Nokia 6210 fell in sea

My 6210 fell in the sea for about two mins until I could fish it out. I
rinsed it straight off with fresh water, then with alcohol. Am I wasting my
time hoping it may spring back to life?

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"Ric" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> My 6210 fell in the sea for about two mins until I could fish it out. I
> rinsed it straight off with fresh water, then with alcohol. Am I wasting
my
> time hoping it may spring back to life?

This depends on many factors... what you did will certainly improve the
chances of the phone's survival. Salt water will rapidly oxidise the
electrical pathways on any unprotected bits of circuit board, water can
damage the diaphragms of your speakers, and dry residue deposits can clog up
the microphone and other moving parts.

Unfortunately, although alcohol is an obvious choice to rinse the phone
with, this can also act as a solvent and remove protective coatings etc.
Most alcohol isn't pure (often contains colourings and other additives) so
can also leave a dry (usually white) residue. However, alcohol will rinse
away the way more harmful sea water, and evaporate a LOT quicker than water,
so what you did was a probably a good idea.

The next step is to take the phone to bits as much as you can to allow
everything to dry up. With the 6210, taking the battery out and the cover
off is probably about as far as you can sensibly go. Then leave it in a warm
place, preferably with an air flow for as long as you can wait to ensure it
is completely dry. The longer you wait the better your chances. Most
semi-conductors really hate having bizarre things happening to them and if
your phone is wet this could be applying higher currents or reverse currents
to them.

Some people may say this is an utterly stupid idea, but I've dried things
out that have got wet in my fan oven. You can turn just the fan on if you
turn the temperature as little as possible. The temperature in my oven sits
at around 28C when in that position and the fan gives a good air flow.
Whatever you do though, your phone will NOT like being cooked. So if you do
do this possibly stupid idea make sure your oven isn't going to heat up too
much, and wait for it to reach temperature first so it isn't blasting hot
air over your phone as it heats initially. Try touching the metal shelf (be
careful!), if it feels more than warm it will be too hot.

Another idea would be to put a desktop fan in your airing cupboard pointing
at your phone.

Let us know if it works.

Adam

"Adam Greatrix" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Well the vibrating motor still works - I put the battery in to try it and it
started whirring away. I'll let it dry until Monday before trying the
battery again. Thanks for the encouragement though.

"Ric" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Well the vibrating motor still works - I put the battery in to try it and
it
> started whirring away. I'll let it dry until Monday before trying the
> battery again. Thanks for the encouragement though.

One of the biggest problems is the fact that power can be transferred from
the battery to bits of the circuits that don't want power in the form (such
as too high a current or voltage, incorrect polarity, etc). This happens as
soon as it gets wet so it may be too late. Wait and see...

Adam

"Adam Greatrix" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Ric" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Well the vibrating motor still works - I put the battery in to try it
and
> it
> > started whirring away. I'll let it dry until Monday before trying the
> > battery again. Thanks for the encouragement though.
>
> One of the biggest problems is the fact that power can be transferred from
> the battery to bits of the circuits that don't want power in the form
(such
> as too high a current or voltage, incorrect polarity, etc). This happens
as
> soon as it gets wet so it may be too late. Wait and see...
>
Joy of joy it works!!! After reading your encouragement, I bought some torx
screwdrivers and took it to bits, and gave it a really good scrub down with
pure alcohol and a toothbrush. I let it dry out overnight and put it back
together this morning. Amazingly it works!!! It sprung back into life
demanding time and date etc, so obviously has suffered a deep reset. The
reception signal took a bit longer to recover but now seems to be receiving
all five bars. I have not yet tried taking a call over it, so I am not yet
sure that the speaker or microphone works. I also hope that the firmware
inside has not been erased (it has Mercedes firmware in it to work with the
handsfree in my car). That hard reset was slightly worrying.

"Adam Greatrix" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Done a full test now - everything works fine. Firmware still there, even all
my contacts are still in both phone and SIM memory. Infrared works, as does
microphone and speaker. Only permanent damage seems to be a faint tide-mark
across the display caused by the alcohol dunking. I can live with that!

"Ric" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Done a full test now - everything works fine. Firmware still there, even
all
> my contacts are still in both phone and SIM memory. Infrared works, as
does
> microphone and speaker. Only permanent damage seems to be a faint
tide-mark
> across the display caused by the alcohol dunking. I can live with that!

Very lucky! Well done!

It would be difficult to erase the firmware as this is stored on flash
memory. It's non-volatile so can't be erased accidentally. It would be
extremely rare that water could cause the flash controller to think commands
have been sent to it to put it into program mode and then write to specific
locations in the flash memory. However, it can be damaged like any other
component by dodgy currents being sent to it caused by the water shorting
stuff out.

The hard reset would have been caused by either removing the battery for too
long, or disconnecting the backup battery/capacitor when you took it to
bits. I find that if you leave the battery out for more than a day it will
ask for date and time again. If you disconnect the backup capacitor (this
will happen if you take the covers apart with your torx) then you will lose
everything in memory in the same way. I wouldn't worry about it - that
exactly what would have happened.

Just curious, where did you manage to get so much pure alcohol from? The
last lot of Isopropyl Alcohol I got was from a friend who worked at a
Petro-chemical plant and he could get pure stuff which was great for
electrical work. I've just never seen it for sale anywhere...

Adam