iFixit

Current version by iRobot, Nov 2 2012

Title:

water damage - camera not working

Text:

I recently went swimming in the ocean with my iPhone 4S... it was about a minute before I noticed. Argh!

Came home, dried it out (vacuum, hair dryer, bowl of rice) for 24 hours. Tried switching it on....nothing. Connecting it to the charger just showed a low battery symbol, a brief apple symbol, then the screen went blank.

So I decided to disassemble it, all the way down to the logic board which I soaked in isopropyl alcohol (thanks for the excellent guide iFixit!) On reassembly I got the low battery symbol again when trying to switch it on. But to my surprise, after a few minutes charging, it booted right up again!!

So, I seem to have my iPhone back. The only thing is the camera doesn't work. Neither forward nor backward, I just see a black screen in my camera apps and occasionally a message about not being able to initialize the camera.

Questions:

- Is it worth me trying to disassemble again, down to the camera, clean the contacts some more, and hope for the best?

- Or should I simply replace the camera (front or back or both)?

- Lastly, I've heard doing a restore from iTunes might help, what do you think of that?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Aloha from Hawaii,

Mike

Device:

iPhone 4S

Tags:

4s, camera, water

Status:

Original post by mdh, Oct 19 2012

Title:

water damage - camera not working

Text:

I recently went swimming in the ocean with my iPhone 4S... it was about a minute before I noticed. Argh!

Came home, dried it out (vacuum, hair dryer, bowl of rice) for 24 hours. Tried switching it on....nothing. Connecting it to the charger just showed a low battery symbol, a brief apple symbol, then the screen went blank.

So I decided to disassemble it, all the way down to the logic board which I soaked in isopropyl alcohol (thanks for the excellent guide iFixit!) On reassembly I got the low battery symbol again when trying to switch it on. But to my surprise, after a few minutes charging, it booted right up again!!

So, I seem to have my iPhone back. The only thing is the camera doesn't work. Neither forward nor backward, I just see a black screen in my camera apps and occasionally a message about not being able to initialize the camera.

Questions:

- Is it worth me trying to disassemble again, down to the camera, clean the contacts some more, and hope for the best?

- Or should I simply replace the camera (front or back or both)?

- Lastly, I've heard doing a restore from iTunes might help, what do you think of that?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Aloha from Hawaii,

Mike

Device:

iPhone 4S

Tags:

4s, camera, water

Status:

open