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iPhone 4s Water Damage

K

Kelby232

Newbie
So my Wife's iPhone 4s took a stroll through some water and now it is no longer working. Also, when I said make sure you don't turn it on right away she responded "oops".

So now I am trying to fix it for her but I want to make sure I know the issue before I spend the money to fix it.

I had it in a bag of rice for a few days and now it will not power on by itself.
If I plug it in to a wall charger it will turn on and boot up. However, when I get to the "slide to unlock" screen, it is not responding. When I try to slide my finger across the bar does not follow me. Also, when I unplug the phone from the wall charger it shuts off.

When I plug the phone into the computer it boots to the apple logo, shuts off, boots to the apple logo and rinse and repeat.

I was able to put it into DFU mode and start the restore and update process through itunes but it fails with an unknown error. Still unable to the get the screen to respond when plugged into the wall charger.

My guess is that replacing the battery will fix the phone not being able to boot up unless connected to the charger. What I am not sure of is if that will fix the "slide to unlock" issue.

Any suggestions?

...posting from my galaxy nexus.
 
Sounds to me (i am no expert thought) might be the screen sensor's are shot and the battery.

I think it not staying on when its not plugged in has to be the battery. It not responding to touch sounds more like the sensor's that respond to touch might be shot? That would explain the unknown error in Itune's when updating.
 
I didn't know Apples could absorb water ? You must have cut the skin off before you tried to eat it. Everybody knows Apples are better w/ the skin left on. Shame on you. :D
 
I use to know some about apple products, I fixed my old iPod Touch (2nd gen) I know in that version the touch screen was dependent on what they called a digitizer which sat between the glass and the lcd.

They are ( at least were) an easy fix. You can buy the digitizer with the glass or without... but then you had to hassle with taking your old glass out and replacing it on the new. It is worth buying more expensive parts from somewhere like ifixit.com.. the cheap parts I bought on amazon lasted only a few days... then I ended up spending more money to replace them

I hope you can get it working for cheaper than the cost of a new phone :)
 
My son got my hero g2 wet one time, rice fixed it right up. Just opened the back, pulled the battery and left it in the rice for a few days.. all works as it should still. Great phone too I might add.
 
It could be the power switch, it could be the mainboard shorting out, it could be anything inside. You may ending up buying each and every part in the phone before it appears fixed.

I've heard more people say they fixed their water damage by opening the phone, removing the battery, and giving it a swim in the dry rice. I've also heard of people giving it lite passes from the blow dryer (nothing extremly hot).

You can try to repair it, but if it doesn't work, there are repair places out there that will repair it cheaper than apple...
 
Most likely, the digitizer is toast along with the power button.. But the boot loops don't sound very good either... You might be taking a loss on this one.. :(
 
I sincerely doubt rice does anything to help electronics with water damage. The reason is because rice may absorb water (although it pulling moisture out of the phone itself is also doubtful), but it doesn't absorb the sediment that the water carries, which is what causes electronic failure. Water itself (meaning pure water) does not conduct electricity. :p

What I recommend is giving your phone an alcohol bath. Not beer alcohol, though. Isopropyl alcohol. AKA rubbing alcohol. It's what people in the electronics field use to clean electronic components of contaminants. But you can't just dunk your phone in a bowl of alcohol. You'll have to take it apart and submerge the main circuit board by itself. Do not dunk the screen or battery, it'll destroy both. Wipe the battery down with a lint-free cloth moist with some alcohol. Do the same for the screen contacts. Dry all components with cool air, and try to push the alcohol in one direction so that the sediment gets pushed with it. You may have to repeat this process a few times. You can use a blow dryer if you have it set for NO heat.

Applying any heat directly to any electronic component is risky. These things are machined with small components and tight tolerances. Even small amounts of heat could either reflow or break solder connections.

So after it's bath and it's dry, only partially reassemble and attempt to boot it up again. If the battery isn't responsive, try the wall charger again. If the screen is responsive, get a new battery. If the screen is still unresponsive, but the battery is good, then get a new digitizer. If both the screen and the battery are still bad, replace the unit. The cost of both will likely be over $100 and your phone may have more significant issues. With the new iPhone coming out, either upgrade to it or wait for the prices of the iPhone to drop after it's release.
 
Hate to say it, but sounds like her phone has made it's last phone call, sounds to me like there are multiple significant failures going on, probably wont be worth the repair cost.
 
If its not left off and put immediately into a bag of uncooked rice for at least 48 to 72 hours, any function that appears to no longer be working is unlikely to ever be fixed. Water is corrosive and once mixed with electricity and heat, the deal is pretty much sealed as it were.

I'm a big advocate for insurance
 
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