Develop Bugs

Dropped in water, send, windows and back buttons no longer work

I got my new Rhodium (AT&T Tilt 2) on Monday, and I love it. Unfortunately, I was stupid and left it in my shirt pocket while i bent over a bowl of water. Predictably, it fell in. It seems to be working fine as far as making and receiving calls, and there is no problem with the touch screen. The problem is that three of the buttons on the bottom don't work - the send, windows, and back buttons.
I'm willing to take any suggestions. I'll have to end up replacing it anyway, and the warranty's void because it got wet.

If the sticker is white, your good to replace, but try a can of air duster blown around the keys. Or take the battery out and apply a SMALL DROP of rubbing alcohol blowing it out as soon as it seeps in, making sure it evaporates throughly befor reinstalling battery. And blow away from screen.

This may have been the wrong approach, but I basically took a hairdryer and blew straight over the keys that weren't working in hopes that drying under them would cause them to work again.
It worked. Phone appears to be working better now, though it's a bit crackly when I use my bluetooth headset.

Tanalark said:
This may have been the wrong approach, but I basically took a hairdryer and blew straight over the keys that weren't working in hopes that drying under them would cause them to work again.
It worked. Phone appears to be working better now, though it's a bit crackly when I use my bluetooth headset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good. This is my suggestion: even though the keys are working now, leave the device out in the sun (even better if in a bowl of rice) for a day or two. It'll absorb all the residue that could do damage later on.

yes,a hairdryer or just sun shine can save your device,i suguest you£§d better turn off it before it is dry

Thanks for the advice, guys. So, how long should I leave this thing to dry before I can use it again?

Not the same phone, but I had my HTC Shadow completely immersed in a glass of water. It dried in two days, and resumed working perfectly.
(The sticker was still white, so it would not be under water hazard treatment for warranty).

much better to use compressed air or a vacuum than a hair dryer. The heat and air forces the water into places as a vapor that it cant get to as a liquid. The bag of rice works well as well. You can also put over a heat register in your house that has the fan going to move away evaporated moisture. Contact cleaner also works well as it evaporates and takes some of the dirt and moisture with it.
You are a lucky person to be able to save it. Congratulations

Hey alright it works. the alcohol is more of a last resort thing, but I like the rice idea, gonna go buy some silica gel cat litter just for this purpose.

Is the touch screen really that fragile or am I missing something?

I have had my VZW TP2 for a while now, and while I try to keep it scratch free it has had a bumpo and bruise before.
Yesterday is fell while I was stepping out of my car. I picked it up, brushed it off, and got angry when I saw a small knick, maybe 2mm long, in the screen. Angrily I turned the screen off and put it back in my pocket.
About an hour later I went to use the phone, and to my suprise, no touchscreen! LCD is fine, no distortion or damage what-so-ever.
Is it possible for such a small knick to completely trash the touchscreen?
I have tried multiple resets and cannot get it to recognize anything.
Short of replacing the screen and/or digitizer, anything I can do?

Vetack said:
I have had my VZW TP2 for a while now, and while I try to keep it scratch free it has had a bumpo and bruise before.
Yesterday is fell while I was stepping out of my car. I picked it up, brushed it off, and got angry when I saw a small knick, maybe 2mm long, in the screen. Angrily I turned the screen off and put it back in my pocket.
About an hour later I went to use the phone, and to my suprise, no touchscreen! LCD is fine, no distortion or damage what-so-ever.
Is it possible for such a small knick to completely trash the touchscreen?
I have tried multiple resets and cannot get it to recognize anything.
Short of replacing the screen and/or digitizer, anything I can do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if I would calling dropping the phone a few feet from up in the air onto what I can only assume was concrete and not pillows a small "kick"
It sounds like your digitizer is pooched. If your phones under warranty just sent it away to get fixed. It shouldnt shake loose like that I dont think. I know things happen and theres nothing you can do about it when it does. With my touch pro I had a silicone case for it I dropped it so much.. And by dropped it I mean like it would fly 5 feet or more and then the back plate would shoot off and the battery would fly out... not good to do once let alone multiple times! I was sick of my silicone case (which I got after dropping the phone probably a good 10 or more times) so I took it off, a week later I was out on my back patio and had my phone in my shirt pocket. I was on my knees and bent over to pick up something and it slid out. Fell maybe a foot and I picked it up and there was a crack across the screen.. Son of a B$%^&H!
Just happened to land on the corner perfect I guess... Regardless point of that story is I wouldnt call the phone fragile by any means. These things are beasts! But as we know... stuff happens.
Hope it works out for you.

[Q] Dropped Epic in Toilet

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
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

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

Unique Water Damage Problem

Good evening XDA,
I'll get right to the point - last night my mom's S3 fell out of her purse and sat on our driveway overnight in rain/freezing rain. It was in an otterbox commuter case so it wasn't naked but there are some issues with it now.
1 - the front and rear cameras are both foggy and look terrible when taking pictures/video
2 - the back key doesn't work consistently
I've looked at the water damage markers and they are both white. Do you think Telus will give her a replacement or will they say something about the foggy looking front/rear cameras? Is there anything I should know before I go there?
Also, if I disassemble the phone to try and dry the cameras, will this void my warranty? I couldn't see a warranty void sticker...
I've put the phone in a ziploc bag full of rice so hopefully that helps getting the foggyness out of the camera and if it does, I'll definitely try and get it replaced for her.

You should have put in in rice before you try anything.
Maybe hard-brick the phone and tell them you don't know what happened

Not sure myself, I personally knocked over a cup of tea and I'm fairly sure some of the water got in around the home button.I dried the water immediately, and the phone was powered on, so I just kind of left it. I have driving mode turn on-off randomly for a day, usb connecting even when not connected and randomly and random shutdowns for a month. Seems all fine now.