Help Water damage, menu and back buttons unresponsive

[Zenben]

So my SGS4 was submerged in a couple feet of water for about 5 seconds 3 days ago. I immediately removed the battery, SD, and SIM cards and put them in dry, uncooked rice for about 2 days. I turned it on yesterday, and the phone worked fine except for the fact that the menu and back buttons are unresponsive, though they still light up. I'm wondering if there's a way to fix this without having to replace the phone. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[voodoo86]

not really, it would involve replacing the button parts presuming these are whats at fault, even then you literally have to take the entire phone apart to get to them

 

[askhek]

Sometimes it can take up to 4 days for the rice to fully dry out a phone. Each day move the phone in a different position to ensure all is draining out. Even a hint of water can make a part malfunction.

 

[lotus49]

Silica gel (the stuff that comes in little sachets when you get things like cameras etc) works better than rice so it may be worth trying that. It can take a long time to dry a phone completely.

You can buy big bags of it sold as cat litter. It's worth trying before you give up.

I also recall that there is an app that replicates the functionality of damaged hardware buttons with on-screen buttons but I cannot remember what it is called. I dare say you could track it down in the Play Store.