Develop Bugs

[Q] water damage, no sim card but *all* else works

Hi everybody,
(TL;DR at the bottom)
I would like to know what your experiences are with the following scenario:
I dropped my phone in a pond, left it to dry, did the rice thing, waited a whopping two weeks, very lightly scrubbed the reachable electrical contacts with a small tool to clean off dirt (did not cause damage to the connectors).
What I'm seeing now is quite strange:
Everything works, down to the compass, the gyro-stuff (I know, not a gyro but you get my drift), touchscreen, lighting, wifi, bluetooth, gps, the battery, the microSD card, basically everything you'd expect to break is working like a charm... except for the recognition of a SIM card. I can type the special commands in the dialer to obtain the test menu (and in doing so, using logcat, seeing no errors whatsoever while testing it, other than 'no sim card detected'), the phone still reports the same IMEI number, etc. It just says no SIM-card.
I tried to clean it up real nice on the inside (not the in-inside but the visible parts when you remove the antenna cover and battery cover) and saw no visible water damage even though it was completely submerged for well above 3 seconds. There was no visible residue as a typical drying process would normally show. I used a clean cloth and a host of very small tools to make sure I could clean all the small contacts and such. Remember, the SIM-card issue existed before the semi-more-than-thorough cleaning too.
I then proceeded to flash a new ROM, full wipe et al, formatted the sdcard just to be sure, I basically redid it as if someone would ask me to do it for them: in the most clean and surefire way possible. (no forgetting to full wipe, etc). I retested everything but came up with the very same issue. So I'm pretty sure it is hardware-related, I'm just not sure in which way.
Is it possible that I am looking at a physical deformation of some contacts which make the card 'not connected' when inserted? I saw a post in the forums about someone having the same issue, stating it was deemed to be the SIM slot being enlarged which was fixed using a small piece of paper, but I want to know if anybody has any experience with this kind of thing or happened to have come across the same situation.
For those of you with fewer time (aka TL;DR): phone dropped in water, dried it, cleaned it, booted it, all works except sim card detection, is that likely to be hw issue and if so any ideas?
Many thanks in advance for your opinions on this matter,
sstm

Have you already gotten a new sim card to try?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

Gizmoe said:
Have you already gotten a new sim card to try?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using xda premium

Seems to me that on a DHD there is an actual gap in the simcard cover & its the most likely place for water to enter the workings its extremely likely that the sim contacts were shorted & caused hardware damage.

Gizmoe said:
Have you already gotten a new sim card to try?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Yes, I forgot to mention that. I have tried with SIM-cards that work in other phones. None get detected.
Kind regards,
sstm

Pat. said:
Seems to me that on a DHD there is an actual gap in the simcard cover & its the most likely place for water to enter the workings its extremely likely that the sim contacts were shorted & caused hardware damage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say that the SIM contacts were shorted, can you tell me if there would be a solution for that, other than turning it in for repairs?
If the only thing I can do is turn it in for repairs I should change my question:
How much will this cost me? (on average) Am I looking at 50$ or more like 100$ or even more?
Kind regards,
sstm

Without a circuit diagram i would just be guessing which parts would need replacing & repairers will likely immediately turn away fluid damage as a non starter.
I think the phone is most likely not going to be financially viable as I'm fairly sure next stop after the sim holder is the mainboard.

Hi Pat,
Thanks for your reply, unfortunately for me, I believe it is in the line of what I was thinking too
Would it be a good idea to sell it for parts? Or maybe to sell the parts separately?
I never did that, but I'd like to at least get some money for this device, even if it isn't that much
Kind regards,
sstm

Well its a coincidence because i have a mother of 84yrs who has an old Nokia & no computer. She doesn't want a complex phone & likes her old Nokia push button phone but it has no sd memory.
But she asked me about a camera that she could take family pics & video & digitally store them. Something like your phone might be ideal.

A new main board is about $50. You could try replacing it yourself or have a reputable company replace it for you for about an additional $100 dollars maybe. Not sure exactly what someone will charge.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

Here's the part you need on eBay.
Check out this item I found on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=270946674338
It's a very easy repair. I had the same problem your experiencing about 18 months ago. I repaired it myself and my phone is still working fine. Just be careful not to damage the volume flex cable (part of the main board) when you take the back housing off. Also, when you remove the damaged sim/sd tray you have to pull forcefully (but carefully) as it is lightly glued on.
Don't be daunted, it really is an easy repair.
Good luck.
Sent from my Margarita blender.

