Database Users

HD soaked with water

Hi guys unfortunately my HD was in a drawer during night and in the morning i found it soaked with water under the battery and both cards. I was in hospital so probably the infusion hose is the reason. I tried standart drying and isopropyl but it behaves like the "volume down" button is permanently pressed and my screen flashes touchFlo/volume. When i try to power it on by pressing power button it gets in bootloader. I must press both volume and power buttons together for a while to turn it on. Everything except the button is fine. I am stuck with that and warranty doesn´t repair water damage. I don´t want to disassemble it because it´s new only few weeks. Any idea please? Thanks

That realy sucks dude!
I've had experience with a Touch Cruise that got dropped in a bucket filled with water. After drying it for three days it actually worked (even till this day).
Don't think there is much hope for your device since it was covered with a fluid for a longer time. This also means that there is quite a big chance that the battery caused some short circuit in the device.
My advice is to remove the battery and let the device dry for a few days.

Also, never use a damaged battery, get a new one.

Try the submerging it in dry rice trick, the rice should help to absorb the moisture inside the device. @ this juncture it can't hurt to try.
Leave it for a couple of days before turning it on.

Touch HD In water, hints?

HI all, i've a really disappointing problem. My touch HD was in my pocket when I took some rain on my motorcycle . Arrived at home the phone was off. I opened it following the service manual. I've putted it behind the power supply of the pc, where the warm air comes out, dismantled, for a few days.
Then I assembled all, and now it turns on, but, it randomly restart. Do you think my mobo is broken? some contact?
I was thinking I can sell the various parts of my phone all the items works, sim, sd reader, camera (back and front) except the mobo ofcourse.
thanks in advance for your help

Hi.I have heard of one way of fixed water damaged devices and that is by putting them in a container covered by UNCOOKED rice. I think the rice is meant to draw the water out. Leave it for a day I think. Never tried it myself but heard it works
Phil G

Hi, thanks for your answer, the phone was behind the psu of the pc for a week totally dismantled, so I think is pretty dry
thanks again for you interest

I actually dropped me BS in a bucket of water. Dried it out in a heat cabinet at work (50 deg C) for a day and it works perfectly still

Hi la3bna, i'm trying to do as you suggested, was your bs powered when it fall in the water?
thanks for your answer

You should use the salt that is used to lower humidity (e.g. from Bison).
Put the bag of salt on the bottom of a plastic box.
On top of the bag a plate so your device has no fysical contact
with the salt. On the plate you lay down your device without
the backside. Seal the box airtight and leave it there for 7 days.
I did this with the Ipod of my son which had been washed for over
an hour on 60 degrees celsius. The Ipod was dead, but after the
procedure as described it was fully functional!

Thanks a lot, I'll try this!!

Yes mine was on, actually someone called my when it fell

I dropped mine in deep snow... I was holding it in my hand and slipped and also fell
It was very wet so I got scared it won't work but when I got home I turned it off,removed the battery,cards and just put it in some blanket to dry off
After an hour turned it back on and everything worked just like before
Also the other day I accidentally spilled some hand cream on my blackstone and it got inside but nothing happened again so I'm lucky...

thanks for your advices, trying the rice thing

lol, you guys are fecking useless
There is no way I would put myself in that situation, then again I have dropped it a few times so probably only lucky there wasnt water about

Well, I also dropped my Blackstone into water and, after drying it for some 2-3 hrs in the sun it works, except the memory card reader - the problem with the water and mobile phones is the fact that the water is oxidizing the circuitry - so, if it still malfunctions after a week of drying, then probably the phone is doomed.
Sorry for your loss!

for oxid, i've "bathed" the phone in Svitol, but nothing appens... i'm going to sell it as spare.
thanks all for your answer

open the device and dry it out..

already tried, using the service manual to open it, and dried for a week, but nothing appens.
thanks anyway

keep pressing the on/off button - eg, press button on off on off on off (while charging)
and tell me what happens, eg, a vibration??

