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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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!
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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...
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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...
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.
Dropped it in toilet drunk, got it out. Noticibly slower, many things FC, some keys don't work.
Already have 2 insurance claims this year, can't get a replacement that way. How can they tell it's water damaged? I noticed a pink sticker thing on the battery, is this some sort of water damage indicator? I have a spare battery if thats the only thing that would alert the techs to this being my fault.
If I took it in with a different battery after odinging to stock would they just think it crapped out on me due to no responsibilty of my own?
That suck man.... here's a link about the water indicator's..... and I think the reps would look for corrosion over the indicators because if they get the phone before it rusts then they can dry it out correctly......
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1147570
Yeah, looks like I'll have to take it to them and play dumb, and if they mention the water damage and refer me to asurion who I don't think will do more than 2 claims in a year, I'll just pull the cancel card, bring up the 2 100 dollar rebates that I never got and get a nexus s for 250
this is the third time i've heard about the epic being dropped in water and it still worked(ish) freaking incredible! kudos samsung
I could be mistaken but I thought TEP allowed you more claims than just 2 a year, maybe quite a few more. Good luck.
xopher.hunter said:
this is the third time i've heard about the epic being dropped in water and it still worked(ish) freaking incredible! kudos samsung
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Click to collapse
Me as well. Someone dropped theirs in a pot of Tomato Soup and it still worked. If you havent , let it dry without battery,back cover, also remove SD. You may get lucky and have a full functioning phone again. If that doesn't work, try saying you work construction and phone got damp from being in your pocket while working. My touchscreen broke and I took it to get repaired. At first the tech said I was screwed because of a hairline crack in the plastic around the screen. I explained that it failed before that. So, I was extra friendly. I started talking about upcoming phones,etc. Well, he ended up giving,me a new screen, keyboard, back cover. Only my motherboard was original. Paid nothing. If you don't have insurance, be cool and don't get upset. I bet $35 gets you a new whatever needs to be replaced...maybe some extras like I did
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
I think it will dry out, it was running fine for a bit, all keys working, not going slow, then it started going slow and a few keys stopped working. Decided to just go ahead and get the nexus s, CM7, oh yeah...
"Three claims within any consecutive 12 months with a maximum replacement value of $1000 per claim" http://shop2.sprint.com/en/services/service_repair/phone_protection_services.shtml
Yeah, you do get three claims but I figured dry out and sell the epic if I get it working 100% keep a claim in case I drop the nexus, and enjoy cm7
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
Ha. Dropped mine in the toilet 2 weeks ago. Seriously had it out of the water within 1.5 seconds. Left it in rice overnight. Worked on bootup the next day. But after about an hour it went kaputz. Had to use assurion.
Posted via Premium XDA app from my Samsung Epic 4G.
I sat this one in rice a few hours, then let it sit by a fan all day, reoodined stock ec05. Gonna give it a few days to make sure it still works fine and sell that bad boy.
I don't miss my hardware keyboard one bit.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
My girl dropped her EVO in the toilet, dead. I dropped mine in a sink full of water, it actually sat there for about 3 full seconds until i reailzed what the splash was. Pulled it out, set it next to a little portable heater for a few hours and to my astonishment it still worked perfectly. Some water must have gotten in the screen as it is a little blury in a small spot but other than that I'm still using it like it's new. If you've ever taken one of these apart, it is easy to see how hard it would be for water to fully get inside the case.
Son spilled soda all over mine. I cleaned it up and dried out battery. That was 7 months ago and it works like a champ. I am getting a galaxy s 2 when they hit the u s.
Sent from my Epic on Midnight or my Galaxy Tab rooted (feels naked without a ROM)
Reading this thread laughing then yesterday I fu#$*!!! Dropped my sh!{+^!! On the ground. It didn't get a scratch. Anywhere. Not on the seido case. Not on the glass. So yea. That's. My. Story.
cake or pie?
Try the rice trick. I'm a service tech and see water damaged phones all the time. Truth be told, we'll replace it for you and not send you through Asurion if you're nice enough to us.
Try the rice trick. I'm a service tech and see water damaged phones all the time. Truth be told, we'll replace it for you and not send you through Asurion if you're nice enough to us.
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That's good to know thanks.
"The greatest respect you can earn is self respect" Louie Simmons
Just dropped mine into the toilet about an hour ago. when i finished getting over the idea that I, too, was now one of those people, i put down the litter box I was about to scoop and fished it out.
Next thing I did was rip the back off and dump the battery, idea being to avoid any shorts caused by water mixed with power on circuit board. It had been in there for like 3 seconds, maybe 4.
I knocked it about for a while to see how much water would pour out - not much! So I let in dry out for like 10 mins, knocked it out a bit again, then put the battery in. First thing I noticed was that it seemed to turn on BEFORE I pressed the power button, something I specifically noticed. Hmmm.
