*****BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, DO NOT TURN YOUR DEVICE ON*****
I'll get to why in a second, but if you do, you just lowered your chances of saving it. Take out the battery.
Most of us have managed to do it one way or another. You forgot to check your jean pockets before you washed them, you knocked your phone into the lake, dropped it in the toilet (let's hope you didn't flush it), or maybe you can't remember the exact details... but for some reason your camera smells like cheap beer and is dripping wet.
This instructable will guide you through the process of attempting to save your wet cell phone, PDA, MP3 player, camera* (See note). I'll use my MP3 player,since it's the last thing I managed to put through the wash...whoops. I'll shadow with a cellphone for those in that category (It went through the wash before, but I managed to salvage it). For all intensive purposes, assume when I say MP3 'player' or 'cell phone', I obviously mean your device.
I'm writing out the specifics about the how's, the why's, where's, and all that good stuff. I'll be the first to say, I'm all about the deet's (details). If you're not interested in a little more reading and a better understanding, you can just read above this dotted line in the steps, and ignore anything below it.
Yes, this line right here.
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Warranties:
If you have a accidental damage warranty, go talk with where you got it from and see if they do water damage! If you know you're screwed and your warranty is void or won't cover it--like when that little white dot on the inside of your cell phone (Water indicator) turned red--then you might wanna give it a shot.
*Cameras:
Cameras are usually a lot trickier, mostly due to more moving parts, usually cramming everything to be as small as possible, moving parts (lens), and generally more fragile equipment. You can try getting a quote for fixing it, which if you have the money (or it's a pricey camera) I'd recommend since they'll be able to do a better job. If you can't afford it, give this a shot.
I'll get to why in a second, but if you do, you just lowered your chances of saving it. Take out the battery.
Most of us have managed to do it one way or another. You forgot to check your jean pockets before you washed them, you knocked your phone into the lake, dropped it in the toilet (let's hope you didn't flush it), or maybe you can't remember the exact details... but for some reason your camera smells like cheap beer and is dripping wet.
This instructable will guide you through the process of attempting to save your wet cell phone, PDA, MP3 player, camera* (See note). I'll use my MP3 player,since it's the last thing I managed to put through the wash...whoops. I'll shadow with a cellphone for those in that category (It went through the wash before, but I managed to salvage it). For all intensive purposes, assume when I say MP3 'player' or 'cell phone', I obviously mean your device.
I'm writing out the specifics about the how's, the why's, where's, and all that good stuff. I'll be the first to say, I'm all about the deet's (details). If you're not interested in a little more reading and a better understanding, you can just read above this dotted line in the steps, and ignore anything below it.
Yes, this line right here.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Warranties:
If you have a accidental damage warranty, go talk with where you got it from and see if they do water damage! If you know you're screwed and your warranty is void or won't cover it--like when that little white dot on the inside of your cell phone (Water indicator) turned red--then you might wanna give it a shot.
*Cameras:
Cameras are usually a lot trickier, mostly due to more moving parts, usually cramming everything to be as small as possible, moving parts (lens), and generally more fragile equipment. You can try getting a quote for fixing it, which if you have the money (or it's a pricey camera) I'd recommend since they'll be able to do a better job. If you can't afford it, give this a shot.
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Signing UpStep 1: Don't turn it on
Take the battery out, flip the "HOLD" switch on (if it's your music player), tape the power button to 'OFF' if you can't take the battery out, whatever you can do to make sure it doesn't turn on.
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If it went into the drink when it was on (i.e. cell phone was on when you put in the wash) or you already turned it on, you poor bastard, Not much you can do about that now. There's still hope though. It worked with my Sandisk MP3, Woo hoo!
If it was OFF when you got it wet, DON'T TURN IT ON. If you do, you just risked: short circuiting, increasing accumulation mineral buildup on connections, and all the fun stuff that kills your phone. Basically it's bad news bears.
"But I wanna see if it works anyway. I mean, maybe I don't even need to do anything" Yup, those are my words when I wondered about my first cell phone I put in the wash... now it just displays a white screen (Sweet).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If it went into the drink when it was on (i.e. cell phone was on when you put in the wash) or you already turned it on, you poor bastard, Not much you can do about that now. There's still hope though. It worked with my Sandisk MP3, Woo hoo!
If it was OFF when you got it wet, DON'T TURN IT ON. If you do, you just risked: short circuiting, increasing accumulation mineral buildup on connections, and all the fun stuff that kills your phone. Basically it's bad news bears.
"But I wanna see if it works anyway. I mean, maybe I don't even need to do anything" Yup, those are my words when I wondered about my first cell phone I put in the wash... now it just displays a white screen (Sweet).
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What do you guys think of this? am I totally off my rocker?
I dried it out, but didn't rinse it - but got it to work. It has problems now though. It makes peoples voice sound crackely and it turns itself off when I slide it open or closed. I never thought of rinsing it out.
Do you think a rinse of some sort would be prudent at this time?
The hygroscopic substance will dry out the humidity in the bag forcing the water in your device to evaporate.
If you can take your phone fully apart, soak the circuit board briefly in alcohol, then remove and put in front of a fan. The idea is to displace any water with alcohol, and then dry it quickly.
As long as you don't leave the rubber seals in the alcohol for an extended period of time, it should not do that much damage to them. You can always use a coat of light oil to preserve the seals if you are really concerned.
Note: Never put the screen in alcohol, if your screen has water in it, you should just buy a new one.
Ebay has a ton of chargers if you're still looking.
Something tells me it can't be saved.