[Q] Removing the flash storage chip

Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.

ucof said:
Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really can't see this being successful, sorry. I'm fairly sure the chip is soldered down, and the chances of damaging the chip are very, very high if you want to try and get it off.
If the phone didn't come into contact with water a JTAG recovery might be possible. It may not get the phone working again but it could get your data back. Alternatively companies like DriveSavers have an excellent reputation for getting data off flash chips, but it'll cost you in the region of $400 - $1400 (I got a quote a month or so back, when I thought my HOX was finished.)
I really wouldn't recommend trying to remove the chip though. You could do irreparable damage to the chip, which would render it completely unreadable.

ucof said:
Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try first change the battery to see if the phone will start again it is the cheap way and most secure

de4life - thanks, I've had a quote for data recovery from Kroll. They want £95+ to look at it and provide a list of what can be recovered and then between £195 and £395 for actually recovering it for me. Far too expensive!
As for JTAG, there's been no water damage whatsoever; I've had a quick Google and it says this is more for Routers. How could I do it to my phone? Im not fussed about getting the phone working again, just want the contents of the flash storage back.
Thant - alas, the was the first thing I tried. New battery has made no difference. Which is annoying as her old Desire Z showed the same symptoms, we bought a new battery and its works again. She's currently using that until we decide what to do.

ucof said:
de4life - thanks, I've had a quote for data recovery from Kroll. They want £95+ to look at it and provide a list of what can be recovered and then between £195 and £395 for actually recovering it for me. Far too expensive!
As for JTAG, there's been no water damage whatsoever; I've had a quick Google and it says this is more for Routers. How could I do it to my phone? Im not fussed about getting the phone working again, just want the contents of the flash storage back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First thing's first, if you do go down the data recovery route try to avoid companies that charge any type of analysis fee. Kroll are a well known company but I've not heard much good things about them. I went through an extensive search of companies when I thought I'd killed my HOX and found DriveSavers were the best in terms of reputation, and they don't charge a fee to look at the phone. They are very expensive though, perhaps more so than Kroll, and you have to send the phone to the States which is daunting and costly in of itself (I assume from your £ quotation that you're UK based?).
It's good that there's no water damage. It's difficult to say what can cause the motherboard to suddenly stop working like that, but it's unlikely there has been a serious short circuit that could have affected the memory chip. Have you tried dissembling the phone completely and putting it back together? It may sound ridiculous to even try it, but when one of my older phones suddenly died I managed to get it working by taking it apart and then just putting it back together again. There are a lot of connections within the HOX motherboard framework that could easily have come loose. You might already have done this, but just a thought.
In terms of JTAG, it can be done on mobile phone motherboards with the right equipment. It's usually used for soft bricked phones to reset the software back to its original form if it's been corrupted, but I have seen cases where hard bricked phones were brought back to life using this method, including the HOX. It's not really something you can do at home (not cheaply, anyway) but there are companies that provide this service. One of the more popular services is here: http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/htc-one-x-jtag-brick-repair/ - I believe they post on here from time to time as well. Again, based in the States, but significantly cheaper than data recovery and as far as I've heard very professional. I don't know of any mobile phone JTAG services in the UK, though they probably do exist.
Keep in mind the data chip on your phone is likely fine. Even if the motherboard has stopped working, the memory chip itself is unlikely to be affected and will still contain all of your data - albeit in a scrambled form. If you send it out to companies then they can potentially damage the chip beyond repair, if you go down the route of sending the phone out to repair/data recovery companies I would urge extreme caution. If it's still on the chip the data itself isn't going anywhere. Take your time and make sure you're sending your phone to the right people, because one false move and your data is gone for good.

[Q] Transplant Surgery - T999 mainboard into SCH-I535/SPH-L710 body

I have been looking around, but no place specifically answers this exact question.
Long story short I have a t-mobile Mainboard that I want to save from a phone with a broken screen that I have. From what I understand the other components work as well (camera, speaker and whatever else). I understand that I can purchase an LCD/digitizer with assembly and carefully place the components into there to make sure the phone works but it would cost me around $120 for the parts + whatever time it takes me to replace the components. My second option which I am asking to see if it is indeed possible, would be to take the mainboard from the T-999 and replace it with a SCH-I535/SPH-L710 that I would purchase (most likely with bad ESN - costing me the same amount) but it would mean that I would not have to deal with screen replacement and I have a higher likelihood of having a good quality screen. (I have never been happy with the quality of screen replacements from ebay). It makes no difference if it doesn't work, but someone with the experience of working with different models should be able to answer this question.

Why not buy T999 with bad ESN ?

