it up by putting the battery in.
You may get lucky if you dismantle the entire phone and let it sit in front of a small fan OVERNIGHT to dry properly.
Reassemble in the morning, good luck.
Pp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was fearing that PanchoPlanet, I did what you said and just left it in the rice over night. This morning I went to put the battery back in and I no longer heard the sizzling noise, but the device would not power on. The LED on the front would alternate between purple, red, and blue. Not sure if this means anything.
Rice is not the best medium for total dehumidification, having all components out in stream of air is the only way to get rid of moisture.
This is coming from experience, salvaged my wife's phone and my nephews phone this way (Samsung S2 and S4). I may be worth giving it another try. Also make sure battery has a full charge, check it with a test meter.
Pp.
The battery in the phones today are internally fused, so if there is a heavy current demand above the fusing level, the fuse will open and the battery is then worthless. You might have had that happen and if you can, try having a friend or your carrier's store put the battery in a known working device and see if it powers that device up. You might have to get a new battery if it won't, however it does not mean that it was the only failure..... I'd dry the heck out of the phone and only then insert it into the phone. I used to dry devices that water entered like phones, watches, etc by leaving the device over a small wattage lamp, or have the device lifted a little above the bulb so that it won't melt anything and did that for a couple of days before trying to check if the device still worked. (I'm an elex tech) Good Luck! and hope that the electronic gods smile upon you!
Aloha!
I concur with bobolinko.
Pp.
UPDATE
Hey PanchoPlanet, bobolinko., thanks for the recommendations, I left the phone in rice and this morning I plugged it in to give it a last ditch effort, it powered on and is currently charging. I tried to boot it and it stayed on the "Samsung Galaxy S4" so I'm guessing that that has something to do with the battery. Regardless, I'm glad that the device powered on.

HTC Desire fell in water, now won't boot.

Hi, my apologies if my HTC is in the wrong forum, not sure where the Desire would fit, if anywhere.
Nonetheless this is a useful phone to me and worked fine till the day I had to jump in a lake to save my 5 year old boy from drowning. Naturally didn't have the time to remove the phone from my pocket before jumping in the lake. Kid was fine after swallowing some water but phone "swallowed" a lot of water. Let it dry in a bag of rice and baking soda for several days to fully dry. But when trying to turn it on, the screen just flickers non stop. However when connecting it to the computer using a USB cable, I get what appears to be a boot screen (see pic in address below). Phone was rooted and run CyanogenMod 7. Maybe someone that's familiar with the procedure could guide me? Tried a couple of the options shown but to no avail. Old but still decent phone, would like to get it working again. I've transferred the sim to another phone and I've saved the micro SD card. Just need to get the phone to boot again. PS: could the battery be toast? Maybe it got shorted when I first tried to turn the phone on while still wet?
Any help is appreciated.
I'm too new here, won't allow me to post external links. Please go to h-t-t-p://tinyurl.com/p4dmgej (remove dash from http)
I'd say leave it to dry naturally for a week or so and try again. If no joy then you could try a new screen but it's probably something really tiny and sensitive that cannot be replaced..
Glad you saved your boy!.
Sent from a stolen HTC M9
It's been 2 months. But I did make a crucial mistake: I tried to turn the phone on while still at the lake. This likely caused more damage than it needed.
However I suspect the issue is with the battery. It won't charge past 3.85 volts. And the display works just fine, once I press the key combo to enter the boot screen as seen in the pic above. Will try and track one down locally, hopefully a shop will be able to test it a battery in the phone before I buy it.
And yes, the boy was fine. But it was a close call. it is amazing how quickly something can go wrong. I neglected the lake rule of staying within arm's reach. Let this be a lesson to anyone with small ones: it only takes seconds for things to go badly wrong, even at a supposedly safe, man made lake intended for kids.
PS: 2 months prior an adult died on the same lake after falling off his boat. Another lesson: invest in swimming lessons. Scary stuff, indeed.
Right, i thought you were seeing that over usb via sdk or something.. You could always try opening it and inspecting for blown components. What damage can be done.. It's already useless.
I still think it's worth leaving it to dry naturally.
Sent from a stolen HTC M9

