Original Post: Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Dealing with a wet phone!
Well… as an essential gadget, mobile phones are the devices which are closer to us and share’s our lives than any other tech device. What ever we do, where ever we go it’s there keeping us connected, entertained and organized. Bla bla bla!! As a result there is more probability for your mobile phone than other devices, to accidentally get contact with water or similar liquids which will damage the non-water proof mobile device. Ouch! that’s gonna hurt!
I know no one of you would like to loose that smart gadget, which you have invested hardly-earned $$$. But accidents do happen. Then before you go to the doctor there may be first-aids you can perform, which will increase chances of survival of your device. This blog post (aint calling it a guide! U decide.) is all about that.
Well, let’s see what basic kind of dives a phone can take. Hmmm… It can be just dropping the phone in to your drink (Cocktail? Whiskey? Coke?), falling in to the pool with phone in your pocket, forgot to take out before putting pants into the washing machine, a bunch of friends throws you into sea water at beach with your phone in the belt, etc, etc… they may sounds funny… but u’ll never know till that happens to u! – let’s hope not ;) – Okay… lets categorize. If the device fell into pure water, I say; u r lucky! In swimming pools they add chlorine and other chemicals which will decrease our chances. If it’s a drink, that may contain different chemicals which will enhance conductivity of the liquid, that’s bad. And if its sea water or any other highly active chemical solution… man, it’s a worst day.
How does your device get damaged? Basically it’s not H
OKAY! Let’s see what you should do at the first moment, which definitely affect the fate of your device a lot. The most important step is, take your phone out of liquid (do I need to say that?!) and remove the battery (and other power sources, if any) as soon as possible. Take out the SIM cards and any memory modules too. These will stop further power supply and reduce conductivity, which minimize risk of damages caused by short-circuit. I repeat, how quick you proceed this basic step will do change a lot between the chances of your phone, survived. So be quick!
Well… Boyz, then lets get into the real business. You should dissemble… yeah I said DISSEMBLE… the device!! (What on earth this guy is thinking!! OK, OK, I know how you feel!) Well then, before we talk about the dissembling procedures, let’s talk about pros n cons of dissembling the device. First issue is, it will void the warranty of your device. But u can see, it’s not a issue* because no manufacture nor retailer (to my knowledge) will give you warranty which covers damages caused by water/liquids. Second, will dissembling may cause more damage to the device? Well it’ll depend on how good are you and how lucky are you. I believe as it will take at least 5mins to take your phone to a mobile repair point or to a qualified technician. Dissembling it by your self, with care, will increase its chances of survival, as it’s a game of time where your chances are decreasing with the every second passed by while the internal components are with contact of water/liquid. The more it takes, the less chances you’ll have. So why don’t we give it a try, ha! [*:But if you have a phone insurance for the device, and if it covers losses due to usage issues, don’t dissemble the device. Instead, be proud of your self and enjoy thinking about the new device which u gonna buy with the insurance money.]
I guess you are lucky enough that you are reading this now, before a tragedy happens, and you don’t have wet phone in your hand, so you can be ready with necessary tool(s). So what do we need? Well in most cases we don’t want many tools. For most devices on the market, a universal mobile screw driver – Torx T6 will help. You will be able to buy it at your nearest tool shop or at online stores (eBay, etc) for price around $ 3. A must-owned too for a guy (even a girl) who exist in present time which all the tech gadgets. It’s better if you have mini set of Torx screwdrivers at least T5, T6 & T8. Buy a few and keep ‘em in your car cabby-hole, work-desk locker, hiking/safari/off-road backpack, etc. And u may need a small flat screw driver or similar thing (once I had to use a butter knife! ;) ), which you may hopefully find from that place, to help you taking apart housing and other components.
So, you have already removed the battery, SIM & memory modules. Ok let’s start stripping! Make sure you remember how they were fixed and how you dissemble, because you are going to assemble it back later. Now take apart housing panels. You may have to remove screws and un-fasten panels from notches with care. Check for any hidden screws behind logo stickers, etc. Removing the panel on the back, above the battery cover first will make things easy. Carefully take apart the main board and… remove any backup batteries on the main board if possible. We are talking about devices which took dives, not just a splashes, so I assume your main board wet with liquid. If our case is not “a dive in clean water”, give the main board a quick wash in to flowing pure water. Distilled water will be the best but tap water will do. By this, any chemical particles which are more conductive and helps corrosion will be washed away [especially if our case is sea water]. Actually though I mentioned it first, using clean water is the alternative. Best solution is to wash the main board and other components (keypad, housing panels, display unit – if can removed from board with extreme care, etc) with Iso-Propyl-Alcohol, which is also known as surgical spirit or rubbing alcohol, which you’ll find in any first-aid box. Slowly move the board in the solution for better wash off and let solution contact the liquid particles between small components. Using Iso-Propyl-Alcohol will wash away chemicals and make the board dry faster as it evaporates faster than water. Make sure all this washing procedure is very quick. Use a very clean brush to gently brush off the remaining solution. Keep the washed main board and components in flowing wind, under a fan to dry up. Don’t use any heat-guns or heat sources to dry up the main board n components, because heat may damage the electronics directly and increase chemical reactions. Though I say alcohol, don’t use booze as many of you may prefer! Don’t use any strong chemicals, such as Thinner, Turpentine, Detergents, WD40, etc etc. Better put phone back to sea water n drive that 10-wheeler twice over it!!! ;)
Patience! I know that feeling… urge you to fix things together and try out the device whether its working or not. But let it dry, may be two or three days. More you let it dry - more chances you have! See whether is there any dried alien particles visible on the components, if so gently brush them out.
“The” time has arrived. Assemble the device. Here you can have two choices that, you assemble it by your-self (what I would prefer) or taking it to a technician. If you are assembling it by your self; take your time to be careful enough, as there’s no real hurry. Make sure you put everything back properly in their places, and no spares left out! Charge the battery (if can test with a new/other battery - that’ll be better) separately using a rapid travel charger. Insert a test SIM module (a real test SIM, which is very cheap, or a working SIM which you can safely have some risk with) to the device. We’ll leave memory module to be tested later. Fix the battery in. And… Three… Two… One… Press the Power ON button!! If you are lucky, the phone will work exactly like before.
If you are not that lucky, common problems will be, display: dim/blinking/parts missing/ill-coloured/blank/etc, speaker mute, microphone deaf and so on. Sometimes it’ll take some time to turn ON. But if you are too unlucky… there won’t be any sign that device is alive. In both cases go to your technician, tell the whole story, and check whether if its possible to repair. Be sure you check whether the repair cost is worth doing it. For example, if the case is a dive in sea water, a expensive repair will be useless as most likely the device will give-up after few months due to corrosion. And for some devices, buying spares and repairing will cost the same, the price of a new device. And if you are under a phone plan, things will be bit complex to decide between buying a device separately to continue with the current plan or changing the plan. Discuss with your operator, as they may replace the device in to the plan for an additional cost.
This post was based on practical steps which compiles with what technicians do at repair shops. Dissembling a device is not generally recommended for normal users (which makes you a power user!) and has to be done with extreme caution. It will increase chances against un-avoidable odds. The good news is, according to many incidents and repair persons’ opinions; it is proved that more than 75% of wet mid-range devices survives after an accidental dive, if they followed the procedure as quick and accurate as possible. Use your own judgment! Hope you won’t have to use the content of this post. If you have to… Good Luck! :)
[Kalana – kalana.wijesekara@gmail.com]
[Special Credits to Hofo guys.]
No comments:
Post a Comment