How To Recover A Cell Phone That Fell In Water
Submitted by Amber on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - 14:25. Phone Maintenance
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Ever leave your phone in your pocket only to realize you just put your jeans in the washer. Or worst yet, you're using the restroom when you hear KAPLUNK...do you even want to turn around? Well rest assured, if you act fast, your cell phone could be on the road to recovery sooner than you know if you follow the steps below: |
| Instructions | Difficulty: Easy |
Things You'll Need:
- vacuum
- bowl
- salt
- rice
- absorbent towels
- time & patience
1
Remove your phone from the water asap! The sooner the better!2
Remove the battery. This is a very important step! Removing the power from the electrical components can very well save your phone. To your phone its like sitting in a tub full of water and throwing in a plugged hair dryer. You don't want to electrocute your phone!3
If you have a SIM card remove that as well. Place it on the towels and dab dry.4
Remove any extra pieces, covers, accessories i.e. memory cards, ear pieces, slot covers. Then dry your phone with the towel. Get as much water out as possible. Shake the phone to get out internal water. Try to dry every nook and cranny with the towel.5
Use your vacuum to suck out any moisture the towel could not reach. Use a small hose attachment and spend about 10-15 minutes vacuuming water out of crevices. Do NOT apply direct heat from devices such as a hair dryer or heater as this can damage electrical components.6
Place rice or salt in a bowl and place phone on top. This will help draw out any remaining water inside the phone. Let phone sit in bowl for at least 8 hours. 7
Let your phone dry out for a minimum of 24 hours! Once all components look, feel dry, replace SIM and battery (making sure contacts aren't corroded and clean of any build up). Power on your phone, if it works you have successfully recovered your submerged device!8
If your phone does not power on, try plugging your phone to the charger and powering on with and without the battery. If it works with the battery plugged in your phone just needed to be charged. If it works without the battery and plugged in you need a new battery.
Tips & Warnings
- If your phone falls in salt water, rinse with fresh water first, and proceed with the steps above.
- You can also try to blow water out with the compressed air, used to clean computer keyboards and other hard to clean devices.
- Lastly, Be Patient...we all know how difficult it is to be without our phones but would you rather wait a day or have to purchase an entirely new phone and possibly lose all your contacts?
- If you need an important contact and can't remember the number, check your phone bill.
- Or use email to connect to contacts
- Again, do not attempt to dry your phone with a hair dryer!
- Water damaged phones aren't covered in warranty and companies have indicators to detect if this was the case.
How To Article: How To Recover A Cell Phone That Fell In Water
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Thank you for the instructions.
I was amazed to the instruction #s 5 to 7.
I have not experienced yet, if ever it will happen to me, I will follow your tips here. But I'm hoping that my phone will not fell to water ;).
________
munis
Thank you for the instructions.
I was amazed to the instruction #s 5 to 7.
I have not experienced yet, if ever it will happen to me, I will follow your tips here. But I'm hoping that my phone will not fell to water ;).
________
munis
I really wish I'd read this and the general advice on dropping phones in water. My trusty Samsung Z400 was submerged in bath water while giving kids a bath for a good 15 seconds before I realised it was in there. I noticed it was still on and stupidly dried the surface briefly and started to make a phone call to check if it was working. And it did! I was amazed. Only after I took the battery off and dried it further did I notice how wet it was internally. The phone would subsequently power on but only displayed a black screen with a red line of writing stating 'Samsung download'. Leaving it further to dry and another attempt to power on, it won't even power up now with just the battery and only occassionally with the power adapter. All this desparate last minute fix and it's been less than 24hours since I've dropped the phone. I doubt I can recover the data on the pcb, even if I could I wouldn't know where to start? I've lost all the data on my internal memory, had no removable transflash and wished I had backed everything up. Oh priceless hindsight. I have learnt my lesson the very hard way. Pls heed this warning. Back up, back up, back up! Alternatively don't have cell phones anywhere near the bathroom :)
My cell phone was in my back pocket of my pants when i attempted to pull my pants down to use the bathroom it slip out in went in the toliet i grabbed it quickly but it
was to late i immediately took the battery out and dried it off when i trued to reconnect the battery my screen was
foggy white and when i called from another phone it went straight to v.mail i lost everything..numbers ,pics,important mesgs,ia am so sick about it.I have tried every remedy possible still NOTHING... :-(
Thank you for the instructions.
I was amazed to the instruction #s 5 to 7.
I have not experienced yet, if ever it will happen to me, I will follow your tips here. But I'm hoping that my phone will not fell to water ;).
________
munis
I really wish I'd read this and the general advice on dropping phones in water. My trusty Samsung Z400 was submerged in bath water while giving kids a bath for a good 15 seconds before I realised it was in there. I noticed it was still on and stupidly dried the surface briefly and started to make a phone call to check if it was working. And it did! I was amazed. Only after I took the battery off and dried it further did I notice how wet it was internally. The phone would subsequently power on but only displayed a black screen with a red line of writing stating 'Samsung download'. Leaving it further to dry and another attempt to power on, it won't even power up now with just the battery and only occassionally with the power adapter. All this desparate last minute fix and it's been less than 24hours since I've dropped the phone. I doubt I can recover the data on the pcb, even if I could I wouldn't know where to start? I've lost all the data on my internal memory, had no removable transflash and wished I had backed everything up. Oh priceless hindsight. I have learnt my lesson the very hard way. Pls heed this warning. Back up, back up, back up! Alternatively don't have cell phones anywhere near the bathroom :)
I dropped my phone in the tub, it must have been in there at least 30 seconds before I noticed. I removed the battery and kept tapping the phone against a thick bath towel to remove the water. I still had drops come out hours later! I kept drying everything and waited 24 hours. Everything still works perfectly, except one ringtone that I had downloaded. Small price to pay to rescue my phone.