the wet iPhone
below is the synopsis of my efforts to revive my iphone after i got it wet. i’m using it again, so something here worked, but there were a lot of factors. enjoy.
Day 1. i got my iphone wet. it died.
it got wet in my pocket, when i jumped into the shallows of a Guatemala lake to stop a runaway pontoon boat full of my dearest friends. saved the boat, lost the phone. i don’t think it was totally submurged, but it was pretty wet. the headphone indicator went pink, and when i shook it, water came out. i could suck it out.
that was a wednesday. when I got it wet, i was also soaked, and i gave the phone to a friend, who put it in his bag. i didn’t realize how wet it was. when he gave it back to me, it was off. i turned it on, and it came back right away. turning it on was probably a mistake.
it had clear water damage - there were streaks and spots visible inside the display, esp if the phone was held at an angle. i tried to shut if off, but it wouldn’t power down. after a half hour of being on and randomly restarting and doing things (as if I were pushing the top, side buttons, taking screenshots of itself, etc) it went black and stayed that way. nothing would turn it back on.
Day 2. thursday. put the iphone in a big bag of uncooked rice. didn’t have any tools, so I didn’t take out the sim card, but I probably should have.
Day 3. friday. the moisture visible in the camera lens disappeared, good sign of drying out. still no response.
Days 4-5. still in rice, mostly. had to travel, phone taken to 39000 feet, in cabin under pressure, but still a dry place. no response. when I got home i put the vacuum attachment on it for 5 minutes to suck some air through (probably what i should have done on day 1). the vacuum didn’t seem to make a difference.
Day 6. monday. went to the apple geniuses, told them what happened. the genius was understanding, but couldn’t fix it. i bought a new one for $420. ouch.
Following youtube instructions (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fF0DF-mbn4&feature=related), i took it apart. i didn’t use their tool, instead used a suction cup to pull the glass out of the housing. i just opened the housing and removed the motherboard. left the battery and all other parts together.
once apart, i cleaned all the contacts (i.e., anything that looked metal and electronically important) i could see with ethanol and a foam swab (not cotton, didn’t want to leave lint). iso-propanol would probably work just as well.
back in the rice to dry.
Day 7. re-assembled phone, and it worked! almost perfect… looks like i’m a bad iphone disssembler, i broke the vibrate motor. and there’s still a bit of streaks & spots on the display. but wow. after a week of no response at all, having been doused in a lake, it works really well. at least i was able to recover the photos from the trip…but i’m not giving up yet.
back in the rice, partially disassembled, near a warm spot in front of the fridge.
Day 8. back together, spots gone, just streaks. still can’t get vibrator working.
I think i’m going to just live with it. maybe i can buy a toasted one and replace the vibrate motor…
