Water Damaged Diamond... what next?

[nairb011]

Hello all, while drunk at the beach this weekend I accidentally went into the water with my Touch Diamond in my pocket... stupid... I know, did I mention I was drunk? Anyways, the current issue at hand is what to do with my screwed up cell phone.

I took the backing, battery and SIM card out of the phone and let it dry out as much as I could since the weekend. When I turned it on this morning, the "smart mobility" text appears for a few seconds, but the phone shuts off shortly after that. Do batteries usually break from water damage, as well?

If anyone has any advice for me I would greatly appreciate it. Does anyone know of a legit place that can repair this? Is there anything I can do to try and remedy this problem? Or would you recommend I just sell/ditch this one and get a new phone? Thanks a lot.

[Antimus]

Have you tried charging the battery? that might explain it only booting for a second, the other explanation is that it's fried the ROM chips and only the bootloader works.

It's not looking good, is it under warranty?

[dajudge01]

Disassemble your Diamond completely (manual floating around somewhere in this forum), clean all pieces using one of these isopropanol-brush-thingies, reassemble, turn it on - and pray. Any year - a new battery might be a good idea. No promises on anything of that though. The diamond is a very integrated piece of technology and you might have short-circuited something on one of the PCBs really. No guarantee that everything will work as usual even if the device comes up as well.

Warranty seems to be out of the question - I guess virtually any repair center will notice residue of loads of salt water on the first look inside...

[Antimus]

That's true, I meant to say insurance, heh.

[wardy]

Strip it down Salt water is very and I mean very corrosive ! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing this . Waranty repair will be expensive.

Clean with an alchol based cleaner as advised but you must ensure you get all the salt out. To see it boot means that the screen has survived ( Amazed by this ) .

Best of luck , oh and if it does not work are you insured for accidental damage on personal items on your household insurance. This could be the next route

[SOLSchweiz]

I have the same problem with my Tytn 2. It got wet during the "Oranje" Party in Basel, when the firemen were "cooling" down the fans...

It boots..but as soon as it has booted, you here a lot of "bling..bling..bling.." and it shuts down.. the batterie doesn't charge..

You recommend to open and clean it with alcool? Actually I'm not sure if it was washed by the firemen or by my own alcool .ehhehe..

I have a Diamond now, but if I get it back to work, I would sell it on ebay.

Regards

[SuperJan65]

Warranty seems to be out of the question - I guess virtually any repair center will notice residue of loads of salt water on the first look inside...

There is a watersensor inside the diamond. They'll notice that the device has been in the water.

[nairb011]

Strip it down Salt water is very and I mean very corrosive ! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing this . Waranty repair will be expensive.

Clean with an alchol based cleaner as advised but you must ensure you get all the salt out. To see it boot means that the screen has survived ( Amazed by this ) .

Best of luck , oh and if it does not work are you insured for accidental damage on personal items on your household insurance. This could be the next route
Luckily I was at lake Michigan in Chicago (fresh water), for whatever that's worth, so I'm not really worried about salt corroding anything away. I bought it off eBay unlocked, I did buy insurance but, naturally, I'm pretty sure that this water damage won't be covered.

Sounds like taking it apart and cleaning it might be my best bet. Do you guys think that any cell phone repair place would be able to help me out? Anyone know of a good cell phone repair shop (in the U.S.)? Thanks for the help thus far guys, I really appreciate it

[imranbashir_uk]

Firstly remove the battery and SIM, please do not try to power up or charge again as you might have already damaged it beyond repair.

Isopropanol or IPA is what you need (100% Alcohol), you can get this from your local chemist for about £5 a bottle.

You need to strip your phone down completely and use an anti static PCB brush to clean the whole lot (Buy it from Maplin), submerge it in a plate of IPA (excluding the screen) while cleaning. As for the warranty sticker remove this by first heating with a hair drier, then uing a Stanley knife point to remove it.

Once it’s all been cleaned and dried in air, re-assemble and power up. If it fails to work take it back for a warranty replacement. As the warranty sticker is intact, and all the evidence of water damage will have been removed, they should replace it for you without a problem.

[ljames28]

Luckily I was at lake Michigan in Chicago (fresh water), for whatever that's worth, so I'm not really worried about salt corroding anything away. I bought it off eBay unlocked, I did buy insurance but, naturally, I'm pretty sure that this water damage won't be covered.

Sounds like taking it apart and cleaning it might be my best bet. Do you guys think that any cell phone repair place would be able to help me out? Anyone know of a good cell phone repair shop (in the U.S.)? Thanks for the help thus far guys, I really appreciate it

Pretty sure? I would check if I was you before doing anything else with it. If insurance doesnt cover water damage, what does it cover? Phone insurance is so expensive i thought they covered everything like theft and accidental damage, I thought the idea was a warranty wont cover you if you break the phone but insurance will.

I'm thinking it may be an idea to check before you do anything else so they dont say "Well we cover water damage, but now youve taken apart the phone we cant cover you"

[webmice]

Have you tried charging the battery? that might explain it only booting for a second, the other explanation is that it's fried the ROM chips and only the bootloader works.

It's not looking good, is it under warranty?

Seriously you are not hoping warranty will cover "swimming with the diamond"... :)

[MJNewton]

all the evidence of water damage will have been removed, they should replace it for you without a problem.

