[Q] Water Damaged Thunderbolt, Worth fixing? - Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

My roommate spilled god only knows what on her Thunderbolt. This is her 4th and they cancelled her warranty so no replacement. She has since moved to AT&T and the iPhone. Gave me this mess and said I can do "whatever" with it. I already took out the 32Gb memory card for my HD2 (WP7) As for the rest of it, I'm not sure what I should do. The phone won't power on at all!
1) Toss it in the garbage after smashing it and running over with my car.
2) Send it away to be checked and an estimate for repair. Has anyone on here had any luck with those places? I would like an android phone to load various roms and help test for developers on here.
3) Try to fix it myself. Currently I've disassembled the entire phone and put in a bag of white rice over a weekend. Reassembled, but not change. Is there a good site with a writeup of how to proceed in this situation.

Put it in rice for a few days. Your chances of saving it go up significantly if you do it immediately after it's wet and even higher if it was off when wet. I can tell you now though if she's already moved it's already dried (it's been a few days at least). If it doesn't turn on now it is a glorified paperweight. It will never turn on again. You can send it off for an estimate but they're going to tell you one thing: totaled. Multiple things on the board would have been shorted as well as some to all peripherals. Parts and labor would be many times more than buying the phone new at retail.

It's not necessarily dead, and using rice is only good if the phone has water (as in pure fresh water) damage only. If it's pool water, salt water, a sugary drink, etc, then a bag of rice is the absolute worse thing you can it your phone in. Get a toothbrush and some 91% or higher alcohol. Take the EMI shields off of the board and clean it as good as you can. Don't forget to clean out the microUSB port as well. Also if you do get some lights when you pug it in, but no picture, then shine a light on it when it,s on and see if you see anything. HTC makes lovely phones, but their LCDs tend to die quite easily when they come in contact with water. If you have no use for it, I would be happy to take it off your hands. I repair phones full time for a living, and I have an extra LCD that I could test on the phone. If it turns out to be fixable, then we can get into details, if not, I can either toss it or send it back to you. Send me a PM if you're interested.

In the future invest $59 in waterproofing the device. You can swim with it or drop it in a fish tank as a conversation piece and it will still function normally.
http://www.liquipel.com/

The battery could be dead. You could see if a friend has one, or bring it to VZ on the off chance you could get a decent tech to help you.
I dropped my phone in a lake, completely submerged and waterlogged. I dried it out over an AC for a day and it booted back up. The screen had some distortions for a while which cleared up over a few days (Still some very minor lingering damage, almost unnoticeable). Actually the only thing that really became a permanent annoyance to me was that the speaker seemed to get damaged and has been slightly muffled ever since.
All that was 6 months ago. This phone has been a tank, it's earned my respect...

Related

The most aweful experience of my life.

Final Update: Its with a heavy heart that I bare this news unto all of you.. After 8 hours of struggling, Howard Dean the Second, know to his friends and family as HD2, has passed. To say he was simply HD2 is not enough... He was MY HD2. 4 hours into operation things were grim, but we held our heads high as he sat in front of the fan, hardening his frame and removing the moisture from our eyes. In hour 6, his buttons became stuck, immobilized by the same glue that was to be his savior. And in hour 7, just before he could pull through, the unthinkable happened... He failed to boot. Not a sound.. not a look. Gone. Screen replacement is an almost impossible procedure.. we did our best. You will be missed my friend.
SELLING PARTS HTC LEO FOR PARTS TMOUS RELEASE PM ME!
So I broke my screen, ordered a replacement with digitizer of ebay. Finally arrived today after 3 weeks, and I braced myself for a tough hour or two. It's now been 5 hours and I have the touch screen, lcd and middle piece put together. I decided to go with gorilla glue, which after 4 attempts is being left to dry with glue streaks around the screen (between the touchscreen and lcd). In an previous try at cleaning off the lcd I must have left some moisture on it, because now there is a big spot in the middle of the screen.
I'm not sure how this will look, because it's currently drying and I haven't even tried to put my Leo back together. I guess my question is, whats the best way to try and be rid of this? I already broke the volume ( at least the volume, maybe more) when removing the copper colored opaque stick from the motherboard. If my phones ruined I'm going to be extremely disappointed. I got to play with Android on my hd2 for a whole 10 minutes before it broke.
Any advice would be amazing. Ill update this as well with my findings once my phone is dried and back together. Sigh.
Attempt 6: Buttons were stuck when I went to check on the device. Disassembled and placed correctly, re-glued, and slightly more enraged. I feel the need to wear purple cutoff jean shorts and paint myself green, then proceed to smash everything in sight. Hopefully this doesnt occur.
that really sucks mate. I tried to fix my HD2 as well and failed miserably.
Pretty much everywhere I have read says don't bother getting the digitizer/screen separate. Obviously it costs more to buy the whole screen unit but it is near impossible to get it right if you try and attach the digitizer yourself. Besides, cheaper than a whole new phone
Otherwise, if you still have the receipt try for warranty? I had mine repaired under warranty despite the damage being clearly my fault and a very obvious failed home repair attempt.
Best of luck anyway
Here's to you ol' friend.
In Germany we say: "Mein Beileid."