hi, ti vibrate, then starts, show the smart mobility screen, load the SO, and all works for about 10 minutes. Then the phone restarts and get stuck to smart mobility screen. After that the only way is to press reset or remove the battery. After that if you press the power button the phone get always stuck on smart mobility, sometimes start to load the SO and then it restart before finishing to load.
Nicola

Solved
Hi, problem solved, just left the phone in its box for a month then acidentally tried to start it and from that day works great... guess that just needed to dry out.
Thread can be closed.
Thanks for all your advice.
Nicola

The end?
Dropped my Blackstone in the toilet last night (don't know how, I was drunk at the time). I believe it had been fully submerged for 2-3 minutes. It was turned on at the time. When I recovered it (thank God nothing had been done in the toilet at the time), it was off. I removed the cover and there was water behind the battery, in the SD card reader and SIM. Not a lot, but it was wet. Stupidly (drunk) and panicking , I dried off the back panel with a hand towel (possible static charge damage? - not yet known ). I left it on top of a t-shirt which is on top of the radiator. I don't yet want to turn it on fo fear of wrecking it (if it's not already wrecked).
What methods to people recommend I should take from above? Or maybe there are some new techniques? Would I be better taking it to a mobile service repair shop to see if they can fix it from the beginning, before I do any more damage?

1 dismantle the device into pieces. (if your not sure how i can give you a step by step guide)
2 now dry each of the parts of the device with cotton wool buds (the things used to clean your ears)
3 the put the device back together.
4 done.
....some people say to leave the device in rice etc because it draws the water from the device, IMO this does not work properly and there is nothing better that opening the device and actually cleaning it and removing the water yourself, and this should only take a few mins. it is also not recomended to send it to a service repair shop for something you can do yourself. just be carefull when dismantling the device. do not break any ribbons - used to connect the lcd amungst other things to motherboard.
might be possible you will need a new battery ^

Wet Legend

Hey everyone,
I am an avid runner and I use RunKeeper on my phone to track my runs. Last night I was running in a gym, and got really hot... My armband was soaked in sweat, and my volume buttons started malfunctioning.
When I restarted the phone, it went straight into bootloader mode as if the volume down key was pressed.
Anyway, as I read in these forums, I placed the phone in a bowl of raw rice, and it stayed there all night so it can absorb the moisture.
This morning I can boot into Android, but my volume keys still don't work. Whether I press Vol + or Vol - it works as if I'm pressing Vol -. So my Legend immediately goes to silent mode.
Anyone had problems with a wet Legend? Should I leave it in the bowl for a longer period? (I guess I'm too impatient since I'm using my old crappy phone right now) Do you think it's permanently damaged?

sveon said:
Do you think it's permanently damaged?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chances are it's already too late to fix. You can try taking the battery/sim/sdcard out and chucking the phone in a bowl of rice for a couple of days or so, but at this point I don't think it's possible to repair.
I hope your Legend is still under warranty. |:

The problem is probably not the humidity itself, but the salts in the water from the sweat. Salt water often leads to short-circuits in electronics. The salt stays in the phone, even after the water has evaporated.
If you don't get it running again, you could try turning off the phone, removing the battery and washing it in sterilized water (full submerging for an extended time and move it around or leaving it under running tap-water for some minutes while you rotate it.
You should then open all lids and let the phone dry out in a warm and dry place for some days before trying it again.
I did this for my phone. At first the speaker, buttons and vibrator didn't work, but they came around after a few days. Good luck!

@jawil, that sounds very extreme... My phone is working except the volume up/down buttons. They are kinda malfuctioning, but I installed a widget to control volume settings.. I was also thinking about the salts.
It's still under warranty, and I was wondering if they will accept it. My service center told me a repair might take a couple of weeks, and I really can't go without my Legend now, so I thought I'd wait a while.

