Help Dropped Galaxy S in water :-(

i have read a ton of the forums to make sure i didn't see an answer to my specific question...

i have the fascinate version of the galaxy and it is not charging ... at all.

my water damage indicator shows x's marked across both the phone side and battery side of the indicator. does this mean water damage or not?

ok now that you have answered that, my phone was submerged for about 2 seconds... it has a tight case around it and there is not sign of water damage any where... everything looks, feels, worked... until my battery died and now it won't charge.

i have tried:
- taking battery, sd card out
- sprayed with compressed air
- let sit for 24 hours

now i have it in rice in mildly warm area.

i was having some minor gliches with the charging when it was connected to my computer. but it charged fine when charging from the wall outlet.

i'm wondering if the water disrupted the usb port/charging area... any ideas, reco's, tricks?

thanks a million... BTW just bought this phone 2 weeks ago... so sad.

so I got off work and I was way tired, accidentally sent my phone into the washer... and I realized it, took it out... blow dried everything in my phone.
and now it works... but my screen won't work.. like it's fully charged and everything.. what the hell should I do? Does anyone have any advice on this?

Take it back, or you can try fixing it yourself. Water damage is unpredictable.

I dropped my HTC Desire before in water and it was in there for about a minute before I realised and completely freaked out. Being the idiot I am, I turned it on straight away to check it. Worked for about two seconds then the touch screen started messing up and not responding, phone restarting over and over etc.

I encourage anyone NOT to turn it on the moment you fish it out. Best to do the rice thing, if only I'd known I wouldn't have forked out the

karnka said:

The extremely dishonest advice, which I wouldn't dream of giving you is to return it to the supplier and say 'Just stopped working'.

They might work out you dropped it in water if they pull it apart, they probably won't.

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I dropped my iphone in the water, took it into the apple store, told them the truth about it and they gave me a new phone for FREE. I asked why and they said because I'd been honest about it. They said they have customers come in every day and lie about dropping it in the water.

The iphone has 5 moisture sensors, 2 of which they can see without opening the case. I don't know about the galaxy but would suspect the same.

Most water damage to phones is due to minerals or other substances being left behind after drying.
If any electronic equipment should get whet and it is not pure H20, but tapwater, mineral water, pool water or any other type of liquid, make sure you rinse it thoroughly with the purest form of water you can get, for instance distilled or deminiralised water, to avoid leaving minerals or sugar inside your phone (or other electric equipment) when drying it.

After that drying it completely before turning it on is really important. Use a moderate source of warmth or use a substance that will absorb moist, like a bag of rice.

Clh 1996 said:

Hi

I was making the water up for my mop bucket when my phone slid off the counter and fell into the mop bucket, in which i had just put the last kettle full of boiling water in. Pluse some cift floor cleaner and im clueless about what to do "/

Little hepl?​

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whatever you do, don't try to turn it on. you can try taking the thing apart, even just the back and the battery out, put the whole thing in a bowl of dry rice for like a week at least, and hope like hell it works. You may not have any luck given the chemicals in your cleaner, maybe you'll luck out.

I've also heard that if you can get your hands on a ton of silica gel (the stuff inside leather products that says do not eat), it can work, but I have no idea where you would get it from.

I had my Samsung Galaxy S Captivate for about 2 months before it sat in water that spilled inside of a leather bag. It was probably submerged for about 1.5 hours.

I made a horrible mistake after I realized it had been soaked... First, I took the phone out, let it drip, shook it off, hurriedly opened the back and took out the battery and SIM card and started soaking up the visible water with a paper towel and my tshirt.

This wasn't the mistake, however it appeared for a moment to me that the phone really hadn't gotten that much water inside. I thought perhaps the water bottle had just recently popped open and the phone was better off than originally seemed.

Like an idiot, I pieced the whole thing together and tried to power it up. At first, it was doing just fine. I got the start screen, etc., with audio. But then you could hear the inner gadgets grinding, squeaking and obviously running into difficulty. There was definitely water within, and if it wasn't deep enough when I started, it sure was now. That stupid move probably cost me the phone and blew the circuitry. Regardless, I took the phone apart and that night had it soaking in a freezer bag full of rice. The next day I took it to ATT - no help there, not worth relaying. I then took it to a professional cellular battery store where they tested my battery and found 0 energy (not sure of unit measure here? Point it it was dead.) and then he put a NEW battery into my phone and also got nothing, indicating that the phone itself was probably toast.

