I figured I would share my experience, as I was pretty surprised. I fried an epic 4g touch by setting it down in a miniscule patch of water on a table a while back, so I didn't really have much faith my s3 would pull through.
Here's what happened, and what I did:
I had the PT waterproof case. Long story short, the earpiece membrane tore, and it was thrown in the pool. Didn't notice until I got out. Phone was still powered on, and water was all up inside of the phone, there was condensation on the inside of the camera lenses, etc.
I turned it off, took the back off, pulled the battery and SD card out, and dried up as much water as I could. Once I got home, I unscrewed and removed the 2 back panels and carefully dried up what I could with qtips and paper towel. I had to remove the rear camera block to dry up water underneath it. I then let it sit out all taken apart overnight for a full 12 hours.
The next day, I put everything back together, popped the battery in and plugged in the charger.
Nice, charging animation.
Let it fully charge then powered it on...
Everything seemed to work just fine. I expected the worst, and was quite surprised. I mean, it wasn't just a splash of water, it was literally everywhere throughout the inside of the phone.
The catch - launching any camera apps causes a FC. I'm pretty certain I plugged the rear camera back in correctly, as and I only detached the little connector rectangle in order to get the water under the block. Luckily rear cameras are 25$ on Amazon, and fronts are about 6$. I have one of each on the way so well see how it goes.
I've been using the phone for almost a week since then and everything seems to be working as it should. Speakers, microphones, light sensor, buttons, gyro, touchscreen, SD mount etc. are all fine.
Am I mistakenly under the impression that water logged phones don't usually pull through, or something? I didn't even power it off until at least an hour after the water got in it. It was even rebooted once while filled with water, before I noticed it.
Funny side note - my uncles flip (yes, flip. You can still get flip phones through sprint. He was recently forced by sprint to upgrade from his old brick phone, because they were literally discontinuing support for it on the network. I believe the brick was technically a nextel. It had an *extendable antenna* and no text capabilities. Sprint left him a message and said he had so many days to get a new phone because on X date, his would no longer work lol) phone got thrown into a lake. Apparently it rang when it was called for a full day while it sat on the bottom of the lake, until the battery finally died.
Update: installed new cameras and now it says it cannot connect to them. Before it would just crash.
In case someone out there, at some point in time, for some reason cares: I bought an s3 with a cracked screen off ebay for the motherboard. Swapped the boards and lo, the cameras work perfectly! I moved over the nv data from my board to the new one. I currently have 2 phones which are technically the same phone. Mine isn't getting 3g/4g, only network and wifi. Trying to sort it out but other than that my phone is back to normal, and double the internal storage (cracked s3 was a 32gb, got it for 120$). Total spent - 150$. Actual labor and repair was a breeze, and the replacements cameras were dirt cheap. I have insurance but this way i didn't have to file a claim and the actual repair was pretty fun (to me at least).
So the lesson is: no matter how bad you want to impress your 5 year old nephew, don't let him throw your waterproof phone in the pool.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Related
50.000 plus km of motorcycle navigating (using Navigon) - so of that in hard rain with the BA "slightly" unprotected ....
So it doesn't like rain or vibration ...
Besides losing the two screws visible on the left and right top edges of the phone, another problem cropped up.
On a recent 6 hour ride, the main connector suddenly became intermittent. I have always hated that connector and I believe it's one of the weaker points on an otherwise less than quality device -but I digress.
I know how quickly the battery will empty using BT and the backlight all the time so I tried to jiggle the cable to get it to work while I was driving. It was not possible, and to add insult to injury, the intermittent connection kept interrupting the MP3s playing and would sometimes cause the SD card to crash, requiring a hard reset. Ugh.
In the hotel I was able to rig the connector so that the device would charge and the next day while at work I figured the device was toast anyway so I took a look inside.
4 screws out from under the battery compartment, and another three screws to get the mainboard loose enough so I could see the connection.
I found the connector so loose that with the slightest touch it fell out in my hands.
Apparently, all of the solder joints had been loosened by the rainwater.
I think this should be a caveat here for all devices left in the rain. I understand that rain water or distilled water is very "agressive". You may be able to get your device to work again. For a while.
I don't think toilet water or moisture from tap water is as bad.
- but again I digress.
Before I went any further, I went out and got an O² XDA-III. HAving safely restored my ability to communicate, I proceeded with the fiddeling.
I was actually able to get the connector resoldered onto the board using a 25+ (pre SMD) year old soldering iron. I actually don't believe it myself but it still works.
I was also able to correct an annoying rattle the phone had almost since I bought it.
The telephone antenna is a raised plastic piece on the back of the board. That raised piece forms a box in which one of the screws for the board onto the frame was "stored". Don't know how it got there but I guess the production people at HTC should listen up.
Well I thought it was fun. anyway.
If I leave my phone on and come back to in about an hour it becomes unresponsive. The screen is won't come on, usb won't work and the power button doesn't work as well, but the lights still flash. All I can do is take the battery out and turn it on again.
At first i thought the keypad must have been getting disabled after a certain amount of time for some reason, but since the usb the connection alos dies when it's idle it must be something else.
I've been having this problem for awhile now. It first it started every once and awhile, but now it's getting to the point that I have to reset it every hour or so.
I just upgraded my ROM to Kavana 080408, but I've had this problem running the T-mobile WM6 ROM as well, therefore I'm guessing it's a hardware issue?
Any thoughts, questions, or help is greatly appriciated!
call tmobile and ask them to send you a new phone... its hardware issues...
Thank you. Err.. the only thing I haven't mentioned (for lack of mistaking the problem) is that just 3 days ago I dropped my phone outside and it rained the next morning. When I recovered the phone it was soaked.. I let it dry out and it worked again.
