Water damage! Please help!
 

I think I am in deep #&$^

I was using my 770 on the toilet (something I will never do again) and I accidentally dropped it inside. It was ON! I pulled out the 770 immediately and I pulled out the battery and put it back in to see if anything happened, and I saw the Nokia loading screen with water under it. Then, the screen went dim and then I saw a green word saying TEST under it. It hung on the loading screen. I pulled out the battery and tried it a few times but it still didn't work. I left the battery in for 15 minutes, and then I did some research and I was meant to pull it out as soon as possible. It's been about 30 minutes now and I blow dried it and left it out to dry.

Now I tried it and there is a bit less water under the screen and it still hangs on the loading screen but there is no green "test". I really regret this because my mum loves playing mahjong on it and my parents will kill me! I really want to know if it's too late for the nokia 770 or if there is something to be done!

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Well, this link provides some hints:
http://www.google.es/search?q=recove...ed+electronics
Folks, if you use your tablet on the toilet, do so leaning forward: this way if it slips it will fall on the floor instead of falling in your poo....

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Well, the smell is the least of my concern. I fear that the 770 is slowly dying (sorry if I make it sound as if it were a person). Soon it may leave us. Now I turn it on, it turns on for a few seconds and then turns black. I'm calling my mum even before she comes home :(

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Just let it dry a little longer. It may take a day to dry. Then it depends on your luck

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

First and worst error to do when some battery powered device ends up in water: put the batteries in to see if it works :D
Never do that, the best thing to do is remove the batteries and leave the device to slowly dry for 24-48 hours ;)

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Okay, so there is hope. I hope that the hope is bigger than it seems.

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

You can also try using a blow dryer, blowing just air (not hot) to help the process. I've also heard of brave folks putting devices in the over at the lowest temperature for a few minutes (I'm not suggesting this!).

Tim

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

You might try burying the tablet in a bowl of uncooked rice. Rice soaks up moisture quite well.

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

I have success with water logged cell phones by warming them in an oven at low temp.

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

The 770 has an almost sealed enclosure, so the blowdryer won't be of any use if he doesn't disassemble his tablet...

And let the oven cook biscuits, applepies and turkeys instead of electronic devices :D

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

My experience with drowned phones is that you had better take them apart as far as reasonably possible before drying them carefully, e.g. on top of a (not hot) radiator.

The critical part in my experience is the screen and the flat - cable - to - screen contact.

Using a wet phone on battery (even a short while) might damage it or the battery due to possile short circuits.

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Humbly disagree! But very very very impress you know this!
Rice itself do NO squat. But raw rice, not cooked, that has been slightly fried, ie., showed some yellow but not darkened, will act as a very good desicator. California, LA, and Tx and most Asian, China to Malaysia, cafeteria knows it well, and always put some 'fried' raw rice in salt shaker, just a few pieces, to help take out the moisture, so salt will shake easier. Steve, you are incredible to know this. You read about it or you just notice rice in salt shaker? You eat rice :) ?

Edit: sure in NY too, where is a large chinese population!

bun

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Stephen has an Asian soul.

Tim

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

We have the same thing (slightly baked rice inside salt shaker) in restaurants here in Italy, so I guess it's something known worldwide ;)

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

It's true; a quiz on Facebook said my "true nationality" is Japanese. This, combined with my Norwegian heritage, explains my need to call out my attacks while pillaging.

Sure! White rice suits Norwegians fine. It's white. That's important. It's also fairly bland. That's important too. Food shouldn't be too colorful or flavorful, you know.

Honestly, I think the "rice in the salt shaker" idea spread well beyond Asian areas long ago. Even the Land of the Vikings uses the trick. (And Alton Brown says the rice doesn't keep moisture from the salt anyway.)

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

... (And Alton Brown says the rice doesn't keep moisture from the salt anyway.)[/QUOTE]

I am curious about his notion, cant find it from your citation, google it, and OMG, everybody say the same thing, the whole page more than 20 of them, "put a few grain of rice in salt shaker will do the trick". NO, NO, NO, you can put a pound of rice in salt shaker, will do no squat. Rice by itself is not hygroscopic (absorbs moisture), but "processed" raw rice is. Now I see the problem. It turns into a wellknown myth. The rice has to be slightly fried and brown a little bit for it to work. A fired/brown raw rice grain is a dessicant, actively extract moisture, hygroscopic. While a grain of raw rice is absorbing water like a paper towel, but NOT actively extract moisture.

Well, once it is established, itself may become 'truth'. The best myth I can think of it now is fortune cookies. It is western ideas of chinese food, there is NO fortune cookie in chinese dish.

BTW, one of the articles I look up is more than hilarious. The article goes as follow, roughly, some people argued that rice does NOT absorb moisture, then how do one explain in cooking rice, one cup of rice and one cup of water, when cooked, water is nowhere to be found? Well, internet information, you got what you pay for :)


@OP: sorry about the digression, we are still very concern about your 770, tell us what you did and the result. I may have some good info for you....if you need another 770

bun

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

That was a good episode. ;) Oh, to have cable again...