The rest seemed normal enough. I was crazy impressed! Even a small dunk in a toilet (clean, luckily) is not a drop in a shallow puddle.
However, a bit later I needed to boot into recovery, and I couldn't get the freakin' phone to shut off. I mean it would shut off but come right back on again. I was thinking, water drop in the power button or worse a permanent short.
When I took the back off I saw that the camera had moisture inside of it. I remembered when this happened to a telephoto lens of mine recently and I extended the lens all the way as I walked. The lens casing heated in the sun and the moisture came out through the uh, rings? of the fully-extended lens.
So imagining that if the water could get in, it could get out, I broke out the hairdryer. It's a small one I've used for putting that plastic stuff over windows in the winter. I put it on high and held it like 2 or 3 feet from the back of the phone (cover off) for a while, always moving it to avoid hot spots on the phone. After a min or 2 the moisture was gone. I spent another min waving the dryer over the power button.
Wallah! works perfectly. nice....
bilestoad said:
Just dropped mine into the toilet about an hour ago. when i finished getting over the idea that I, too, was now one of those people, i put down the litter box I was about to scoop and fished it out.
Next thing I did was rip the back off and dump the battery, idea being to avoid any shorts caused by water mixed with power on circuit board. It had been in there for like 3 seconds, maybe 4.
I knocked it about for a while to see how much water would pour out - not much! So I let in dry out for like 10 mins, knocked it out a bit again, then put the battery in. First thing I noticed was that it seemed to turn on BEFORE I pressed the power button, something I specifically noticed. Hmmm.
The rest seemed normal enough. I was crazy impressed! A small dunk in a toilet (clean, luckily) is not a drop in a shallow puddle.
However, a bit later I needed to boot into recovery, and I couldn't get the freakin' phone to shut off. I mean it would shut off but come right back on again. I was thinking, water drop in the power button or worse a permanent short.
I took the back off and while noticed the back camera had moisture inside of it. I remembered when this happened to a telephoto lens of mine recently and I extended the lens all the way as I walked. The lens casing heated in the sun and the moisture came out through the uh, rings? of the fully-extended lens.
So imagining that if the water could get in, it could get out, I broke out the hairdryer. It's a small one I've used for putting that plastic stuff over windows in the winter. I put it on high and held it like 2 or 3 feet from the back of the phone (cover off) for a while, always moving it to avoid hot spots on the phone. After a min or 2 the moisture was gone. I spent another min waving the dryer over the power button.
Wallah! works perfectly. nice....
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If anything goes wrong I'm sorry to say it was because you rushed it all. You more than likely should have had it drying days not minutes and you never use a dryer. But, I'm knocking on wood, good luck!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
I suppose one has to know the rules before you can break them. I have some experience with electronics and circuit boards, and have a feel for how much heat I could safely apply to the thing. I tried to indicate this in the original message by writing that I kept the dryer a few feet away from the phone, that it is a small dryer, and that I always kept it in motion. Oh and that I performed this maneuver over a period of a few minutes.
If anything goes wrong I'm sorry to say it was because I dropped it into a toilet. The age old tried and true blow dryer method, when properly applied, wouldn't be a problem.
bilestoad said:
Just dropped mine into the toilet about an hour ago. when i finished getting over the idea that I, too, was now one of those people, i put down the litter box I was about to scoop and fished it out.
Next thing I did was rip the back off and dump the battery, idea being to avoid any shorts caused by water mixed with power on circuit board. It had been in there for like 3 seconds, maybe 4.
I knocked it about for a while to see how much water would pour out - not much! So I let in dry out for like 10 mins, knocked it out a bit again, then put the battery in. First thing I noticed was that it seemed to turn on BEFORE I pressed the power button, something I specifically noticed. Hmmm.
The rest seemed normal enough. I was crazy impressed! Even a small dunk in a toilet (clean, luckily) is not a drop in a shallow puddle.
However, a bit later I needed to boot into recovery, and I couldn't get the freakin' phone to shut off. I mean it would shut off but come right back on again. I was thinking, water drop in the power button or worse a permanent short.
When I took the back off I saw that the camera had moisture inside of it. I remembered when this happened to a telephoto lens of mine recently and I extended the lens all the way as I walked. The lens casing heated in the sun and the moisture came out through the uh, rings? of the fully-extended lens.
So imagining that if the water could get in, it could get out, I broke out the hairdryer. It's a small one I've used for putting that plastic stuff over windows in the winter. I put it on high and held it like 2 or 3 feet from the back of the phone (cover off) for a while, always moving it to avoid hot spots on the phone. After a min or 2 the moisture was gone. I spent another min waving the dryer over the power button.
Wallah! works perfectly. nice....
