Melted my Hero with Auto Brake Cleaner :(

[Tazdeviloo7]

Good sign, my battery's dead, but I noticed that if I take the usb cable in and out a few times it turns on with out pressing the power button and the led blinks red before the phone dies so that works too. I think all I need to do is clean the sucker. Is alcohol and an old tooth brush a good way to clean it? Could it be some other problem?

 

[pwabbit]

Can we have some pics?

Oh, and for future reference: rubbing alcohol cleans electronics fantastically.

I totally agree with you. Alcohol is real mild on plastic parts, but effectively cleans away the crud. Years ago, I tried electronics parts cleaner to clean the connector on an old phone, wont do that again. It attacks plastics, although, at a much slower pace than brake cleaner, acetone or MEK.

 

[Tazdeviloo7]

I thoroughly cleaned my mini usb port with denatured alcohol and a cotton swab(flattened to get it to fit in there) and it still won't charge. I know it does charge for a split second, just enough to get the phone to recognize it's charging and start booting before shutting down from low battery. Please I need some help, any ideas??? The only thing I can think of is removing the usb port with pliers and a dremel, then soldering it back on with a pen type soldering iron. That is a last resort, I'd much rather try something else. So please any ideas?

 

[pwabbit]

Have you tried a new battery in it? The charging circuit relies on a good battery. That could be all the problem is, a bad battery

 

[Tazdeviloo7]

I have two batteries and I tried them both, didn't work unfortunately. I tried cleaning the mini usb again and it started to charge and the phone booted up fully! But then as soon as it booted to the home screen it started to flash battery low please charge then died. It did 4 or 5 cycles of this and now it won't charge at all like before. I ordered an external battery charger so worse comes to worse I'll be stuck using that for the rest of the phones life. I've always had somewhat of a problem charging the phone ever since I got it. I always needed to have the phone in just the right position to get it to charge and it got progressively worse to the point where I couldn't charge it anymore so I turned to brake cleaner lol, bad idea. So any ideas?? Has anyone else had a charging problem like this?

 

[ronbien]

Hey Taz, I don't know if you tried another charger but the problem could be in the charger plug and not the USB port. Just a thought.
Good Luck!

 

[Tazdeviloo7]

poop

 

[Tazdeviloo7]

I tried 3 cables and 2 chargers in different variations, didn't work. It's all good now. I took my phone into the Sprint store today and told the store owner who happened to be working the whole story, swimming and brake cleaner included. Now I know the owner a little bit and he's hooked me up with a 28% discount on my service(saving me $700 over 2 years), but I did not expect what happened next.

He put some goo gone on the black plastic that made it look glossy and brand new. Then he took off the red water damage sticker. I asked what he did that for and he said "so sprint will take it back and give you a replacement. We'll put the new sticker on from the replacement and then send it in". I told him I don't have insurance on it and he said "that's np, I'll just add it on for a few days so you can get your replacement." Wow, I did not expect that. Then last, but not least he offered me a job at another Sprint store that will be opening soon. I just so happened to looking for a Summer job. Looks like I'll be a Sprint employee .

It's kind of weird how favoring this guy is to me, at least I'm reasonably sure he's not gay b/c I've seen his gf in the store before, but whatever idc too much cause I'm getting another working hero!! I already ordered a otter box case for it and I'll really try to be carefull with it this time. Thanks all for all your help!!

 

[viperboy]

Well, that was incredibly stupid. I've seen alot of stuff come into the store, never this. Props to you!

 

[jeffreynothing43]

Colonel Panic | How NOT to clean your computer. : funny

 

[jeffreynothing43]

wait.....i just read your above post.

the dude who melted his phone is gonna work at sprint...lol

 

[NYCHitman1]

wait.....i just read your above post.

the dude who melted his phone is gonna work at sprint...lol

LOL, I didn't wanna be THAT guy to point that out

 

[jeffreynothing43]

Well, that was incredibly stupid. I've seen alot of stuff come into the store, never this. Props to you!

bump?

 

[Xandria]

wait.....i just read your above post.

the dude who melted his phone is gonna work at sprint...lol

ROTFL. Wow. I am just... speechless.

 

[DFRESH]

LOL@owning yourself.........

 

[kellysa111]

I tried 3 cables and 2 chargers in different variations, didn't work. It's all good now. I took my phone into the Sprint store today and told the store owner who happened to be working the whole story, swimming and brake cleaner included. Now I know the owner a little bit and he's hooked me up with a 28% discount on my service(saving me $700 over 2 years), but I did not expect what happened next.

He put some goo gone on the black plastic that made it look glossy and brand new. Then he took off the red water damage sticker. I asked what he did that for and he said "so sprint will take it back and give you a replacement. We'll put the new sticker on from the replacement and then send it in". I told him I don't have insurance on it and he said "that's np, I'll just add it on for a few days so you can get your replacement." Wow, I did not expect that. Then last, but not least he offered me a job at another Sprint store that will be opening soon. I just so happened to looking for a Summer job. Looks like I'll be a Sprint employee .

It's kind of weird how favoring this guy is to me, at least I'm reasonably sure he's not gay b/c I've seen his gf in the store before, but whatever idc too much cause I'm getting another working hero!! I already ordered a otter box case for it and I'll really try to be carefull with it this time. Thanks all for all your help!!

Can I do that to my phone and go to that guy? I need a job. I can't stand even a scratch on my phone. but since I'm super poor now, I have to stand it.
My phone stopped charging for a while and I thought it was the phone, but my friend told me that I could use the same charger that my grandma has for her razor ( i think thats whats its called?) and now its charging!

 

[Thefoodman52]

Yea.... as far as chargers go: if it fits in the port (mini-USB), it works. Same thing for micro SD cards. If they fit, they work.

 

[Tazdeviloo7]

I'm really really lucky that I got this job and got my phone replaced. The Sprint rep that hooked me up could get in trouble for what he did so I'm not going to go blabbing about who he is or where the store's at. Good luck on finding a job though.

 

[Tazdeviloo7]

wait.....i just read your above post.

the dude who melted his phone is gonna work at sprint...lol

I definitely won't try that again, that's for sure. I think the guy wanted to hire me because I knew way more about Android than he did.

 

[jeffreynothing43]

I definitely won't try that again, that's for sure. I think the guy wanted to hire me because I knew way more about Android than he did.

incredible...again...i'm speechless.