Tim

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Seems a perfect case for the Mythbusters :D

(Let's cheer Tuahaa a bit :D)

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

The mythbusters are going to explode a grain of rice? I want to see that episode :D

I think you are one of those guys who puts dying hard disk drives in industrial freezers.... ;)

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

And possibly some tablets... :D


Actually you need just a regular refrigerator, one you will find in every house... and it works :D
Most people who tried this trick, however, didn't realize you need to "prepare" the drive...
I usually (well... it happen 3 times so far, with 2 out of 3 success) put the drive hooked to a IDE/SATA to USB adaptor inside a plastic bag with some silica, sealing the bag and leaving the usb cord out (so the drive can be connected without opening the bag), then I wait a full 24h before putting the bag in the fridge for 30 minutes to a couple of hours (ok, the first time I did this I forgot I had an HDD in the fridge :D).
This works whenever you have the drive electronic failing and make possible to backup your data (or most of it) ;)
For the record, the time it didn't work the HDD was been dropped from desk height while active, of course the friend who brought it to me completely forgot to mention the fact :rolleyes:

Ok, seems to be more material for the Mythbusters :D

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Yes, yes, I did and still could not get my data out :( . It was a HD. Kill by my 12 yr old left in the car for 24 hr during a hot hot hot summer. The hd died in the house, and I mouned over it for half a day, and carefully wrapped in a piece of cloth and very gently landed it in the frige for couple of hour....took it out, no sign of life.

bun

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Good to hear a 67% success rate. Thanks. I have a whooping 0 % success rate. I was curious about the reason behind this. I think it is because the platters are hot and expanded during use and 'jammed' (whatever it mean :) ), so lower the temp, theoretically may be able to unjam it. I am NOT sure about of temperature with electronic failing.

bun

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Any mechanical damage would result in an unrecoverable HDD (in that case if you really need to get your data back there are companies that will do it for you, but prepare to sell at least a kidney :D)
Cold lowers electronic noise, thus maximizing the SNR and sometimes making possible to get a useful signal out of a dying chip. ;)

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

I tried my 770 again this morning and still same result. I'm not surprised since it only got a few hours of sunlight. As someone said before, the 770 has a sealed enclosure so it would be smarter if I take it out carefully and let separate parts dry...

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Yes, that should help... but did you just say you left your 770 in the sun? :confused:
That's bad, first of all because the excessive heat created by the direct sunlight exposure can seriously damage the most delicate parts of your device (expecially the screen :eek:) and second because, given the sealed enclosure, the excess of vapour is even more dangerous than water itself because it can easily infiltrate in smaller places...
Go ahead, disassemble your 770, but let it dry at room temperature and avoid direct sunlight... and let's hope all the abuses didn't kill the tablet ;)

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

I left it by the window in an AC'ed room. I will put it back and will have to disassemble it since the water in the screen isn't getting any less. I made the biggest mistakes. I learned one lesson though; never use the 770 in the toilet!

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Seriously, the oven trick might wok:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lif...ell-phone.html

Tim

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

If your NIT stays TURNED OFF, and you remove the battery, you cannot damage the screen or other parts by leaving it in the sun all day. This wil help to dry out the moisture. I work in an engineering R&D lab and it is my job to expose various electronic circuits to their maximum temperture limits.

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Batteries à la vapeur.

Yummy :P

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

I was assuming that, being the digitizer made of a plastic layer glued over a glass one, putting that in direct sunlight on a hot summer day, let say six hours from 11am to 5pm (it should be the hottest part of the day if you didn't plan a "special evening" :D), could result in an expansion of the "fluid" in between the 2 surfaces, putting pressure on the weakest of the two layers (I don't think the "chamber" is vented) possibly causing warp or glue failure...
Sure, I trust what you say and I'm probably (ok, completely :D) wrong, but given the fact that the poor 770 recently visited a not so nice place I wouldn't risk overheating too :D

By the way, what is the typical temperature range for a commercial grade LCD+digitizer assembly?

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

My phone recently took a dip and I have one thing to say from it: cat litter.

By wrapping my phone in a paper towel and submerging it in (clean) cat litter, I have been able to slowly but surely remove all of the water from my phone screen. I have heard similiar stories about water leaving their phone screen with people simply leaving their phones on a towel on top of the cat litter, so I would imagine that submerging it in cat litter would get rid of all of the water.

Two things can hurt a device when it is submerged in water, 1. shorts - if two things connect with water that reaaaally shouldn't with power running (which is why you disconnect the battery ASAP and don't put it back in until all water is gone), you can fry an essential component and 2. mineral damage - anything short of distilled water contains stuff that is bad for electronic components. That said, you can rinse your device out with distilled water or, my recommendation, rubbing alcohol which will flush out anything that shouldnt be there, including some excess water, and then quickly evaporate.

Re: Water damage! Please help!
 

Tuahaa did you manage to revive your 770?