I think the incedent had to have been irrelevant, because I have been having this problem for about 8 months regaurdless, just not as severe.
Would T-mobile be able to know it got wet at some point and not exchange it because they'd assume the problem was due to water damage?
Well if you look under the battery to the right where the sim card goes, there is a litmus paper that turns purple/pink when wet and its white originally. I would just remove the paper if it is purple/pink and try to cut and glue a white piece of paper the same size. And then I would call them and tell them.
Glue and fish strips?
Thanks, but hmm.. how exact should this be? I was thinking about going to the fish store and buying some test strips and using those. Then i was thinking about thinning out some glue and using that to stick it. Does this sound good? I'll post how it goes.
Dash Arrived then Died
I just got my dash about two weeks ago. Before I could start finding my way around, it began acting strangely. It would not respond and sometimes suddenly cut off on it's on. Then it got to the point where it would not turn on right away. I would have to play with it (battery and SIM removal) and then it might turn on. I thought I was using the power button incorrectly.
Finally, the dash would not turn on at all. Since it was new and insured I requested a replacement. T-Mobile insisted that I test it with a alternate battery (I had a charger stand + battery on order but it had not arrived yet.) Since it would still not turn on via USB or power adapter (no charging lights either) I was certain it was not the battery. After arguing with a T-Mobile Rep and Supervisor I finally decided to lie (er um exaggerate) and tell them I had tested an alternate battery.
Before the new phone arrived the charger and spare battery arrived. I tried both batteries in the new phone with no problems.
You may want to try and get a new phone but the T-Mo rep definitely asked me the color of the paper strip inside the battery housing. My rep told me that it would change color if the LCD was damaged or cracked but I checked another phone (Samsung T409 and Motorola V188) and based on the locations of the strips I would assume it's a water damage test strip.
You may also want to see it you can remove a strip from an older phone.
Good luck!
Hey, last night my friends got into a bar fight and the bouncers came at me and one of them tried to kick me and he kicked my phone like 10 feet in the air and it hit the pavement. the phone came into 3 pieces upon impact. (the battery, cover, and the phone itself) It wouldn't turn on last night, but today I took it apart a bit to see if I could see any visible damage, when I put it back together the opening screen flashed for a second then it shuts off again. The screen does not have any damage either. What is most likely the problem that is wrong with my phone? and how should I go about getting it fixed or fixing it myself?
Well after I took the phone apart and put it back together, it turned on and is working as if nothing happened. This phone literally got shot up roughly 10 feet in the air and hit the pavement and has only a couple of scratches- none on the screen. has to be the best phone I ever had in a means of durability, but I am still wondering why it didn't work for 16 hours or so.. Any ideas?
Shock....
Might have been some components loosened (like the battery contacts, or other pieces of the chain that supply power) that somehow fell back into place after you took it apart/reassembled.
Past experience with electronics is that things don't magically fix themselves. Whatever went wrong will probably happen again, just a matter of time.
My friend dropped her phone into a glass of water. Stupid her just had it off over night with battery removed, but next day decided to just pop battery in and start using it. Calls me later(spare phone) and tells me details.
I go get it disassemble, rubbing alcohol, the works. Let dry for 48 hours. Everything on the phone works other than it wont charge the battery. She has 2 batteries one which is new. Besides getting an external charger for it, is there anything else I could do to fix it? Is there a part I can replace, or something software related that might fix it?
mesajoejoe said:
My friend dropped her phone into a glass of water. Stupid her just had it off over night with battery removed, but next day decided to just pop battery in and start using it. Calls me later(spare phone) and tells me details.
I go get it disassemble, rubbing alcohol, the works. Let dry for 48 hours. Everything on the phone works other than it wont charge the battery. She has 2 batteries one which is new. Besides getting an external charger for it, is there anything else I could do to fix it? Is there a part I can replace, or something software related that might fix it?
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Click to collapse
I suspect (hope) only the battery was damaged from your friend's phone. Have her go to TMO and see if they will let her test charge a display Slide battery in her phone. If it starts charging and increases by a few percentage points then perhaps only the battery was damaged. Hope the situation gets worked out.
Just dropped mine in a full sink two weeks ago ... mine hit the edge and knocked the battery out milliseconds before the device hit the water (miracle). Fully submerged. Dried it over a weak heater vent for 2 days. Works just like new. I figured the phone was ok as I snatched it out of the water very quickly. My main concern was the battery ... I thought I might have damaged it. So far everything is just fine.
We have tested it with a new battery. Phone works perfectly fine just wont charge the battery, every feature works. Can even connect to computer with usb.
What im trying to figure out is if there is something I can do i.e. fix it somehow cheaply
Your best bet is probably just using an external charger. I'm using a friends old phone that had a full glass of lemonade spill on it and sit for 5 hours in liquid, turned on. When he woke up the battery was sparking, contact was melted. The battery was partially fried from the short circuit, so I just bought a new battery. The only thing that doesn't work in the phone is the camera. The real downside to that is if any app tries to access the camera the phone completely locks up, takes about 10 seconds just to get out of the black screen.
I'm digressing, anyway, yeah, external charger is probably the best bet, if she has two batteries that should work just fine. Use one while the other is charging.
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
ultrasonic cleaning
if you disassemble to the charging circuit board or motherboard and try placing it into an alcohol solution in a u/s cleaner (also used for jewelry), this might clean the contacts and allow charging, might not do anything or damage the board. no guarantees on this method , but will sometimes work.
ps. remember that some circuit board cleaner solutions will dissolve plastic, recommend alcohol.
bill g.
The best solution I have found for a wet phone, or any device for that matter, is to take the device apart as much as possible. Then put it in a ziploc bag of rice. Seal it up good so air doesn't get in. The rice will suck all the water out. I have done this with my old G1 (twice) as well as other phones.
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)?
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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.)