S4 got wet and now stuck in boot screen/battery icon.

[Stirfry001]

My S4 went swimming with me and now will power on for 5 seconds showing the "Samsung Galaxy S4" screen. This only happens when the battery is out but plugged into the power cord. If I put the battery in with the power plugged in, a battery icon comes up but is frozen on the screen. Battery power only nothing happens. It is a new battery (not damaged from water) and has a charge from another S4.

Trying to get some pictures off of the phone if possible. They are on the phone memory, not the sd card. Any thoughts other than it being my new paper weight?

Thanks!

 

[kate]

Good chance it's toast, but if it recently got wet:

To dry your cell phone take off any removable parts and the battery, then put them in a bag of rice for at least 48 hours to absorb all the water. Do not turn on or use the phone when it's wet.

 

[Podivin]

After following Kate's suggestion to dry the phone (of course it's too late for the "don't turn it on" part), try borrowing a battery from someone or buying a cheap one somewhere. It could be that the battery is bad. That happened to a previous phone of my wife's. It went through a full cycle in the washer. It wouldn't work again until we replaced the battery (I had the same model of phone, so trying a different battery was easy).

For future reference, use Dropbox or one of the many other services that automatically upload your pictures from the phone to online storage. That way if something happens to your phone you at least don't have to worry about the pictures that were on it.

 

[deltaforce]

Do you have some damprid at your home? If yes, open the bag and put the phone in that bag. Now put this bag and phone together in damprid container. Leave it like that for a week or so and then check again. Damprid will absorb all the moisture from the phone (and surrounding) and the liquid will drip in the container below. This should solve the problem.

If you live in a sunny (and dry) part of the world, you could open the back cover and leave it in open for a while.

Also, there is a known solution to put it in the rice bag but I have never tried so can not comment.

I have successfully revived old Sony Ericsson phone by putting in the oven at about 90F for 4 days. I can not say for sure how S4 will perform in 90F oven, but the manual says you can work till 125F or so. I will stick to 90F or max 100F (making sure that the oven temperature is what it says it is).

Please update on how it goes eventually.


Offnote, Anyone figured out any method to make it water resistant?

 

[lotus49]

Offnote, Anyone figured out any method to make it water resistant?

There are water-repellant sprays but I wouldn't trust anything other than a waterproof case. I have one that is good to 3m and cost very little on eBay.