Help Water Damaged Desire

[shaahinjjj]

Hi All,

I swam with my Desire in water for about a minute and it got completely soaked. Both water indicators (the one on the battery and the one inside the phone) turned pink/red. I dried the phone, left it in a bag of rice for couple of hours, and when I tried to turn it on it vibrated and the front led light kept going on and off. I tried the phone again the morning after and nothing happened. It's been 3 days now and the phone still does nothing when i turn it on. I also had a friend of mine to replace the CPU processor of the phone with a brand new one and still no luck. Since this is an unlocked version of the phone and I paid $650 for it, I'm willing to spend up to half of that price to get it fixed. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Pedro7]

you could try drying the phone's insides with a hair dryer? although im not sure if this could help at all.. seeing as you've replaced the cpu, im guessing your warranty is out the window..


just out of curiosity, why did you go swimming with it?

 

[anoniemouse]

Water ingression has already voided the warranty, still a hairdryer is one way or place above a radiator for a few days should do the trick.
Better still place in a window that gets loads of sunlight with the back cover & battery removed, perfect providing you don't live in the UK in which case the previous methods.

 

[thomsonga]

I used to work as a mobile technician. To "repair" water damaged handsets i would use an alcohol-based cleaner and thoroughly clean the entire circuit board with a medium-bristled brush, removing any of the blueish marks that water damage leaves behind. Since you've replaced the CPU I assume you can open the handset.

Unfortunately it's then a case of working out what's broken which is where it gets expensive. I last worked as an engineer almost 10 years ago (summer job) and could tell you what to look for on any Nokia handset made between 1997 and 2004, but I guess it's the same now as it was then.

1st to go is normally the ringer/speaker unit, followed by any larger capacitors. As your phone isn't turning on i'd do a quick check of all large-ish capacitors and resistors to make sure they're all working. After that it's the screen and all other microchips, which are harder to check.

 

[JasonC]

Should have got one of these:

 

[ru']

Luckily most components are completely waterproof (possibly not things like the 'speaker and mic. though). Damage is often done when the phone is turned on and there is still water present.

If your friend is competent enough to replace the CPU (wouldn't look forward to that task; surely its a bga or similar practically impossible to hand-solder device?) did he make sure it was completely dry inside etc.?

 

[shaahinjjj]

Well before my friend replaced the battery i had already tried turning on the phone several times, which was about 12 hours after the phone got wet. Although I did all the necessary things to dry up the phone inside and outside, I'm afraid that i've damaged the device by turning it on too soon, as there is a good chance that the phone wasn't completely dry (I was way too impatient to see if the phone still works or not). If that is the case that I turned the phone on when there was still water inside, will it be possible/worth to repair?

 

[shaahinjjj]

you could try drying the phone's insides with a hair dryer? although im not sure if this could help at all.. seeing as you've replaced the cpu, im guessing your warranty is out the window..


just out of curiosity, why did you go swimming with it?

I was just curious who swims faster!

 

[ukzen]

Needs a sonic bath to vapourise any moisture

 

[OFI]

Turning it on that soon after getting it wet you've probably totaled it...

Putting it in a bag of rice was a great idea but for only two hours is pointless. In future remove the battery and then leave it in the bag for a good couple of days. Or even get some of those silica gel packs. Then you need to use alcohol to push out any remaining water.

You might just want to get insurance for next time or not take it swimming

 

[ru']

i still want to hear more about how your friend replaced the cpu tbh

 

[shaahinjjj]

i still want to hear more about how your friend replaced the cpu tbh

I have no clue. He does phone repairs and he happened to have the same CPU as the original one in my desire. It took him an hour or two to figure out how to take out the original CPU and put the new one in, but he did it. He didn't charge me anything because he'll be able to get a brand new CPU from HTC for that old, non-functioning one! I'm not sure how though.

 

[benchmark]

Should have got one of these:

do you have a link to where that can be purchased?

 

[JesperMilling]

I don't know if this will work in any case of a soaked HTC Desire, but mine was complete soaked with seawater yesterday, and I took it completely apart (8 screws) rinsed all parts with drinking water to get the salt off, and dried all parts with a hairdryer on lowest power for 1