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That there is a true success story lol. Good job man, glad to hear we didn't lose another phone to the evil toilet monster!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
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
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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
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+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
Hello all,
I will preface this by saying that this issue is likely a result of water damage. However, my experience has been a bit odd. So someone bumped my chair, spilled water partially on my phone. I immediately removed the case and battery and let the phone sit for a good half hour before examining it. Looked completely dry so I inserted the battery and booted up. Went perfectly fine until the home screen appeared, at which point the screen did not register any touches and I could not interact with the phone. Removed the battery again and reexamined the phone: upon shaking it I found that some water shook free and was immediately worried. Let it dry for another half hour or so, rebooted it, and it worked perfectly for about half an hour, listened to music and such.
While texting, I noticed that there was some worrisome screen flickering going on so I removed the battery again and let it dry for another hour or two. Now I've reattempted to reboot it, but the screen absolutely refuses to respond to touch input. The phone appears to work perfectly fine and there is no damage to the screen I can see, nor does the flickering appear anymore. But touch input is fully unresponsive.
My current plan is to by a replacement digitizer, screen, and frame combo and replace that but I wanted to check in with the forum first to see if anyone has any ideas as to what the problem is and how I might go about verifying that the digitizer is indeed broken.
ericralph said:
Hello all,
I will preface this by saying that this issue is likely a result of water damage. However, my experience has been a bit odd. So someone bumped my chair, spilled water partially on my phone. I immediately removed the case and battery and let the phone sit for a good half hour before examining it. Looked completely dry so I inserted the battery and booted up. Went perfectly fine until the home screen appeared, at which point the screen did not register any touches and I could not interact with the phone. Removed the battery again and reexamined the phone: upon shaking it I found that some water shook free and was immediately worried. Let it dry for another half hour or so, rebooted it, and it worked perfectly for about half an hour, listened to music and such.
While texting, I noticed that there was some worrisome screen flickering going on so I removed the battery again and let it dry for another hour or two. Now I've reattempted to reboot it, but the screen absolutely refuses to respond to touch input. The phone appears to work perfectly fine and there is no damage to the screen I can see, nor does the flickering appear anymore. But touch input is fully unresponsive.
My current plan is to by a replacement digitizer, screen, and frame combo and replace that but I wanted to check in with the forum first to see if anyone has any ideas as to what the problem is and how I might go about verifying that the digitizer is indeed broken.
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I've personally not known digitizers to go bad from a little water. Usually it's an internal area where the water is getting too. If you're no longer under warranty I'd take the phone apart from the back by taking out the screws and examining it that way. It may be too late for it if it's caused flickering in the screen. It could have weakened it. Am I saying don't buy a digitizer? No that's up to you. Unfortunately since you used it within a few hours of it getting wet I'm not sure. The best thing to do is to at least let it have a chance to dry overnight since the water gets in places that not much air gets to it takes longer to dry. Some have had luck putting the phone in a baggy of dry rice to extract the moisture. I've never had much luck with that method. I've always taken the phone apart as much as I can and then putting rubbing alcohol on the board to seep in where the water may have gotten and then letting it air dry. Make sure not to get it on the screen though. And with any advice like this I take no responsibility if the phone messes up, becomes unusable or turns into a Ferrari
phonepie said:
I've personally not known digitizers to go bad from a little water. Usually it's an internal area where the water is getting too. If you're no longer under warranty I'd take the phone apart from the back by taking out the screws and examining it that way. It may be too late for it if it's caused flickering in the screen. It could have weakened it. Am I saying don't buy a digitizer? No that's up to you. Unfortunately since you used it within a few hours of it getting wet I'm not sure. The best thing to do is to at least let it have a chance to dry overnight since the water gets in places that not much air gets to it takes longer to dry. Some have had luck putting the phone in a baggy of dry rice to extract the moisture. I've never had much luck with that method. I've always taken the phone apart as much as I can and then putting rubbing alcohol on the board to seep in where the water may have gotten and then letting it air dry. Make sure not to get it on the screen though. And with any advice like this I take no responsibility if the phone messes up, becomes unusable or turns into a Ferrari
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Thanks a ton for the reply. I have essentially come to the same conclusion. It is quite an absurd issue that EVERYTHING appears to function, but the screen is no longer responsive to touch input. I'm going to try and replace the display body (only $50, can return it within 30 days if no luck). My Verizon contract ends in mid July so I just need a phone that can limp to that point or whenever the next Nexus is released.
Well, I managed to replace the screen/digitizer/body (essentially did a transplant of everything) and now my phone is back in reasonable working order. Had some odd issues with screen flickering again so that is worrisome, but the touch screen now works fine. Only issue is that the screen is absolute trash and is washed out, with major light leakage around the bezels (may have gotten some ****ty knockoff from China ).