Perseus71 said:
Why not buy T999 with bad ESN ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying but T999 with bad IMEI's are not only more expensive but a lot of them also have broken screens so im back where I started. I am just stating these two because I can find them cheaply and easy to find as well.

In that case, you could try taking the Display & Digitizer from those phones and put it in your phone. Don't try to transplant your motherboard into that phone unless you have a good reason to do so.

It functions but you have to use a case and...
I did this a about a week ago. Here's how it went.
I bought a SPH-L710 without realizing it did not have a sim card slot. The screen had one slight crack and everything else worked.
After receiving it, I bought a T999 with a cracked screen/ non-working digitizer and everything else worked (the seller heard sounds when it powered on.)
I disassembled both and put the T999 mainboard on the L710 screen digitizer. Most of the screws line up. The two screws that don't line up are:
1. at the bottom near the TOP of the USB port. The hole in the board and the hole in the digitizer are on opposite sides of the USB port. This cannot be remedied, where the screw goes through the board, there's no hole on the digitizer, and you can't put a hole through the mainboard to meet up with the one on the digitizer. You could try but I think there's a circuit on the board there, or not enough room.
The two holes on the SIDES of the USB port will line up only when you squeeze thee mainboard and digitizer together while installing the screws.
2. on the side near the power button, there is a screw that goes there, but on the T999 mainboard near where the screw goes, there's something that looks like a button cell battery about 3mm wide and 1.5-2mm tall. It stuck in a hole made for it in the T999 digitizer, but the L710 digitizer does not have a recess in it to fit this button cell so the T999 mainboard sticks up slightly, enough that if you put the screw in the hole in the side, then the power switch on the mainboard will not stick down far enough, and when you push the power button on the outside of the case, it won't engage the power switch on the mainboard. To remedy this, leave out the screw on the side of the mainboard.
Because the mainboard is slightly bent due to the button cell battery, you need to have a case that compresses the phone together so the power button will engage the power switch properly. I used a "waterproof" chinese knockoff case I got on e$ay for $13. It's not waterproof, but the phone didn't get ruined even thought I tested the waterproof-ness of the case before I put the phone in and it passed, so maybe a genuine otterbox case would have been better. But the case does OK to compress everything enough that the power button and power switch work all the time. With the case on, you can't tell the phone is missing screws internally.
Verdict: everything works properly except the camera doesn't focus properly, it only works in Macro focus, I don't know if I should take the camera module from the L710 and try it or if it won't move because of the stress of the mainboard being slightly bent all time due to the button cell battery. It did focus properly for the few few days I had it.
One other issue: I can't get Windows 7 to recognize it, so I can't use Odin to root it, I've tried all the drivers, I've tried all the modes. I have no idea if this is a Windows issue or if it is somehow caused by the Frankenstein's Monster-ness of the hardware.
So yes, it can be done, with a "rugged" style case and with a few issues. I have no experience with the I535 at all.
I hope this helps,
rollinns

I could not have asked for a better reply. Thanks so much!!!!

Glad I could help
I was looking for this info about 3 weeks ago and didn't really look that hard since i was pretty sure everyone would give me the same replies you got before I replied. But for my entire life I've been asking questions no one else has asked, so I'm used to just having to do stuff to get answers. In this case, it helped you too.
If I had to do it over again, I think I'd try the whole process w/o the L710 parts. Maybe the I535 will work, and I still could drill a recess into the L710 digitizer if I had a mill, but I don't have access to mine now and won't for a while, and I'm not sure I trust the drill press to not crack the digitizer.
Also - NFC is less reliable than it was with my S2, meaning it doesn't work all the time - it's harder to beam contact info to another phone, but QI wireless charging works flawlessly.
My hope is to put some NFC tags in the truck along with a wireless charger so I can listen to internet radio as I drive, i.e. - a tag to turn off wifi, turn on bluetooth, turn on the app that streams music to my JVC car stereo and turn on the "TuneIn" app. and then I can still charge my phone without worrying about wires.