So I was 3500 miles from home at the time this occurred and since I needed to have a phone I ended up getting a replacement from Best Buy for free. I was very lucky; when I say replacement, I mean I just went in and got a new one; they didn't replace the old one. Due to my ATT plan I was able to get it at no charge. I still have the old one and it sat in that Ziploc bag of rice for over 1 month. I didn't want to touch it again or ruin it any further.

Today I took a look at it and decided to plug it in and see what happens. I put the battery back inside and hit the power button - nothing. I plugged it in and the bottom row of menu buttons (settings/home/back/search) lit up. Hope!

It "charged" all morning and by the end of the afternoon the phone was scorching hot, and most of the heat was coming from the battery within. The home row of keys are still illuminated, but I haven't seen anything else to indicate that there's life in this phone.

The only reason I'm not trashing it it because I have pics on there that I have .01% hope are salvageable.

I took the power cord and thought for the hell of it I would plug it into the computer and see if the computer recognized or picked up any hint of files inside. Nothing, although the phone still lit up on the home keys as though it were being charged.

Now, my original phone did NOT come with an SD card, and the guys at Best Buy thought that was strange. The new phone DID come with an SD card, so that's nice - but I also downloaded an app to back up photos and videos online automatically - it was recommended by Best Buy and I know it's unlikely to be the greatest but it'll work for now until I have time to find a better app - it's called MyIQ (I think that's how you spell it) and it's offered by Best Buy for free.

I also read that, contrary to popular ideas, blow-drying it is NOT a good idea because it can actually push tiny droplets of water into even tinier spaces and cause more damage.

Finally, obvious indicators of internal water damage are the stripes on your phone and battery. If you look at the top portion of your battery you'll see the metal slivers that have to align when you put it in; beside that is usually a pale, white square/rectangle shape. You will also see another similar-type square on the inside of your phone where the battery goes. If either or both of these are pink, pinkish, red, or orange/yellow (basically any color other than white) there has been water damage. I'd post pics but I'm a new user and I can't do so until I have the "required number of posts." Hey, filtered forum

Anyway, I don't know if there is a super genius out there who can disassemble the whole phone and magically get my 700+ photos out. I'm still asking around, though, because I think that someone could probably do it, just not me at this point in time. If I find anyone or read anything, I'll be sure to come back and pass it along.

For those of you who managed to save your phones - awesome! I don't know why in this day and age with technology being as advanced as it is they don't yet have a way to prevent a total write-off of a phone that can cost upwards $600 to replace just because it gets a bit of water in it. I understand water + electricity = BAD but c'mon already! Shatter-proof, water proof, wifi - is that too much to ask?

Good luck, everyone!

I am not sure why this is not told more often but its used in a few repair shops with phones with recent water damage.

Water is conductive and can cause corrosion to the main board. Even if you soak it in rice issues can occur down the line. Within days or months due to corrosion. Easy way to dry out your phone without taking it apart and avoid corrosion is to simply take your phone and dip it into a bowl of isopropyl 99% of course. Iso does not corrode, yes its conductive but this is why we have to let it dry after and of course because its 99% alcohol it takes about a day or two max sitting in the open to dry. And I do mean max. if you take a fan onto it after it speeds it up a lot as well. You would only want to dip the phone in for a few seconds and shake it around to make sure the iso mixes with all the water and once it has the concentration of iso will clear up the water damage.

Now of course this is not 100% and works only if the internal circuits are not already damaged. For instance if you have dropped your phone in the sink while it was on, it coudl have shorted a connector and burnt the board and this of course is not fixable. But 90% of the time when your phone gets wet it will just short the battery and turn off your phone.

The biggest risk is getting any water between the back light and the LCD screen as if you do it will discolor the back light and forever have parts of your screen that look odd colored.

This method applies to most all electronics and I have persoanlly used it on
Macbooks
Galaxy phones
iPhone 3GS and 4
Car remote starters
cameras

dropped mine in the spa (say 10 seconds) on the weekend. phone went berserk - flashing lights etc.. (kinda cool actually!)

took out battery, all cards and put it in a container with water absorbing crystals. next morning turned it on and worked perfectly. has not missed a beat since

Sleeper69 said:

dropped mine in the spa (say 10 seconds) on the weekend. phone went berserk - flashing lights etc.. (kinda cool actually!)

took out battery, all cards and put it in a container with water absorbing crystals. next morning turned it on and worked perfectly. has not missed a beat since

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Water absorbing crystals? The flower stems ones that you use in the vase?

