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dropped iphone into water

G

gurps

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 10, 2009
6
0
Stupid old me dropped my iphone into the water for like 3 sec max. Pulled it out everthing except the earphones were working. 40 minutes later it would not work at all so I blew dry it and put it in a bag of rice. After an hour of the rice, it started to turn on and off. The bottom half of the screen did not work. I left it overnight and now, it stopped turning on and off but the bottom half still doesn't work along with the earphones. Any suggestions, do you think it'll be saved?

24 hours later:

The earphones are working. The bottom half of the screen is the only thing not working.

Thanks

48 hours later:

I plugged the the phone into the computer. Im going to use it to listen to my music, whenever I'm not listening to my music I'll put it back in the rice. The rice should still work, becasue I've turned it on and it doesn;t get any better/wose, right?
 
You may have fried something by blowdrying it... Not that the water didn't do enough damage. Never blowdry an electronic product that gets wet, it can overheat the sensitive components on the inside and cause something to melt, or even push the water into places it wouldn't have gotten into elsewhere. But yah, all you can really do is leave it off for a few days in a warm, dry place and hope for the best.
 
iphone + toilet = surprisingly happy ending

My iphone fell out of my back pocket and into the toilet last week -- and I didn't even realize it until AFTER I flushed. Awful feeling to look down and see your beautiful iphone at the bottom of the toilet with water flushing all around it. After washing it off -- more water, but what could I do? -- I proceeded to do the wrong, yet instinctive thing, which is to try to turn it on. Luckily for me (I think), it didn't respond at all, at which time I turned to the Internets for help. They advised me to do the rice trick, and I also learned about putting it in the oven, which scared me. Most of the stories I read involved a quick plunge into water -- a pool, a toilet, whatever -- whereas I knew mine had spent some time down there, in addition to the flushing, so I feared the worst. And I also decided to exercise a huge amount of patience and really let the thing dry out or else I feared that I would short it out and be out $400. So I took out the SIM card and left it in a container of rice for four days. Then yesterday, the 5th day, I plugged it in in the morning and got the white apple icon, but then it went dark again. Not quite ready. I put it out in the sunshine, black side up to absorb maximum heat, and let it sit for a few hours before putting in back in the rice for a couple more hours. Finally, I decided to try again. Plugged it in, got the apple icon which glowed steadily for a minute or so, and then VOILA! My appointment reminder beeped, I got my homepage, and everything -- EVERYTHING -- appeared to be working just fine. I'm only on day one having it back and I haven't tried the headphone jack yet, but phone, email, texting all seem to be in order. The screen looks great -- no apparent water damage. So my advice: Be patient. Let the rice to the trick. Use heat with caution. That extra day or two could save you $400, if the horror stories I read are any indication. Good luck!
 
thanks for the help guys
umm i realize that while i wasn't home my litte brother tunrned it on and the ipod was on for about 40 min
also the headets are workign now
its been in the rice for baout 20 hours and now everything else the bottom is working
do you think itll get fixed
thanks
 
Your LCD is bad and so are your speakers. Whether or not that was caused by the blow dryer is unknown, but it's possible. Does the touch panel (Digitizer) work? You should look into getting a new iPhone or replacing parts on your current one. There are DIY places where you can buy parts like PDAParts and Mission Repair or there are places like iResQ that do the fix for you. iResQ will also run a diagnostic test to tell you what needs to be replaced. At that point you can have them fix it or have them send it back to you and you can replace the parts yourself.

David
 
thanks
but my speakers are working, they always wore
as for the touch screen, onlt the top half is working, which I heard is pretty common with iphones falling into water
 
Man... Just reading your issue gave me the willies. My vibrate button broke and when I was looking for info on how to open my phone(to get it out of vibrate mode), I saw a video that shows you how to open the phone to replace the batteries. I mention it because during the video, the guy mentioned that the phone he was using was sent to him to fix from a guy that dropped it in the toilet. He recommended that you submerge it in alcohol (90% or higher)... Just swish it around a bit, then let it dry. The alcohol should replace the water inside, and dry a lot quicker. I dread the day when I have to see if it actually works, but figured I'd pass it along for future reference.

Here is the video:
http://video.gearlive.com/video/article/q407-replace-iphone-battery-tutorial/
 
wont that worsen it?
and do you think itll get better?
the bottom is the only thing not working, everythings working now
it has been turned on a couple times while the water was in it
hoping for the best
 
gurps said:
wont that worsen it?
and do you think itll get better?
the bottom is the only thing not working, everythings working now
it has been turned on a couple times while the water was in it
hoping for the best
Click to expand...

Like is said, I'm not looking forward to trying it myself, but 'in theory', it makes sense since alcohol evaporates really quick. Basing my opinion on my experience with electronics and LCD's only, I think your pixels are burnt and seriously doubt that they will get better. Which quite possibly happened when you turned it on with water still inside. I'd start the process of looking into possible replacement parts.
 
that's an amazing toiler story, really had no idea iphone can handle such water damage. nice.
 
its been in the rice for over a good 30 hours
the rice box is closed
the bottom half is still not working
should i try plugging it in to itunes?
 
I plugged the the phone into the computer. Im going to use it to listen to my music, whenever I'm not listening to my music I'll put it back in the rice. The rice should still work, becasue I've turned it on and it doesn;t get any better/wose, right?
 
mine went threw a car wash in the bumper of an suv and i did the rice trick and just let it sit everything has been operable for awhile now and the only problem is a broken camera which ill live without
 
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