N7100 overheating with wifi dropout - hardware problem

I did a search and most of the Wifi problems seem to describe knox security and bootloader issues.
Here, I wish to describe/discuss what seems to be a hardware problem in my n7100 note 2.
This occurs with stock and dr. ketan rom on 4.4.2 even with wifipatch applied (technically not needed).
OS 4.4.2
boot loader: n7100ZSUFNL1 (I believe this bootloader should be ok - correct me if I'm wrong).
model GT-n7100
ISSUE
- the wifi icon doesn't turn on or wifi drops out when the system is running hot. This happened the first time after I flashed a ROM/upgraded and I thought it was a ROM issue.
- however, more recently, I have managed to keep the wifi signal absolutely stable when i open up the back cover and run a fan blowing on the back/cpu area at the top back of the phone around the camera area.
- with fan cooling => completely stable
- without fan cooling => drops out when system under load or randomly.
for some reason, omega rom had a problem for me where it kept disconnecting irrespective of the heat
I have seen discussions of our phone overheating but this seems to be a hardware problem with the wifi module.
I presume that there may be micro fractures with the wifi chip solder (seems to be a theme in electronics) that may be causing wifi problems with overheating.
This happened with an iphone 4 voice audio processing chip once for me and the "online community" had figured out a fix by taping in a "pressure mount" for the chip.
//blog.lovefone.co.uk/iphone-4-faulty-microphone-audio-chip-problem
Any suggestions on taping in a heatsink or pressure against the wifi module?
Help would be appreciated. Just adding to the knowledgebase in the community.

When Samsung adopted RoHS some range of devices plagued with badly soldered BroadCom chips. I personally know one S3 and two Note 2 (one is mine own) with all the same problem: no WiFi from time to time and likely no BT too.
I paid ~100 euros to change the main board with BC chip guaranteed working about half a year ago.

Thanks for the quick reply and confirmation.
After ordering a new midframe; playing around with screws and disassembling it a few times; it does feel like a solder joint/connection issue.
I haven't heard much feedback from the net on this problem which is why i raised it.
Others on the net have mentioned loosening the screws securing the motherboard down. I will try that as well but I presume that with a loose solder joint; overtightened screws may warp the motherboard just enough for the connection to flake out.
THanks again.
PS - if anyone else has the same problem/suspicion; please chime in.

So, in follow up.
Adding aluminum tape to the wifi chip didn't seem to work. I took it off and reseated the midframe where the antenna is located.
Still was getting dropped wifi.
Disassembled; took a small screwdriver and gently lifted the wifi contacts from the motherboard up so that it makes better contact with the midframe.
Seemed to help.
It's definitely hardware. Whether it's a problem with the WIFI chip or with the antenna; i don't know but it's somewhere along that line.
Crazy hardware gremlins

GPS not working

I bought a supposedly new HTC 10 off ebay a few months ago, and just realized on a recent trip that location service is using only wi-fi & cell. Once I am out of signal range, I get no location data, and GPS not working.
The phone came S-OFF and running WWE software, which I have changed to US unlocked using RUU, currently running 2.51.617.32, baseband [email protected]_76.02_F.
From a previous contact with HTC, they told me the serial number is that of a Sprint phone. I am assuming that this is a refurb of some kind.
I have installed GPS Status and tools, and the app can see the satellites, but cannot get a fix. Hardware check says that the sensor is OK. I have cleared AGPS and that made no difference.
Changing data from 3G to LTE to Auto, or on & off (per a couple threads at xda) made no difference.
I am unsure what to do next. Phone works well otherwise. Would flashing a Sprint radio help? perhaps a different kernel?
Any advice appreciated. TIA.

I had this issue after a battery replacement. Essentially this thread worked for me. Once the HTC 10 was opened up and the rear casing removed, there's a v. small copper prong located next to the headphone socket and it needed a bit of careful prying so that it could make contact with the back plate of the phone once rehoused.
So it could be that your new phone off ebay is a refurb and has been previously opened?

I would try a Sprint ROM before opening it.

dwgallery said:
I had this issue after a battery replacement. Essentially this thread worked for me. Once the HTC 10 was opened up and the rear casing removed, there's a v. small copper prong located next to the headphone socket and it needed a bit of careful prying so that it could make contact with the back plate of the phone once rehoused.
So it could be that your new phone off ebay is a refurb and has been previously opened?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
finally found someone with some 10 repair experience haha. I just noticed my GPS won't lock, assuming it's due to screen/battery repair. I have over 5yrs phone repair experience, so salty i am in this spot.... But I have been many times with HTC repairs, and eventually figure out hte querk. Any other insights? I opened it up yesterday and couldn't get a lock still even without back frame shell on. I then noticed the top pin above the headphone jack was depressed most likely due to prying when opening, i carefully bent up and it didn't break, now making connection with back cover frame but still no gps lock.... also try reconnection of the top daughter board flex where hard gps chip lives....
Update: Twas the pin at top, and flashing RUU that got me up and running GPS again! woohoo!

Thanks by the help!
The last week I change the battery and I lost the GPS signal. After reopen the phone, the GPS pin it was in bad position. After move the pin, the GPS it is working again!