Can my mobile phone be saved?

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[Third Mate]

Greetings,

I have an unfortunate even happen, yesterday night I put my jeans in the washer but left my phone in them. So I am guessing a full wash would be about 30 minutes + detergent. But I only realized this at 11 at night when I was just about to go to sleep. So I got out of bed around 11 at night, took my phone out my almost dried jeans, took out the battery, SIM card and wrapped it in my dry soft hoodie.10 hours later, the next morning I went deeper and took it apart without removing the parts because they are somehow glued in the plastic. I did notice white and crusty patches around the components so I brushed them off with a small brush. The damage is not visible because everything looks intact, even the outer shell looks mint condition. I did a good swab with a ear but thing around narrower parts of the inside but when I did power it up, I had the black screen with the whole liquid inside image. I did see a lot of videos on how to "fix" it , I even used a vacuum to "suck" all the moisture out. So tomorrow I will look for de-moisture packs open it up again, and seal it into a pack with the battery for a few days, any other crazy ideas are welcome but be realistic a bit 

[Stuart2007]

This is a common problem and experience shows the important thing is to NOT turn it on until it is totally dried out.

It is possible that even at low voltage you will short a component out. You might be lucky now or you might not. Personally I would advocate keeping it turned off, battery out of it and leave it somewhere warm but NOT HOT for it to dry out. I wouldn't try wiping components whilst they are still wet. I certainly wouldn't try using de-moisturising crystals (or if you do put them NEAR it not IN it!)

Obviously this is made more difficult by the fact there was violent movement in the machine, that there was washing detergent and IT WAS HOT!

They are quite forgiving of water if you follow the above. But coke/pepsi - forget it, lager/beer - ok (trust me), spirits (esp Cognac) ok, but need cleaning out after.

[saltydog]

There are quite a number of films about this on YouTube..
Here's one from one of my favourite tv-shows.. The Gadget Show..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs6x4BOHNBM

[clanky]

I have done this in the past, open the phone as much as you can, leave it for a few days and then try to charge it, but watch it carefully the whole time.

Don't try to dry it with a hairdryer, just let it dry naturally in air, a warm dry place if you can find one.

When this happened to me I managed to salvage it for a while, but it didn't last forever, good luck.

[saltydog]

Yes, too bad you tried to power it up before it was completely dry..
As shown in the video, leaving it for at least 24 hours under a desk lamp is a good idea..

[Captain Darling]

Put the phone into a bowl of rice and leave it for a while...
I've heard it works very effectively

[--tractorman--]

I've heard the old rice trick works okay, just dont turn it on

[danny]

Even better, if you have any silica gel (the same stuff you get when you buy a new TV or something that needs to be kept dry) just place the little packets it comes in (without opening them) in a box, put the phone in with them to and seal the whole thing up. Then let it work its magic for a day or so.

[Stuart2007]

Or use it as a door wedge.

I covered my laptop in lager once- it was fine once it dried... It was a shame to waste the lager though

[saltydog]

What..?  You didn't suck the lager out afterwards ?  That is a waste   

[Stuart2007]

No, SD. I can't stand warm lager. Urgh.

[Third Mate]

Ah yes, I was going to go to the shops to get some rice. Now I have taken it apart like the video said, just need to find a warm place, hope not too many ciruits have blow up not that there is smoke or anything, they look intact. Gotta find a warm place, but I did not think  not turning it on  which I did a few times, I cannot belive I acualy did, I can smell the an expensive repair reaching 200's

[Stuart2007]

I'm afraid to say, TM, that if it's still not working now you've had it (or at least your 'phone has).

Unless you can see any surface mount resisters that have blown (most common fault) then I would suggest that it is beyond economic repair.

Sorry to be pessimistic.

So go have a lager and a Marmite sandwich instead.

[J3nsen]

Put it back in your jeans and trow it into a dryer! That worked for me, but just when i had my older phones. Been more carefule with my smart phones. But try it!

[saltydog]

Heat it up and bang it around some more..that's great advice..