DON'T WASH IT IN TAP WATER!!! Even if it worked for a while the minerals in the tap water would eventually build up on the circuit board a make the phone malfunction you could take it apart and clean it with pure alcohol.
Sent from my HTC Legend using XDA App

power button stuck on "on"

Since yesterday my SGS is having a very strange issue: It seems that the power button is stuck on pressed state. When the phone was on I had the power menu appear and the phone shut down. Then it started again, only to turn off shortly after the second screen during boot, then looping in that state.
When I remove battery and put it back it automatically starts and then bootloops.
I can't get into recovery as it turns off before recovery can start. I can get into download mode but only for 3-4 seconds till the phone turns off again.
I removed the backplate and can't see any visible damage to the power button. Between the power buttons pins on the board there's a voltage of 7mv with battery removed, in case that means something to anyone.
So 2 questions arise:
- Any ideas on how to fix this? (apart from ripping of the power button which I'm not even sure would help)
- Any ideas how to get into a mode where I can backup my data or at least flash a stock rom? (Currently on CM9 with devil kernel and the devil logo shows for a second in the bootloop, not sure how the techs would like that if I was to sent it in for repair)

XlAfbk said:
Since yesterday my SGS is having a very strange issue: It seems that the power button is stuck on pressed state. When the phone was on I had the power menu appear and the phone shut down. Then it started again, only to turn off shortly after the second screen during boot, then looping in that state.
When I remove battery and put it back it automatically starts and then bootloops.
I can't get into recovery as it turns off before recovery can start. I can get into download mode but only for 3-4 seconds till the phone turns off again.
I removed the backplate and can't see any visible damage to the power button. Between the power buttons pins on the board there's a voltage of 7mv with battery removed, in case that means something to anyone.
So 2 questions arise:
- Any ideas on how to fix this? (apart from ripping of the power button which I'm not even sure would help)
- Any ideas how to get into a mode where I can backup my data or at least flash a stock rom? (Currently on CM9 with devil kernel and the devil logo shows for a second in the bootloop, not sure how the techs would like that if I was to sent it in for repair)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has there been any water damage to the phone/button? Sometimes this can cause the button to short. Or it might just be stuck, does the button physically click in as normal?
It could also be worse and have an actual hardware issue with the motherboard/power button interface

there hasn't been any water damage. actually, it's been used in the rain but that shouldn't really hurt a phone... just in case i let it try for quite a while but the problem didn't go away.
the button clicks as it used to do, no sound of water or damage there.
problem hardly could have been worse as the phone is completly unusable in this state as i can't even turn it on.

Hi,
A friend has just handed me an abandoned SGS with precisely the same problem.
The power button itself feels fine, ie it doesn't feel stuck, and you can feel it clicking as normal. I too removed the backplate and can't see any visible damage to the power button.
I note however that the water damage indicator 'sticker' mentioned here: "samsunggalaxysforums.com/showthread.php/4674-Galaxy-S-I9000-Service-Manual-How-To-disassemble-your-Galaxy-S"
is completely white, indicating possible water damage at some point.
Any ideas for a fix, or do you think it would be economical to seek a fix from a hardware repairer?
I can replicate the problem as described by XlAfbk above, by simply holding down the power button on my working i9000.

i did sent to phone to the only service location samsung lists for germany. they claimed it was water damage and refused to repair under warranty. repair would have cost ~280 euro.
i'm waiting for the unrepaired device now and will try to fix it myself, in the meantime i got a gnexus

Ok thanks. Please keep me posted if you do find a way to repair it yourself.
Until then, I guess mine's spare parts!

no more warranty for you? if you're in germany PM me for a repair shop.
ebay has power button replacements for ~4€ that you could try soldering on, replacing the original one, if that's what's broken for you. I checked mine with a multimeter and as there's still resistance it's not the power button for me.

uhm, I actually did fix it... while it's not completly back to normal i can at least turn on and off the phone, just turning display on and off with power button still doesn't work
some dust had gathered on the board, apparently shorting a circuit. just grab a brush and some canned air and clean the board.
i cleaned the main board at the very top and the bottom one near the middle (PM me for a photo of the location)

Nice that it almost works now. Just thinking what an asshole Sammy is, they want more money for a maybe ~20€ repair than the device costs bought new.

the repair wouldn't have been 20€, they'd have replaced the whole mainboard for me, not just the power button. I have no idea whether just replacing the power button would help, just brought that up as that's the one item that could possibly be it and you can get for cheap.
my power button got worse again since my previous post btw. so something else must be wrong as well.

