Drowned Cellphone: Fix?

Just drowned my third phone this year.

The previous 2 were in salt water and I just chucked 'em.

This one was in lake water and it seems to me like there's some hope.
After drying overnite, the lights come on... but the keyboard does not work.

Somewhere I heard that soaking something electronic in "de-ionized" water and
then letting it dry is one approach - but I've haven't got a clue what
de-ionized water is. A more official-sounding way to say "distilled"?

Anybody got a suggestion on how to resurrect this thing?

Nokia 3590.
--
PeteCresswell

---

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"(PeteCresswell)" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> but the keyboard does not work.
>

I may still be wet, inside, shorting out the little pads the rubber
switches touch. It may still come back in a few months.......

Try to put it somewhere very warm, but not hot enough to cause the display
crystals to melt (they turn black but come back after they cool, a great
internal thermometer for doing this). The GENTLE <<<<notice emphasis<<<<
heat will drive the water out of it over time. If it gets too hot to
touch, it's too hot! We don't want to warp its cheap plastic.....

If it never comes back, keep it for a little fun. Hold it in your hand at
the cellphone office and after they've grabbed it away from you at the
service desk and ask what you did to it, say in a calm, steady voice, "I
dropped it into an unflushed toilet, but you didn't give me a chance to
explain." (If you fart, quietly, by the counter, it adds to the sensory
overload after you've sprung the trap...(c

Look on their faces?........................PRICELESS!

You'll find them a lot less arrogant after that.....(c;

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
> Just drowned my third phone this year.
>
> The previous 2 were in salt water and I just chucked 'em.
>
> This one was in lake water and it seems to me like there's some hope.
> After drying overnite, the lights come on... but the keyboard does not work.
>
> Somewhere I heard that soaking something electronic in "de-ionized" water and
> then letting it dry is one approach - but I've haven't got a clue what
> de-ionized water is. A more official-sounding way to say "distilled"?
>
> Anybody got a suggestion on how to resurrect this thing?
>
> Nokia 3590.

Three phones in one year? Maybe you need to hand the phone around your
neck on a chain like my mother used to keep from losing her eyeglasses.

Per Dave:
>Three phones in one year? Maybe you need to hand the phone around your
>neck on a chain like my mother used to keep from losing her eyeglasses.

Nah... I just need to break down and buy a new waterproof bag.

Thought the first one was a fluke - like maybe I didn't seal the bag right.

After the second one I looked closely and saw a subtle little tear right where
it seals.

The third one, I was foolish enough to believe that if I just put in a big
ziploc and zipped/folded/rolled the bag enough and didn't let it get immersed
too deep it'd be ok. Not...-)

I figured out how to disassemble the thing and now have the three major
subsystems laying out on a table to dry. Looks to me like they still need
cleaning though... so it's back to "What the heck is de-ionized water...and can
I use it to wash the parts?"....

In the service, we used to wash the circuit boards of a special kind of computer
with a scrub brush and a bucket of PineSol... so I don't think it's too radical
an idea...
--
PeteCresswell

In article <[email protected]>, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
> Just drowned my third phone this year.

And I thought *I* abuse my phones by dropping them a lot. I can't
hold a candle to you!


--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

> I figured out how to disassemble the thing...

FWIW, My wife's Samsung was in a pocket that acquired about an inch of red
wine ... ;p ... and so, it shorted out.

Several drying/cleaning attempts went nowhere -- the phone when started went
into "limp-mode" trying to download some bootup code at about 110bps, but
choked at about the 30K point each time.

As a last resort, I left the phone off, sitting on a car dash for 1 hour on
a sunny day. Completely power-cycled the phone -- battery out, then back
in -- and suddenly, we were good to go.

The 120+ degree temperature did a complete, thorough job of drying the
inside of the chassis without cooking any parts.

>... back to "What the heck is de-ionized water...

Distilled water, same as you put in a steam iron. Low/no mineral content.
But try the slow-cooking method (above) first. Once you flush water into
the chassis, you are introducing multiple failure nodes.

/JJG

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
> Just drowned my third phone this year.
>
> The previous 2 were in salt water and I just chucked 'em.
>
> This one was in lake water and it seems to me like there's some hope.
> After drying overnite, the lights come on... but the keyboard does not work.
>
> Somewhere I heard that soaking something electronic in "de-ionized" water and
> then letting it dry is one approach - but I've haven't got a clue what
> de-ionized water is. A more official-sounding way to say "distilled"?
>
> Anybody got a suggestion on how to resurrect this thing?
>
> Nokia 3590.

I dropped a cell phone in the pool. I took it completely apart and let
it dry out in the sun for a few days. It began working, kind of. It
wouldn't charge, and it wouldn't connect to the computer to dump the
phone book. But at least it powered up and could make calls. I charged
the battery externally in a similar phone. I haven't tried it lately, it
may have improved since then.

"(PeteCresswell)" <[email protected]> spake thusly and wrote:

>Anybody got a suggestion on how to resurrect this thing?

The first thing is to immediately remove the battery (even better
if you remove the battery before dropping it), but...

Then open it up and clean it out as best you can. A hair dryer
can be very helpful. Make sure, really really sure that it is
completely dry before putting the battery back in.

It still probably won't work but, hey, you gave it your best
shot...

Steve
--
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