[Q] Revived water-damaged SGS2 (almost - advice needed)

Hi everyone.
<SKIP> (if you don't like reading a lot)
So, I managed to do a very silly thing *slaps own wrist*. After spilling some food on my brand new pair of shorts, I chucked them straight in the washing machine without thinking. After about 5 minutes, I noticed a slight knocking noise coming from the washing machine, and alas, when I dug my hand in the water to try find the culprit item, I pulled out my drenched SGS2.
Now, as any technically-minded person does after such an incident, I immediately pulled out the battery, SIM card and memory card, and went sifting through my kitchen for rice. It was in the sealed bag of rice for about 1.5 weeks, after which I tried to turn it on. It worked! However, the touch screen wasn't responding, so bag into the bag.
Closer to two weeks, I took it out again. This time, everything seemingly worked fine! I did however notice while using the back camera that some residue from the water has stuck onto the rear camera lens. It also took me a while to notice that the bottom microphone isn't working, which defeats the point of having a phone.
Everything else works fine. I took it to a local repair shop (which I'm a bit doubtful of) and they came back to me saying they couldn't do anything.
</SKIP>
So, in conclusion, the bottom microphone isn't working (people can't hear me during calls), and the rear camera lens has residue on it (which can be seen when using the camera):
1) Assuming the warranty is now void due to water damage, do you think I should try my hand at replacing the microphone/USB board on my own? Has anybody done it, and has some pointers? Anyone know a good place to get these?
2) Is anyone aware if the camera area can be broken down to such a point that I can wipe the residue off the lens?
I'm tempted to just take it to another repair shop for them to try - really don't want to go to Samsung though, as they'll likely charge a small fortune.
Thanks for the help in advance,
MrP.
MrPadie said:
Hi everyone.
<SKIP> (if you don't like reading a lot)
So, I managed to do a very silly thing *slaps own wrist*. After spilling some food on my brand new pair of shorts, I chucked them straight in the washing machine without thinking. After about 5 minutes, I noticed a slight knocking noise coming from the washing machine, and alas, when I dug my hand in the water to try find the culprit item, I pulled out my drenched SGS2.
Now, as any technically-minded person does after such an incident, I immediately pulled out the battery, SIM card and memory card, and went sifting through my kitchen for rice. It was in the sealed bag of rice for about 1.5 weeks, after which I tried to turn it on. It worked! However, the touch screen wasn't responding, so bag into the bag.
Closer to two weeks, I took it out again. This time, everything seemingly worked fine! I did however notice while using the back camera that some residue from the water has stuck onto the rear camera lens. It also took me a while to notice that the bottom microphone isn't working, which defeats the point of having a phone.
Everything else works fine. I took it to a local repair shop (which I'm a bit doubtful of) and they came back to me saying they couldn't do anything.
</SKIP>
So, in conclusion, the bottom microphone isn't working (people can't hear me during calls), and the rear camera lens has residue on it (which can be seen when using the camera):
1) Assuming the warranty is now void due to water damage, do you think I should try my hand at replacing the microphone/USB board on my own? Has anybody done it, and has some pointers? Anyone know a good place to get these?
2) Is anyone aware if the camera area can be broken down to such a point that I can wipe the residue off the lens?
I'm tempted to just take it to another repair shop for them to try - really don't want to go to Samsung though, as they'll likely charge a small fortune.
Thanks for the help in advance,
MrP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I replaced the earpiece (speaker) in my HTC HD2. It was a pain in the ass to tear down. I imagine that my SG2 would be even harder.
I found the earpiece on ebay for only about $10, and it even came with a few tools needed for the tear down (plastic pry tools). It was not for the faint of heart...meaning that I was stressed to the balls, and wasn't sure until it was over if I had destroyed my phone. So the microphone should be possible to replace, if you're careful and technically inclined.
The camera will also probably need to be replaced (although, you might find otherwise when you take it apart). The good news is that it shouldn't cost more than $20, but I have no idea really...just estimating. Here's a link to a guy's G+ post who did it click me.
If you look on google, you'll find youtube videos about the tear down and how to do it.
I'd watch those first to check the difficulty. I think I've also seen instructions somewhere, but don't remember exactly where.
Good luck. Stay calm and be careful.