After my phone was on a rainy trip, I am suffering from the same issues as well. I checked the resistance of the power-switch, and the open-circuit resistance measured to 30 Ohms, while the closed resistance measured to 0. Of course, the open-circuit resistance will not measure the switch isolated, but still, I'd expect something in the range of at least some Kilos. Hopefully, the switch will function normally in some time (if the switch is the only problem).

if it doesn't fix itself remove the mainboard from the housing, check it using a strong magnifying glass for any traces of water (tiny white residue spots) and carefully clean them using with a small brush (and nothing but that!).
of course doing that will void all warranty!

I completely disassembled it in order to clean it properly, but it did not yield immediate results. However, however a few days of rest and it came back to life, and has been stable since. So it looks like the rest is the best advice for other unfortunates.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app

Advice for water damaged note 3

I recently got my note 3 wet (clean-ish lake water) and immediately got the battery out and the phone dissasembled and into a bag of rice.
after a few days I reassembled it and booted it up and I can hear the startup sounds, feel the vibrations from power up, reboot & charge and I also can hear all of my notifications including ringing calls.
The problem is I cannot get the screen to turn on*.
What happens is the back button and menu button led's light up at the bottom and the screen sometimes flickers. I have got the screen to turn on though really rarely (playing with it and removing/readding the battery, rebooting etc..) and when I DO get it to turn on all functions work perfectly as if the phone was never damaged.
My question is, what components can I take a closer look at that would cause this behaviour? I would say that the screen is kaput but when it turns on everything works....
I am asking here as my google fu has not dredged up anyone with this specific problem before.
I have cleaned what appears to be corrosion or water spots on the larger copper traces on the mainboard with 99% iso and dried then reassembled but no change in behaviour (it did turn on once after I did this and work).
I tried a new OEM battery, no change.
Any and all advice is appreciated and yes I will order a waterproof quality case if I can get it working again

aridhol said:
I recently got my note 3 wet (clean-ish lake water) and immediately got the battery out and the phone dissasembled and into a bag of rice.
after a few days I reassembled it and booted it up and I can hear the startup sounds, feel the vibrations from power up, reboot & charge and I also can hear all of my notifications including ringing calls.
The problem is I cannot get the screen to turn on*.
What happens is the back button and menu button led's light up at the bottom and the screen sometimes flickers. I have got the screen to turn on though really rarely (playing with it and removing/readding the battery, rebooting etc..) and when I DO get it to turn on all functions work perfectly as if the phone was never damaged.
My question is, what components can I take a closer look at that would cause this behaviour? I would say that the screen is kaput but when it turns on everything works....
I am asking here as my google fu has not dredged up anyone with this specific problem before.
I have cleaned what appears to be corrosion or water spots on the larger copper traces on the mainboard with 99% iso and dried then reassembled but no change in behaviour (it did turn on once after I did this and work).
I tried a new OEM battery, no change.
Any and all advice is appreciated and yes I will order a waterproof quality case if I can get it working again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You acted perfectly after getting the phone wet, so congratulations. But unfortunately, screen failures are fairly common in phone-wetting scenarios.
What you can do is try keeping the phone a couple of days more in silica gel bags/rice to see if there still is moisture in the screen assembly. If nothing changes, all you can do is replace the whole screen assembly.

totalnoob34 said:
You acted perfectly after getting the phone wet, so congratulations. But unfortunately, screen failures are fairly common in phone-wetting scenarios.
What you can do is try keeping the phone a couple of days more in silica gel bags/rice to see if there still is moisture in the screen assembly. If nothing changes, all you can do is replace the whole screen assembly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can the screen be submerged in isopropyl 99% to displace any water or will that damage it?

aridhol said:
Can the screen be submerged in isopropyl 99% to displace any water or will that damage it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alcohol should be harmless. Go for it, you have nothing to lose.

I think you should put your phone in sun light for 40 minute without battery. after that let you phone cool. then Try to boot.If not work then open that back part then try again for more 30 minutes. I think it will help you.
in my case it works on samsung galaxy s.
God bless you & your phone.