[Third Mate]

I'm afraid to say, TM, that if it's still not working now you've had it (or at least your 'phone has).

Unless you can see any surface mount resisters that have blown (most common fault) then I would suggest that it is beyond economic repair.

Sorry to be pessimistic.

So go have a lager and a Marmite sandwich instead.

How can you tell if they are blown?


hahahaha, yeah one thing's for sure I'm not putting the battery back in for 2 or 3 days. At the momments it's sealed up in a small container filled with rice in my room it's fairly warm but not much so, gonna top up the rice today to fill it to the max to drown it. I can't tell weather any fuses are blown they all look intact but I can tell that there still is water or moisture or what ever at the very top layer where the LCD is, it's like trapped in there, but all I have a screw driver and a pair of tweazers so I can't literaly pull it apart because i got no soldering iron to put it back togheter. I did see in one of the videos to replace the LCD. For now Ill just keep it sealed in the little container with the rice 

[Stuart2007]

Is the container airtight? If so, open it a LITTLE. Otherwise it will sweat and do more damage.

As for blown resisters, they are 1/32" by 1/32" (so half the size of a match head) you will need a good magnifying glass and look and see.

Under a magnifying glass you will see slight scorch marks and there will be a break in the PCB where the resistor used to be.

No offence intended at all, but if you need to ask that question then I think you'd struggle to repair it anyway. A lot of modern PCBs can't be soldered by hand- especially the chips themselves (actually pretty hardy things) as the pin pitch (gap between legs) is too small for the human hand to solder effectively.

[Third Mate]

Is the container airtight? If so, open it a LITTLE. Otherwise it will sweat and do more damage.

As for blown resisters, they are 1/32" by 1/32" (so half the size of a match head) you will need a good magnifying glass and look and see.

Under a magnifying glass you will see slight scorch marks and there will be a break in the PCB where the resistor used to be.

No offence intended at all, but if you need to ask that question then I think you'd struggle to repair it anyway. A lot of modern PCBs can't be soldered by hand- especially the chips themselves (actually pretty hardy things) as the pin pitch (gap between legs) is too small for the human hand to solder effectively.

Ah I rember now from my Electronic lessons in High School, no offense taken Stu right now I am having experiments of my own before paying about 300$ to maaaaybe get it back to normal. Dosen't look like it's an airtight container but I did give it some freshness this morning

Third

[Stuart2007]

At least there's a chance. If you'd dropped it into Marmite... 

[Third Mate]

At least there's a chance. If you'd dropped it into Marmite... 

Heard on the news, It got caught trying to hurt it, It just won't give up 

[The Ferry Man]

So how is the phone?

[Third Mate]

So how is the phone?

Final Report:

After 3 day's in containment in a small container filled with rice, no luck, can't tell what's fried in there but I get the purple and green tiny squares, sometimes the actual charge battery sign will appear x 4 across the screen faded effects while charging and when I do try to turn it on it now gives be the black screen of death. It took a hard beating from that washing machine for 30 minutes in hot water + detergent + cold water. There were white crusty marks left from the detergent in around some of the components which I did decide to brush off with a little brush where ever I could. What really surprised me is that the outside looks brand new and inside it looks like it has invisible damage which i can't seem to tell from the naked eye.

I did open it up and now it's sealed in another container until I have 300$ to spare and maybe get it back up and running again. When I got the phone it was 500$ but that was a year ago now the price dropped to about 200$. The phone is like a Samsung Corby it's one of those hot type phones for teens. But it's not all that bad because now I there's a good excuse to get a phone called HTC Thunderbolt which will be coming out in May BUT I will get it on my birthday on the 26th of July.The annoying part is though, how well and preserved the outside looks, if it had cracks or scratches I would of understood 

Third

[The Ferry Man]

The phone is dead...

long live the pen and paper

[clanky]

Hopefully all of your data was stored on the sim card?  ou can always try the sim in another phone to see if the data is still there.

[IRI5HJ4CK]

R.I.P. Third Mates phone