is this phone waterproof!?

today i experienced any phone holders worst nightmare... dropping your pride and joy in water!
but after this i quickly turned the phone off, used an hairdryer xD and put everything back in, and as if by magic, it was alive!!
although the screen did shatter :/
so is this amazing piece of technology really water proof?
No it is NOT.
You`re lucky this time, but if you ever send it in for any repair they may deny warranty because of the moisture indicators.
Most phones or any electronic devices for that matter survive a (short) drop in water due to multiple reasons:
- the case is relatively airtight. Water cannot immediately "flood" the device
- Water is a very bad electrical conductor (except if you drop it into saltwater or the unflushed toiled)
As far as conductivity is conserned, it's possible to run naked computers (no case, ...) in purified water.
However there an other issue kicks in: corrosin. Water is a very agressive substance (mainly due to oxygen) and will "eat" away electrical conductors very quickly and cause irreparable damages.
Drying off your phone may not be enough, it's recommended to:
- immediately pull the battery (that's one of the reasons I wouldn't want to get one with built-in battery)
- put it into a bag with dry rice and/or grounded herbs (whatever you have at hand) so that it's completely covered
- put it in a somewhat warm (or sunny) location so that the water vaporates and is taken up by the rice (You may want to stir once a day)
- keep fingers crossed and boot
Note that water-caused damage must not always be visible from the beginning. It's sufficient for a small component to die (e.g. a capacitor) so that in the following days/weeks/months the other parts overload too and the components start failing one after another.
Usually you're fine though.
dazlehd said:
today i experienced any phone holders worst nightmare... dropping your pride and joy in water!
but after this i quickly turned the phone off, used an hairdryer xD and put everything back in, and as if by magic, it was alive!!
although the screen did shatter :/
so is this amazing piece of technology really water proof?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good move on the hairdryer , just dont microwave it
Not waterproof
Defo lucky. Mine was simply rained upon whilst I was abroad and it is now not working - I didn't think of the hairdryer at the time. The company I sent it into for repairs said that the motherboard has corroded and that it needs replacing. Naturally, it will not turn on and I still want the data off of it though - any suggestions?
Lucky this time. Be careful... huh.
but some people have reported the same other forums. "Blumps, drying, works!"
No it isn't but in many cases a phone can be resurrected. Most important is to not turn it on until it is fully dry.
My friend dropped his S2 in about 50cm of salt / seawater while we were fishing. Took us a minute to find it. I used a knife to remove the screws and opened it up. Before that I rinsed it in fresh water. Let it dry for about an hour, put it back together and it worked just like before. That was 6 months ago and its still running fine.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

[Q] My mainboard is baking like cookies.