All the evidence, that is, apart from the water-sensitive tab which I am assuming you didn't know about...? (behind the tab for attaching a strap)

Mathew

[Jorlin]

Seriously you are not hoping warranty will cover "swimming with the diamond"... :)

or doese he mean "Swimming Diamond" ... :eek: Is that a new feature we overlocked? I think it's time for another entry in the tweaklist... :D *rofl*

[nairb011]

My warranty does not cover accidental water damage, that is for sure.

I charged the battery up over the weekend and tried turning it back on, and, to my utter amazement, the phone completely powered on. I got to all of my menus and was able to use all of the programs that I opened, even the WiFi worked.

However, the functionality of the touch screen is quite screwed up. I don't know if its shorting out or what but there are basically "ghost taps" and other unintentional actions happening all the time. For example, if I were to just leave it at the home screen it would eventually scroll to another menu, open the start pull-down menu, automatically open the calendar and start doing random shit, etc.

Does anyone know how to fix the touch screen or have any ideas on how to replace one? I have a faint hope that this thing might not be beyond saving.. thanks a lot people

[sandeman684]

Does anyone know how to fix the touch screen or have any ideas on how to replace one? I have a faint hope that this thing might not be beyond saving.. thanks a lot people

Maybe try to re-calibrate the touch screen?

[Black93300ZX]

Don't give up hope, sometimes these things can take days, even weeks to fully dry and become functional. My mom had a sony ericsson somethingorother that she loved, dropped in the tub, didn't work for like a month or more... She'd check it every week or so to see, and slowly the features started coming back... Little by little, more and more buttons would respond (without activating 2 or 3 at a time). Well, long story short (too late?) works 100% now. I don't think water damage is a reparable occurrence, but DON'T sell your Diamond for parts or anything like that, keep it around and check back periodically. Best of luck.

[deuillevent]

there is a little white sticker onto the battery.
If it goes RED it shows HTC that the Phone/Battery went into the water.

This allows HTC to avoid repair "sunk" phones

[Black93300ZX]

there is a little white sticker onto the battery.
If it goes RED it shows HTC that the Phone/Battery went into the water.

This allows HTC to avoid repair "sunk" phones

Should also be one on the phone... If not, there's your solution. New battery + deny any water damage = Free replacement.

[MJNewton]

Should also be one on the phone... If not, there's your solution. New battery + deny any water damage = Free replacement.

See post #12 ;)

[Black93300ZX]

Haha you're all over it... Yeah, I had a feeling they'd have something in the phone, they'd never make it THAT easy.

[MJNewton]

Thinking about it - it could be a little unfair if, say, a rain droplet runs down an attached strap and deposits itself on the water-sensitive sticker... Months later the phone breaks and they say 'sorry sir - the sticker says it's suffered water damage...'

Far fetched, maybe, but it'd be typical of the luck I seem to get! :eek:

Actually, thinking about it again (properly this time) maybe there are multiple such stickers further inside the phone. Does anyone want to volunteer squirting water inside the casing and seeing how many things turn red? Go on - don't be so selfish - do it for the community!

Mathew

[nairb011]

Maybe try to re-calibrate the touch screen?

Is this something that can be done? If so, how?

[Vector-SS]

I would suggest using a spare phone and keep your diamond to completely dry for another couple of days or even a week close to heater or something but don't melt the phone - and i mean do mean close and not on top of :p

I mean the phone powered up, so thats a first good sign, and as someone mentioned, these things can take a while before they completely dry up. Goodluck and keep us posted.

[Araldwenn]

Thinking about it - it could be a little unfair if, say, a rain droplet runs down an attached strap and deposits itself on the water-sensitive sticker... Months later the phone breaks and they say 'sorry sir - the sticker says it's suffered water damage...'

Far fetched, maybe, but it'd be typical of the luck I seem to get! :eek:

Actually, thinking about it again (properly this time) maybe there are multiple such stickers further inside the phone. Does anyone want to volunteer squirting water inside the casing and seeing how many things turn red? Go on - don't be so selfish - do it for the community!

Mathew

I can tell you there is at least 3 ou 4 little white watersensors that turn red when they're exposed to not symply water, but dampness too...

Sorry, no luck for warranty...
And about repairing your diamond, no repair center will do this (or they'll change everything but the case..), cause water (and expecially salted water) is corrosive and may cause damage in time... So even if they fix the faulted parts, nothing says that other parts won't finally fail...

The only thing you can try, is asking a friend if he could ask his own civil responsability insurance to pay for damaging your phone (I'm french, and in France, we've got insurances that helps you when you make unintentional damages to others ; it's named "responsabilité civile". Don't know if the same exists in your country, but in our, it's obligatory )

[Elusiv]

The only thing you can try, is asking a friend if he could ask his own civil responsability insurance to pay for damaging your phone

Wich would be a crime unless your friends name is Heineken, and you tell the insurance company that he forced you to walk into the water ;D gl with that ^^

[Diplomate]

Actually, thinking about it again (properly this time) maybe there are multiple such stickers further inside the phone. Does anyone want to volunteer squirting water inside the casing and seeing how many things turn red? Go on - don't be so selfish - do it for the community!


Look at the service manual on the wiki page. It clearly shows where you have to replace the water-sensitive stickers during the phone reassembly process.

[MJNewton]

It was a joke! (granted, not a very good one):D

[Araldwenn]

Wich would be a crime unless your friends name is Heineken, and you tell the insurance company that he forced you to walk into the water ;D gl with that ^^

Would be a crime too to remove the water-sensitive stickers ;)