Home button not working after bath in wine!!

[arose77]

Hello!

I can't find this exact (or even a remotely close) issue on here so here it goes: I was careless and accidentally dropped my iPhone (1st gen) into a glass of wine last night. Only the speaker/port/home button end. I pulled it out very quickly - it was only submerged for a few seconds - and dried it off with a towel. I shook out all the loose wine I could (red, by the way) and proceeded to press the towel lightly against the bottom of the phone, which did suck up some excess moisture. I then stood it upright, bottom-down on a towel for the rest of the night, hoping to wick out the rest of the wine. At that point, everything functioned normally.

Now, the next day, the home button does not work at all. All other functions appear to be acting normally, and I can charge the phone with no issue. I'm sure there's some dried, sticky wine on some internal part which is causing the issue, but my dilemma is: what do I do now?

To be clear: the button itself depresses with no issue, it's just that nothing happens when I press it.

Obviously, I'm stuck in phone mode since I cannot use the home button to get back to the home page. I am not handy with electronics, so unless there is a very easy trick to getting the black bottom covering off to attempt to clean it, I am at a loss!

Any/all help is appreciated! (But please don't berate me - I already feel horrible enough!)

Thanks!

 

[FiXPOD]

Next time (although hopefully there is no next time) get a hair drier onto it immediately. When the liquid sits around drying normally, it causes corrosion and short circuits contacts.

In this case there is probably some wine residue in the button itself, preventing it making contact when you click the button. The button is integrated with the base connector, so that entire assembly may need to be replaced, or alternatively could possibly be cleaned when the phone is opened up.

At this stage, I'm not aware of anything you can do to fix it without opening it up and unfortunatley replacing that assembly is a reasonably complicated job in the 2G iPhone.

 

[jav6454]

Hello!

... snip ...

Thanks!

Put it in a bag of rice and leave it there 2 days, turned off. Take it out try it, if it works, yay, else tough, and you need to buy a new one or repair your current one.

 

[bytethese]

Wine is the worst. if it was water you'd have a decent chance of recovering the device and making it work again. Wine has sugars, tannins, etc that will leave a residue on the circuitry. It it ever works again I'd be surprised. Sorry to offer bad news, just that I wouldn't set my expectations too high.

Good news is there is most likely a new iPhone coming out in June/July.

 

[arose77]

Thanks everyone!!

Wine is the worst. if it was water you'd have a decent chance of recovering the device and making it work again. Wine has sugars, tannins, etc that will leave a residue on the circuitry.

That's what I was afraid of!!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I made an appointment with my local apple store to see if someone can open it up and give it a clean. Not sure if it's worth the attempt or not, but we shall see! Since everything else works, it may be worth it.

I considered giving it another quick dip in some warm water to loosen up the wine, then give the old bag o' rice treatment, but I worry I will cause more damage!

Maybe I'll just deal with it for a couple of months and buy the new one!

Thanks again!!!!