Motorola Droid Tubro 2 long term review/tourte test

So in the thread "how's battery life? Any overheating?", Zeljko suggested I start a thread so here it. This will be a long term type test. Itll basiclly run till I either a. Get a new phone or b. Bust this one to peices.
So lets start with a basic run down. I buy my phones outright, I use them on Verizon's prepaid service. I've used a Motorola since the original Droid x and am very biased. I've used an xt1080(maxx 1)for the past few years.
From the battery life thread, which you can read if you please, I got a Moto Tubro 2(which i will refer to as a t2) a few days after launch. I believe I got a defective device battery wise. Which I did, after retiring that one and grabbing new one ****s been cash.
Now I am incredibly rough on phones, and absoulty hate cases. I work in construction and am 22 years old, so i do tend to drink quite frequently. And as we all know accidents happen. So let's start with my personal t2. It's a 32gb, grey ballstic nylon version. This is my last few weeks of use.
I got my new t2, it runs great, a little hot at times but that's it. Battery life as I expected. I can get almost 48 hours out of it but with only about 3 hours of sot or Nearly 7 sot hours of hevay use if i use it all day. That's a baseline, will see how much worse it may get. I have also to yet play with any settings, except disabling NFL mobile and Google services background data. I also run a few battery tough apps. The phone still to this day has the out of the box wallpaper
So let me set down some ground rules, I will only charge the device with the charger from the box, no other(I've always been strict with my self about that). The first few weeks I tried to stretch it. Now I plug it in before bed.
Well move forward with what this t2 has been through over the weeks I've had my hands on it. It's had 2 full beers spilled on it. And it works perfectly fine, a bit sticky, no display, speaker or camera issues. The volume rocker seems to be a bit hard to push from that, but that's it, an easy fix honestly. It was thrown at a wall full force in a drunken rage, due to the first beer spilled on it. It was stuck in the sheetrock of my buddy's living room. It's also been dropped on pavement and hardwood floor many times.
So here's some pictures of it, the display is very well already scratched, which I'll ride out till I cant see it, and there is a very clear black stain on the nylon. I even spilled more beer on it last night. Itll be hard to get pictures seeing as I need another person's phone, and this thread might not be the most common updated thread but it will be updated.
Any questions fire away.
Thx for starting torture test. Please continue and I'm sorry for pure phone
So you felt the best idea after accidentally spilling a beer on your phone was to throw it through a wall? Not to clean it off? Lol, also how are you getting 7 hours of SOT? I find that hard to believe since I'm struggling to get 5. I couldn't even get 7 hours SOT on the OG Turbo.
You can replace the plastic top screen, it's about $30, put one of the flexible glass Verizon protectors on top of it and it should be a little more scratch proof. I usually hate screen protectors because of the drag on them, this one doesn't have that problem.
Perhaps you should squirrel away the money intended for your next phone and apply it to an anger management class.
Yep 7 hours. And throwing it at a wall, I was just god awful pissed that it got beer on it. Here's a full day of use from last week. No major settings played with. Swear up and down .
I know the stock protector is replacable, I'm not to worried.
WellsR said:
Yep 7 hours. And throwing it at a wall, I was just god awful pissed that it got beer on it. Here's a full day of use from last week. No major settings played with. Swear up and down .
I know the stock protector is replacable, I'm not to worried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No scratched on the screenshot
I must say, I was skeptical of the 7 hours SOT also, that is until last night when I hit it with relative ease. and 30%+ battery to spare. This was a first for me, usually I had been getting 4-5 with 30% remaining.
18t said:
I must say, I was skeptical of the 7 hours SOT also, that is until last night when I hit it with relative ease. and 30%+ battery to spare. This was a first for me, usually I had been getting 4-5 with 30% remaining.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you change to get over 7h? With 36% left you may reach 10h.
This is all I have to say. I disabled/uninstalled all bloat this time around.
Zeljko1234 said:
What did you change to get over 7h? With 36% left you may reach 10h.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not have Google now enabled and I accidentally turned off location from the quick drop down while messing with Bluetooth. The main thing though is that the brightness was set at 5-10% for most of the day. I have tasker profiles to dim screen while indoors and auto while not connected to home/work networks.
I could have hit 10. I was curious to see how far I could go, but had already spent a few consecutive hours on it.
lol man
I love this thread, thanks for sharing the torture test.
People will say you're crazy, but who cares? You're giving an amazing contribution to the community interested on X Force.
Check this out, someone torture phone more than you
https://youtu.be/fTJOL5ikuZA
Sent from my LG-V500 using Tapatalk
Thanks mefxes. Glad to contribute.
And yes zeljko, I saw that a few weeks ago its amazing.
A small update, I dropped my phone the other night in accident trying to put it in my pocket. I missed the pocket and it fell 1 story onto hardwood floor. A new scratch on. The screen but that's all. No other issues
I think we both have more or less the same usage of our phones. This is my 2nd t2, the first one still works but is destroyed visually from showing of the durability of the screen. Stepping and jumping on it is not advised.
I had oneplus 2 before this one and the UI speed is a huge difference. It demolishes any other 810 phone I've had.
Overall very happy with performance and battery. I use lux to get same sot as op, and you will need an extra layer to avoid scratches even after the first day, the front screen layer may take on drops but not your finger nail.
Happy Xmas!
Update! Like I said it won't be the most updated but will be overtime. So the t2 has been through quite a lot here now. The frame is pretty smashed up from several horrible drops and the display has many more scratches. Can't get photos at the time but I will as some point. There is also some crusty substance in the speaker that makes no sound. Haven't felt the need to get it out.
Some hardware is damaged in the device though. Colors on the display do so.e starve things. But only certain colors, mostly on the browser. I can't even get a screen shot for you guys, seeing as screen shots don't show it. The phone still works fine, still get a little less then 7 hours on screen.
The colors strange colors I have adjusted to and it no longer bothers me. I'll try to get some more pictures soon. Beside that everything else is great.
Another quick update. Another night of drinking last night at a buddies I wake up to one dead pixel in the bottom right of the screen.
I also noticed using the phone outside(now that it's cold) the funny colors go away. Imo the 810 is having some heat issues. Device has been running very very warm for a few weeks now, it still runs fine. Just a bit warm for my taste.
Ps not running any battery/temp apps.
Just figured out (check topic subject) that you don't have Turbo 2, Tubro 2 instead
Hey!!! I want a Tubro 2!!! Where can I get one!!!
jlang11 said:
Hey!!! I want a Tubro 2!!! Where can I get one!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Closest Verizon or Best buy?

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