How to save a wet MP3 Player, Cell Phone, Camera, PDA, etc.

Step 8 YES!!! PRESS THE BUTTON!!! TURN IT ON!!!

Yes, you can finally turn it on.

Hopefully you've managed to save your phone, save face, and hopefully some frustration of having to shell out another $100 bucks for new one. Let me know if you have anything to add, or awesome recovery stories!

If all went well, you saved it, woot WOOT!!! You win!
If not, you have a couple options.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
--Charge it--
Your battery might be dead, try plugging it in for a while and see if it works

--New Battery--
Sometimes, the battery gets wet and goes shot. If you're willing and it's worth it, look into buy a new battery (store, ebay, etc.)

--Reset--
If you can, try to reset your phone to factory settings or something equivalent.

--Wait longer--
Remember when I said 1-7 days? Maybe not all the water is out and you fried your motherboard... whoops. If you didn't fry or short circuit any of the connections, you still might have a chance.
Great example: my brother's phone didn't work at first when he tried it. After forgetting about it and leaving it in a box for a few months, it managed to turn on and almost worked well enough to use again for resale... almost.

--Admit Defeat--
It's not always gonna work. Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do (if you lost it in the lake, or somehow managed to flush it down the toilet... you poor, poor unlucky bastard) and buy a new phone. Often times, Ebay will have some great phones (if you have a SIM card, you don't even need to get it activated by your carrier!), or worst case scenario, you go to your local wireless store and hang your head in shame.

Comments

[slacker13121]

If you just take out the battery and put everything in a bag of rice, the rice will soak up all of the water in your device. I had to leave my phone in for about 2 days. Works like new now.

[clichej1]

why not putting your device in a ziploc bag with an hygroscopic substance after opening it. (doing carefully so that you dont get chemicals in your device)

The hygroscopic substance will dry out the humidity in the bag forcing the water in your device to evaporate. 

[AshleySix]

I just left my Nextar/Nexter Mp3 out in a cold rain storm, I'll reply in a week if it works, or just....cash out the twenty bucks used to buy it? Lol, I knew not to turn the thing on, but wasnt sure what to do with it in general after taking out the battery. It has water in the screen too, since it is cracked. Maybe it's time to get a new one anyway....

[anayar2]

thanks for the advice, i tried it, but my MP3 player (Sansa 2 GB) was still out after trying the steps. i tried putting it in front of a fan for a week, but when i plugged it in and switched it on, my player decided to say au revoir. is there anything i can do to still save it, or should i go get a new one??

[anayar2]

Thanks for the good instructable and your responce... im not too sad though cause i got a great deal on a ipod touch off craigslist but thanks a bunch anyways!!!

[skinn076]

That's actually the same player I did it with. Unfortunately, there's probably not a whole lot of hope for you. If you're pretty patient, you could probably try another week and see if there's any luck.., but sorry to say, you'd probably be best off buying a new one. At this point, I'd probably try one of the riskier methods (e.g. Sitting in a bed of rice, Hair drier, sun exposure, etc.), although it's unfortunately a pretty slim chance that it'd work at this point, so I'd probably try those, but get a new one pretty soon. There are some pretty good deals for Sansa's on tigerdirect.com, buy.com (I managed to snag an 8 gig for $50 on buy.com), or woot.com--if you can wait a week or so until one comes up on the "Daily Deal'. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you out with! I'd be more than happy to share my experience with other online stores, sansa, other MP3 player companies, and any other questions or comments! -Eric [e-mail]

[Mario1]

The funny thing is that you say that hair dryer is risky ... I reflowed my xbox360 ram chips with a heat gun :D

[skinn076]

Touche. I usually try to err on the side of caution, but you do make a pretty good point. It's more that I feel a hair drier is a mostly unnecessary risk. In respect to your argument though, it's not like they weren't soldered with heat in the first place ;-)

[shemayil]

Hai I recently got a palm z22 to organize my life. It was really helpful until after a week it got wet in my bag. I didn’t know initially it is wet. So I tried to use it the next day it was not working. So I try to charge it. Still it was not on. Then I saw that inside the palm cover is wet. So I used blow dryer on low heat setting. Then I tried to on the power button. I got little success. It was on but the screen resolution is very low. I can barely able to read it. Then I reset it. Still it was in the same condition. I let it dry as it is for a day. Then I opened only the back and blow dry it again. Still it was the same condition. The battery is fused to the back cover. I haven’t tried to open the front. Today I am trying to charge it to see whether that will solve the problem. My question is what I can do to get the screen resolution back?

[skinn076]

It might have been the blowdrier; heat can affect the LCD display. I wouldn't hold my breath, but here are a couple things I'd try if I were you: 1. If you can, try adjusting the resolution brightness within the phone setup/settings 2. Make sure the battery terminals (copper/brass Battery to Palm connection) are clean and dry. 2. You could try replacing the battery to see if the resolution improves. 3. You could wait it out and see if it gets any better. 4. Ensure that the screen is dry. There might be a small piece of glass/plastic over the LCD display that has water trapped in it. You could try and see if it dries and improves, or you could use the blowdrier on low/cool on the screen (there's a slight risk that your screen might turn darker/black).

[shemayil]

hi, I opened it twice fully. there is no water inside.but i saw some metals are little rusty. the screen is not readable. Is is possible to repair or replace the screen? How much will it cost? Otherwise i am planning to go for another pda.Could you please help!!

[shemayil]

hi, thanks for the reply. How do we open the front screen. I open the other 3 sides. but i couldn't open the top side with the connector. i think the battery is attached to the back cover. please help me!