So my girlfriend dropped her phone in a cup holder with water in it today. Everything works but it's getting hot, and I couldn't get to it in time to pull the battery and disassemble. It's mainly working, but gets warm and eats battery violently. Has anyone had any luck with the rubbing alcohol bath trick on one of these? I'm not sure how they may react. Some things are getting a bit more sensitive these days.
Side note... If anyone has a main-board laying around from an old busted phone or anything, let me know. She's not pleasant when she's disconnected from the facebook world. The sooner I get this done, the sooner my ear stops bleeding.
BoominSVX said:
So my girlfriend dropped her phone in a cup holder with water in it today. Everything works but it's getting hot, and I couldn't get to it in time to pull the battery and disassemble. It's mainly working, but gets warm and eats battery violently. Has anyone had any luck with the rubbing alcohol bath trick on one of these? I'm not sure how they may react. Some things are getting a bit more sensitive these days.
Side note... If anyone has a main-board laying around from an old busted phone or anything, let me know. She's not pleasant when she's disconnected from the facebook world. The sooner I get this done, the sooner my ear stops bleeding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put it in a bowl of rice with the bowl sitting on a heating pad set to high for 24-48 hours. Dont power on the phone in this time and make sure the battery is removed. Also ensure that its the phone getting hot and not the battery.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
Yeah when my phone went for a swim, I dove in to the pool after it. I think I ripped the battery out of it even before I was fully out of the water. I had to let it sit in rice for two days until I could no longer see water between the glass and LCD.
And even then, I opened it up and scrubbed the motherboard down with a stiff toothbrush and 91% rubbing alcohol, I wouldn't suggest dousing the phone in it, though.
Bock Abrams said:
Yeah when my phone went for a swim, I dove in to the pool after it. I think I ripped the battery out of it even before I was fully out of the water. I had to let it sit in rice for two days until I could no longer see water between the glass and LCD.
And even then, I opened it up and scrubbed the motherboard down with a stiff toothbrush and 91% rubbing alcohol, I wouldn't suggest dousing the phone in it, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've taken phones that people could only find by calling it and seeing it light up in a puddle and saved them two days later. The trick was always get the water off and replace it with something pure so iron and zinc deposits can't complete a random circuit. Rubbing alcohol baths and a toothbrush have been common here, followed by compressed air, and finally rice for a day. It almost ALWAYS works, but this one is failing. Maybe I'll just buy a new board. To bad because the phone is still beautiful.
BoominSVX said:
I've taken phones that people could only find by calling it and seeing it light up in a puddle and saved them two days later. The trick was always get the water off and replace it with something pure so iron and zinc deposits can't complete a random circuit. Rubbing alcohol baths and a toothbrush have been common here, followed by compressed air, and finally rice for a day. It almost ALWAYS works, but this one is failing. Maybe I'll just buy a new board. To bad because the phone is still beautiful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could always buy a water sensor sticker off ebay and replace the one in your phone that is red then take it into sprint and just say its acting funky and you want it repl........ Wait, thats illegal, dont do that.....
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
Acvice said:
You could always buy a water sensor sticker off ebay and replace the one in your phone that is red then take it into sprint and just say its acting funky and you want it repl........ Wait, thats illegal, dont do that.....
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a bad experience with some half breed store breaking her old phone and trying to tell me it was water damaged. After fighting city hall and just hearing "water damage", I took it apart myself, and what do you know... NO WATER DAMAGE! The guy tried to pass it off like water broke it when HE actually did. They stood there and told me that since her (previously working) phone was now dead, the only way I was leaving the shop with a working phone was if I bought a new one. I was furious to see it not show any signs of water, and after a few more calls, I took it to a corporate store and let them take it apart. Finally, the previous notes on the account were over-ridden, and retentions sent me out a replacement for 100 dollars. Three days later, I looked at craigs and found 4 of the same phone for 100 bucks (TouchPro2) and decided insurance isn't worth it. I've never looked back, and I can still even now buy a board or a whole photon for less than the insurance charges. Just missed one on ebay for 42 bucks, but tomorrow is a new day with new auction endings.
PS, She uses sprint as a family plan. I use boost on my epic, and now at 35 bucks a month, I've never looked back from leaving sprint. They can keep their BS insurance and false hopes of 4g. They charge her an additional 10 bucks a month for a "4g device", and we've never even been able to see the icon work. A year from now, she can actually upgrade to an LTE phone when the contract runs out, but until that, ....WOW cell phone companies really suck. I don't even think I should post this.