Dropped mine down the toilet last night (nothing down there ) took it out straight away took the back off, batter out, sim and memory card out, dried it off and stuck it in the airing cupboard over night.. tried it lunch time today.. seems to turn on okay.. but its not working properly. The screen is still a perfect image but i cant click on my messaging or anything.. was able to make one phone call then it switched off... not sure what to do.. was it a mistake trying it too early?
And also a man from orange gave me a bollocking for trying to charge it... Oooopss??

D:

Roze said:

Water absorbing crystals? The flower stems ones that you use in the vase?

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yes but you need ALOT. they can be bough from camera stores.

jasmyn said:

Dropped mine down the toilet last night (nothing down there ) took it out straight away took the back off, batter out, sim and memory card out, dried it off and stuck it in the airing cupboard over night.. tried it lunch time today.. seems to turn on okay.. but its not working properly. The screen is still a perfect image but i cant click on my messaging or anything.. was able to make one phone call then it switched off... not sure what to do.. was it a mistake trying it too early?
And also a man from orange gave me a bollocking for trying to charge it... Oooopss??

D:

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leave it all undone for a day or so - but not in the sun - just let it sit somewhere warm-ish. mine did the same and it came back. be patient

It fell in a lake... after 40 minutes of diving I found it, is been two days and I haven't turn it on...

WHAT SHOULD I DO???

I would suggest leave it in rice or silica crystals for at least a week - if not two. Don't turn it on in the meantime.

Found this article. It might be useful to some:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/4269047

Grrrr

I recently had the unfortunate experience of leaving my Nexus S in the washer on the heavy cycle for not just 15 minutes, but 30! I'd grabbed a stack of sheets not realizing it was still buried beneath. To add to my stupidity, I stopped the washer 15 minutes into the wash, added more linens, and restarted.

Surprisingly, on emptying the load into the dryer and realizing it was in there, it was actually still on ... (though the screen seemed frozen on the initial startup screen). I didn't think it would even have a pulse.

I immediately disassembled it. I know its not advised, but I used a hair dryer to try speeding up the process (though I used the cool setting so that the blowing air wasn't warm at all). My conundrum is that I am scheduled to travel shortly and really needed to know if it was even salvageable so I could decide whether to get a replacement the few hours I had left in the US.

So I powered her back up after just a few hours. There were some screen flickers on loading, and the camera flash actually fired during startup which was strange. Nevertheless, it loaded just fine. The screen, buttons, speaker and touch also worked fine. It made some strange grinding noises instead of vibrating, but returned to normal after I left it for another few hours, though there is some initial flickering on startup. The power button doesn't seem to work though the volume does.

The battery also seems to have suffered damage since it doesn't seem to have any of the full charge it had prior to the wash cycle. Neither does it seem to get new charge. (But a bad battery is minor)

I am still crossing my fingers for a miracle (as if the fact that it even comes on and all of my data and programs are accessible isn't miracle enough). So far the network adapter doesn't work. It tries to start WiFi and throws an error. Also, I am not sure if its the relevant hardware or the SIM card, but it doesn't allow me to connect to any providers .. in fact it doesn't see any. It sees the SIM card as being inserted though. And that's as far as it goes.

I have 12 more hours before I have to decide whether to purchase a replacement. So I have stuck it in a bag of rice and wait in anticipation. Fun fun fun!!!

I love my Nexus S and would miss her terribly ... but I shudder at having to spend the dough for a replacement of the same generation phone in less than a year!!!!!!!

I would actually spring for the Nexus Prime if it was on the shelves.

Will keep you posted.

@Zub ouch, I, hope that the rice will help :/ You should look into getting a used NS.

I had a similar experience when my phone went down a toilet once!! Luckily it had a case on that wrapped around to the front of the phone which I think kept a lot of the water out and the USB port was closed at the time as well. It was only in the toilet for about a second before I pulled it out and quickly took the whole thing apart. Annoyingly I was out with friends at the time so my phone had to sit in pieces inside my handbag for the rest of the night. When I got home I left it in the airing cupboard in pieces for a few days before attempting to switch it on. By some miracle it still worked without any problems at all. I was so happy because it was brand new and I really couldn't afford to buy a new one!!

