iPhone miracle - well sort of.

[Jon_King]

Sometimes you just catch a break as I did two days ago.

I read somewhere that close to 1/3 of all iPhones require some kind of repair - sensitive litter buggers they are. So when my phone slipped from my hand, fell into our cat's water bowl about 3 inches deep, I naturally thought I became the new owner of an Apple paper weight.

Hurriedly I yanked it out, wiped it down, powered it off and set it on a dehumidifier in the basement.

To my surprise two days later, that would be today, I powered it on, made calls and checked email, so far so good :) Whooo baby!

[ectect]

My daughter threw her itouch in her kit bag after going swimming. It sat on a damp towel for 2 hours and hasn't worked since - she became the new owner of an Apple paper weight.

[willybfriendly]

Yeah, being the owner of several paperweights of different brands, I have pretty much conclude that my next phone will be a Sonim XP-1 [toughestphone.com].

Certainly not a smartphone, but looks like it would handle the abuse I seem to give mine.

[Swanny007]

I've dropped my iPhone from counter height (30"?) countless times and it hasn't stopped working yet. I try not to let it get wet mind you. My friend had his phone go into a washing machine in a pair of jeans (2 month old phone). toast...

[piatkow]

Rule one, never put a phone in a shirt pocket. I quickly gained a new paperweight when leaning across the toilet bowl (luckily it wasn't in use at the time)

[sgietz]

Next time one of your little devices samples the toilet water, quickly pick it up, rinse it off, dry it with a towel, and put it in a ziplock bag filled with rice. Leave it in there for at least 24 hours.

It works sometimes.

[weeks]

It works sometimes.

And sometimes it does not.

I poured a Diet Coke into my keyboard a couple of years ago. REALLY creative writing showed up on my screen. The web said try washing it out or even running it through the dishwasher.

So, I took it home and put the keyboard in the dishwasher. My wife said, "There is a keyboard in the dishwasher." I said, "It's dirty." She said, "Won't that hurt it?" I said, "Why would you think that?" She said, "I DON'T THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA!" She was sure I had lost my mind. Then I told her about the Diet Coke.

From my experience, if you pour Diet Coke into a keyboard and it makes all kind of weird keystrokes appear on your screen, run it through the dishwasher--problem solved. Sort of. It will then not work at all. Dishwasher killed it dead.

But, my wife really enjoys telling the story of when Weeks put his computer keyboard in the dishwasher.

[piatkow]

In the last recession I ended up working on a local government help desk for a couple of months. Coffee on keyboards was a regular problem but they worked fine after being dried out for a few days. We just swapped the damp one for the one that was swapped out the previous week.

[kaled]

Deleted (noticed someone else had said the same thing).

[swa66]

Electronics taking a dip:

Immediately:

0. Be safe yourself. Esp if the device uses high voltage inside, this can be dangerous!

1. Save it ASAP
There is often some air in there, so speed on recovering it is important.
Do not operate buttons you do not *have* to operate.

2. power off immediately (this is very critical on devices with a fan: as long as it turns it'll spread the fluid inside till it gets were the device is shorted out.

3. remove all the batteries ASAP and wipe the contacts dry (if possible: the non-removable battery in e..g an iphone is bad for this)

4. IF it was e.g. a softdrink it might be very corrosive fluid: so you might need to rinse it with water (yes, water!) to remove all residue.

5. Dishwashers: DON'T. A dishwasher uses all sorts of aggressive chemicals: not even all stainless steel is safe in these devices. If you really want to try it: make sure it's only going to use cold water, so salts, no glass protection, no nothing but cold water ...

6. Take your time to let it dry: an absorbent product (rice, special salts, ...) , air circulation with dry air (dehumidifier, open window, ...), if you can disassemble it fully: compressed air can be used to blow away any drops.
W@arm air (e.g. from a hairdryer -not hot air, warm is enough!) can help speed up drying it all.

7. inspect it for damage if possible: corroded signal paths, welds, etc. are a very bad sign: even if it still works the life left in it will be minimal. Make sure it is fully dry into the smallest nook and cranny. Be patient if you have doubts or can't see it the internals.
Take your time here: getting e.g. the coils of a transformer to dry out would take weeks if not longer.

8. Once you're sure it is dry: reconnect the battery and try it.

9. If it works and still contains data: make a backup if you need a recent one, don't overwrite old ones.

If it was a product that has humidity sensors in it (e.g. iPhones do): you might as well forget about having a warranty on the device.

That said success is limited:
- I've spilled chocolate milk into a laptop: fully toast (smelled like burnt chocolate): the fan had sucked the milk in through the keyboard and spread it out before I managed to rip out the battery.
Afterward: motherboard was dead, RAM was dead and harddisk was dead: I needed a new laptop, end of story.
- I've had at work a colleague sill a softdrink (a bit from a a can of icetea) in my keyboard while I was out for a meeting.
Wen I returned I noticed some keys not working anymore and more failing as I typed. He fessed up having killed my keyboard, but I tried to save it. Unfortunately the liquid was in between two plastic layers that form the membranes that make up the keys and as I opened up the plastic I could see the pathways oxidize: was one for the trash.

[chewy]

Get a shock resistant or "sticky rubber" case. Doesn't slip around, or fall out of pockets. The more shock resistant, the farther the thing can fall without injury.

About water - good luck - and stay away from salt water if at all possible!

And too bad the insurance doesn't work for water spills anymore.