Water damage?

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Hi, I dunked my phone in a sink a few days ago I tried to dry it out and it wouldn't boot, even with a new battery. My girlfriend suggested trying to heat it up a bit to help it dry out so I put it in the microwave for a few secs but all that did was make this ozone smell... Any ideas????









































LOL k no I didn't stick it in the MW, but the gf did suggest that and I about died laughing. I can't get the phone to boot and have pretty much written it off unfortunately - is there anything I can do with it to be useful to the Dream/Android world? I can only assume it's been dissected entirely already.

FYI, when you get your phone wet, the worst thing to do is try to turn it on... next time, take the battery out, leave the back off, slide open the keyboard, and put it in a bag of instant white rice for a couple days. This is your best bet it will survive to live for a bit longer, but will eventually stop working down the road as connections rust...

You can also give it a dip in rubbing alcohol prior to putting it in the rice, this will force some of the water off/out of connections, and clean it a bit. And since rubbing alcohol isn't water, and doesn't effect electrical circuits like water does, no harm. Still do the bag of rice for a couple days trick, though.

And one last thing, it is never the battery! Never, never, never! The battery is water proof, and doesn't die from short circuits(which is what happens when the phone gets wet, and is what causes instant death)

Interesting, I'd always figured it was the battery that went. I used to lifeguard and once found a phone at the bottom of the lake, let it dry out for a week or so and it turned right on, but the battery was hosed.

I did take it as apart as I could and let it dry out, didn't do the white rice trick but I did blow some compressed air (real air from a compressor, not the canned stuff) through it briefly. Main reason I thought the battery was the culprit was I took a multimeter to it and there's exactly 0.0v across the +/- terminals (240kOhm, so probably not shorting). However, when plugged in the phone only provides 1.8v across the corresponding terminals, much too low to charge - any idea if the phone looks to see if the batt is installed before applying power to the battery?

Originally Posted by pjcforpres

And one last thing, it is never the battery! Never, never, never! The battery is water proof, and doesn't die from short circuits(which is what happens when the phone gets wet, and is what causes instant death)

Not true. My mom dropped her Samsung Omnia into a pool, then got a new phone through insurance. She tried putting the battery from the new phone into the old one, and it turned right on.

The battery in these things is more than just a battery. There is some control circuit on them, and shorting out the leads on the battery can fry the control circuit.