Add my name to the list of "phone meets toilet & lives" O-)

Two days ago the secret phone magnet at the bottom of every toilet snagged my phone! I quickly snatched it out, it was still on!! I quickly popped the battery our & as soon as the store was open returned with a bag of rice & buried it for the last two days.

By some miracle I have yet to find anything wrong! I couldn't be happier . Well, I'd be happier if it never happened, but I can tell you I'm a lot more careful now

my Galaxy S dropped in bucket yesterday morning.... i grabbed it immediately and it was working fine, i thought water didnt get in ... but as soon as screen started fading away... i opened it and removed battery and sim... kept it in sunlight... and within 20 mins after searching and reading some rice recipes, i filled a plastic bag with rice and put the phone in the rice...I noticed that camera was filled with moisture, anyways i kept the bag in sunlight. I waited for the whole day until sunset... and waited more, seeing that camera moisture is absorbed i thought i should try it. i cudnt be patient any more and before sleeping, i tried it out, the screen was navy bluish and the phone loaded i could hardly see the bootup process... the phone turned on fine... with the bootup music a bit different... well i thought the phone's LCD is still wet deep inside... i got happy coz i thought at least its capable of taking the backup... i powered it off and slept in peace. today i repeated the same, kept the bag in sunlight... and in the evening i could see the vapors in the bag... so i thought enuff water has come out as vapors...

now was the time to check again... i tried to to turn on, same navy blue screen and hardly could see the bootup logo, but this time.. it didnt boot... as soon as i put the battery... the phone turns on itself.. and reboots every couple of secs.... now according to different threads, the water may have entered the power button and it keeps on restarting... i hope it gets dry by tomorrow....

Now i want to know if the screen is damaged forever or is there any chance of recovery??? anybody with similar situation???

As much as I love my beautiful 16 month old, she managed to throw my Samsung Galaxy S into the toilet whilst it was still on. I panicked, grabbed the phone, dried off the excess water inside and out and put it in a towel on the radiator shelf. The phone went in switched on and I removed the battery straight away to dry and went to bed. In the morning my boyfriend is playing with it and he says, "good news is it is charging, bad news is it don't come on!" After searching on-line for fix-it-remedies, i put it into a bag of rice and its been in there for and hour now. I'm not even bothered about the phone I'm more concerned about my 16 months of photos of my little girl. Had my laptop nicked a week ago so haven't got round to uploading photos and videos on new 1 yet...just my luck!!
Hopefully the rice thing will work, but how long do you think I should leave it in the rice for and also, probably a silly question but do I leave the phone assembled?? cos at the moment I have taken out the battery and sim card but put the back cover back onto the phone..
I hope i can just get the memories off the phone, I don't care bout the rest! What do u think? will it work? Any other suggestions??

angrybird86 said:

As much as I love my beautiful 16 month old, she managed to throw my Samsung Galaxy S into the toilet whilst it was still on. I panicked, grabbed the phone, dried off the excess water inside and out and put it in a towel on the radiator shelf. The phone went in switched on and I removed the battery straight away to dry and went to bed. In the morning my boyfriend is playing with it and he says, "good news is it is charging, bad news is it don't come on!" After searching on-line for fix-it-remedies, i put it into a bag of rice and its been in there for and hour now. I'm not even bothered about the phone I'm more concerned about my 16 months of photos of my little girl. Had my laptop nicked a week ago so haven't got round to uploading photos and videos on new 1 yet...just my luck!!
Hopefully the rice thing will work, but how long do you think I should leave it in the rice for and also, probably a silly question but do I leave the phone assembled?? cos at the moment I have taken out the battery and sim card but put the back cover back onto the phone..
I hope i can just get the memories off the phone, I don't care bout the rest! What do u think? will it work? Any other suggestions??

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You have to be very patient... keep it covered in rice, sealed in container or plastic bag... also expose it to sunlight, but make sure u expose the rice to sunlight the cell phone should be covered in rice... i have tried and saw that the moisture came out and it was stuck to the plastic bag from inside... i waited for hours but i shud have been more patient, coz i lost the screen... now my phone seems like working well except for the screen i cant see anything... buy since the touch was working, so i managed to plug in the usb cable and take out the backup... now its back in rice.. i hope it gets ok... but i dnt have much of worry now.. now i'll leave it for couple of days.... but its better you keep it in the rice for at least 2 days... it depends how much water got inside... keep the battery aside... as its not good to expose the battery to sunlight.... best of luck..