S4 Spent 20 Seconds In a Pool - And Lives

Yep. On Monday I dropped my S4 in the pool and it spend a good 20 seconds underwater. It was in the deepest part of my pool and I wasn't about to jump into the cold water to get it. I have insurance and all that, so I just grabbed a net and pulled it out.
I was almost certain that this phone wouldn't be working no matter what I did. Still, I pulled the battery out the second I got it out of the water and stuck it in rice for about 24 hours. The first 10 hours or so I left it in a hot room that may have had 10% humidity, and the last 14 hours I put it in a dry, cold room.
Lo and behold this morning when I put the battery in and held the power button, it powered up! Everything works - earpiece, speaker, both mic's, notification light, proximity, IR, screen, digitizer, headphone jack, capacitive buttons/lights, home button, etc. etc. Everything works!
Pretty awesome to be honest, Wanted to gloat a bit.
Had that happen to my S3. It worked pretty good for a few days and then it would get VERY hot and battery would only last about 4 hours.
I found some corrosion on the mobo from the chlorinated pool water. Perhaps you won't have that issue but if you do, PM me and I'll let you know what drastic measure I took to fix it. I rather not put it out there to all in fear someone will do it and then blame me for any issues they have lol.
It took nothing but about $7.00 and my time.
Good luck!
video or it didn't happen.
haha jk that's awesome man!
This has inspired me to start showering with my phone.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
That's a awesome story there glad it still worked I do have a question did you have a case or no if so what?
FYI, If this happens to anyone else:
If an electronic device gets dunked in water one thing you can do is to disassemble it as far as you're comfortable doing and then re-dunk the device in distilled water. The distilled water will help remove residues left behind by tap water or pool water. Works best when said device is still wet from original dunk.
Then if you have some on hand, an electronics circuit cleaner can be sprayed liberally all over and in to displace the remaining water. The cleaning solvent will evaporate much faster and safer for the device.
Then I'd stick said device in a bag of rice in a heated room. And pray. Because more often then not it won't matter what you do the device will still be ruined.
Tried to recreate the pool drop......phone DID work fine, but screen cracked when it hit the ice. Gotta love Wisconsin!
Thats such crap! i get pulled into a pool by drunk friend with the S4 in my pocket. Wasnt even in the water for 10 seconds and my S4 never ever turned on again. I guess they are not all made equal lol
0reo said:
FYI, If this happens to anyone else:
If an electronic device gets dunked in water one thing you can do is to disassemble it as far as you're comfortable doing and then re-dunk the device in distilled water. The distilled water will help remove residues left behind by tap water or pool water. Works best when said device is still wet from original dunk.
Then if you have some on hand, an electronics circuit cleaner can be sprayed liberally all over and in to displace the remaining water. The cleaning solvent will evaporate much faster and safer for the device.
Then I'd stick said device in a bag of rice in a heated room. And pray. Because more often then not it won't matter what you do the device will still be ruined.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like it would be a good idea, using a clean water without any minerals, chemicals, etc. in it to go ahead and flush everything out. I didn't do this. I was cleaning my pool mainly because it hadn't been touched in a while and there wasn't any chlorine in the water. Usually that's bad for a pool owner, algae, but for me this time it seems to have been a blessing.
Gator Brah said:
Thats such crap! i get pulled into a pool by drunk friend with the S4 in my pocket. Wasnt even in the water for 10 seconds and my S4 never ever turned on again. I guess they are not all made equal lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It also depends on how well taken care of the water is. If it had a high chlorine level it can cause corrosion much faster than usual.
swordmastr54 said:
That's a awesome story there glad it still worked I do have a question did you have a case or no if so what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep! I had this Cruzer-Light case on my phone at the time. It's extremely tight fitting on the device, usually peels off the back-cover whenever I take it off. I'm sure it helped because it sealed the edges along the back cover.
The water-strip underneath the battery on the phone and the strip on the battery triggered, but I didn't find any water on the SDCard or the SIM. So maybe the case helped with that a little bit.
Wow, that's amazing!

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