Phone caught in rain, display not working

[cdstephens]

So basically my phone got wet in the rain today. During the rainstorm and directly after, it was fine. A few hours later, while I was taking a nap, the display stopped working. I can still hear vibrations and alarms I had already set, and it still charges, so the SD card and battery are fine. However, since the display isn't working, I can't use it. I can't get at the LCD because the screws in the phone won't budge, and I don't want to strip them.

Motorola Droid.

Would a Verizon store repair my phone? How much would it cost? Anything I can do short of buying a new phone?

 

[Lock-N-Load]

try to let it sit in a cup full of rice or silicon packets you find packaged in electronics. sucks the moisture out.

not likely will they repair, more likely replace.

 

[jdailey1981]

Be sure you have water damage insurance. If not and under warranty, it will void your warranty & you will have to to shell out $50 of insurance for another phone. Not trying to be negative, but this did happen to my wife before.

 

[cdstephens]

Rice fixed it. Works fine now! Thanks!

 

[Lock-N-Load]

well there you go

your welcome

 

[Palmetto Fellow]

Rice fixed it. Works fine now! Thanks!

That wasn't even 12 hours of rice exposure...pretty sweet.

 

[Danielson2047]

Ni left mine out in the rain, just shut it off for around three hours and then worked fine. No rice or anything. Almost crapped myself.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

another trick I like to do, besides rice or the silicon packets is to set the item on top of one of my computers while doing rice or silicon as the computer puts off a bit of low and even heat/warmth.

 

[shadowdude777]

another trick I like to do, besides rice or the silicon packets is to set the item on top of one of my computers while doing rice or silicon as the computer puts off a bit of low and even heat/warmth.

As far as more effective desiccants than rice, you usually have to use some sort of "chemical" (when I say that I mean something that's just a relatively pure substance). Silica gel packets are hard to come across; you don't exactly get a lot out of electronics when you buy them either. If you have the following household chemicals which also act as desiccants, you may consider placing a water-damaged phone in a bag with them as well:

Solid lye pellets (sodium hydroxide). Do NOT submerse it in a lye solution. Dangerous but a very good desiccant.
Rock salt that's used to de-ice roads (calcium chloride). Not as good as silica or lye but most of you probably have this.

But yeah, that's just if you want/need to experiment if rice doesn't work for you. Which it does, many times.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

As far as more effective desiccants than rice, you usually have to use some sort of "chemical" (when I say that I mean something that's just a relatively pure substance). Silica gel packets are hard to come across; you don't exactly get a lot out of electronics when you buy them either. If you have the following household chemicals which also act as desiccants, you may consider placing a water-damaged phone in a bag with them as well:

Solid lye pellets (sodium hydroxide). Do NOT submerse it in a lye solution. Dangerous but a very good desiccant.
Rock salt that's used to de-ice roads (calcium chloride). Not as good as silica or lye but most of you probably have this.

But yeah, that's just if you want/need to experiment if rice doesn't work for you. Which it does, many times.

I have a small box of those silicon desiccants. I pull them from EVERY piece of electronics I buy and have been keeping them for years.

I have resurrected 2 ipods that went through the washing machine - full cycle - with the rice or silicon trick. both would not start. 1-2 days later doing my methods, both still work today.

 

[shadowdude777]

I find it amazing how electronics tend to revive themselves as soon as they're dried out.

It would take me a while to start a collection of that much silica gel though. Unless you know of any sources of it in like $2 electronics? For now, I'll stick to rice and if that doesn't work, lye beads.

 

[KidFlash]

So would I leave the batter cover on or off? I want to try this because my screen stopped working today, not sure if it's cuz of the moisture, but I want to rule that possibility out before I see if I can get a refurbished droid.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

So would I leave the batter cover on or off? I want to try this because my screen stopped working today, not sure if it's cuz of the moisture, but I want to rule that possibility out before I see if I can get a refurbished droid.

yeah sure. no harm there. I would. just allows you to get to the heart of the matter quicker and not have to suck moisture through the cracks and a battery cover.

 

[shadowdude777]

Might also help to leave the slider open. Basically you want as much surface area as possible. That's how silica gel works, really; it's a desiccant, but what makes it so special is its immense surface area to volume ratio. Little beads can do a lot. So more surface area = good.