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Repair information and guides for the fifth generation of iPhone. Model: A1387

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Fix a (mostly) broken LCD backlight after water damage?

A (very stupid) friend dropped my iPhone 4S (Verizon, iOS 5.0.1) in water about two months ago. It was on for about a minute before I turned it off. At the time the display was blank. Kept it in a sealed bag of rice for about 3 days. After this, the screen worked perfectly for about a month.

So one month ago, the LCD backlight started to fail. First, it worked for about 5 minutes of uptime. Then the amount of time the backlight worked for began to shorten. For a while it worked only while the phone was booting. Then, it stopped working altogether when the phone was on.

However, it still works under the strangest circumstances. The backlight works fine whenever the phone's battery is dead. I can see the "empty battery logo" perfectly. Also, the Apple boot logo briefly flashes (for less than 1 second) during boot.

I wonder if Apple has software code to detect water damage and disable the LCD backlight. Any ideas for repair?

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Alex Chandel, "Apple has software code to detect water damage and disable the LCD backlight" I don't think so;-). It sounds to me like failure brought on by corrosion. The first thing I suggest doing is to not longer try to turn it on or charge it. It is easily possible that you are shortening out parts on the logic board i.e. the power management IC as well as the LCD. If anything, disassemble your phone using these guides. Once you have that done, clean your phone with high grade isopropyl alcohol and this guide. It was written for a 3g but all the points are valid for your phone as well. Once its clean, replace the battery and re-evaluate for further (if any) damage. It is possible that you may require a new LCD pr/and a backlight coil/IC, but only a good evaluation and cleaning will tell. Hope this helps, good luck.

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5 Comments:

can you help me i have the same prob except its not an iphone

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@Hunter14, what phone is it and what are the issues?

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Casio GZ One C811 verizon and the backlight is just damaged

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i dropped my phone in water about a year ago. it never worked. i thought i lost all hope but 1 day about a year after it happened it started to work. everything on the phone started functioning again except the screen. the touchscreen still works, the sound still works, the charging and buttons still work, but the screen is just black. idk if this is the same problem or a related one but i hope my phone works one day again.

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