iPod classic submerged in water

Ekky, besides the great points Gaetan is making, you will have to clean your logic board. This is a must, otherwise you will have failure caused by corrosion, especially from the lye in your wash water (laundry soap). Letting it dry without cleaning it, will make it worse. Disassemble your iPod using this guide. Yes, it is a bit of a bear to open, but follow the guide and your will get it done. Take all parts and clean them with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush. Watch out for the battery connector, it has the tendency of breaking of the logic board. Make sure you clean all the connectors as well as the cable ends. The issue is going to be the hard drive. You can not disassemble it, but sometimes is can be salvaged by submerging it in alcohol as well. Do not substitute the alcohol with any other liquid. You can also submerge the LCD in alcohol. After you got it cleaned, definitely replace the battery, another must. Reassemble and evaluate for further damage. The parts that most commonly fail after submersion are the logic board due to excessive corrosion and the hard drive for the same reason. Even if you must replace those parts, it is still cheaper than a new iPod and your model is definitely a great player and I would not hesitate to repair it. Hope this helps, good luck.

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Gaetan @gaetan Rep: 9.5k 30 17 27 · Answer 1 · 2013-01-09T03:19:26-07:00

Gaetan @gaetan

Rep: 9.5k

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Posted: Jan 9, 2013

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In a general way, in case you have water in contact or inside an electronic device, the very first thing to urgently do is to disconnect the device from any electrical power (Removing the battery, disconnect wall socket...). The reason is that the first effect of the water is to short circuit everything inside the device. If you are able to remove the power before it become irreversible burned you have a chance to save your device.

Once you have removed any power supply, you have to wait for your device to be completely dry before to power it ON again and run some test. Disassembling your device and eventually using an hair dryer may help to dry your device. If you are lucky it may still work but it is not definitively safe at all. You may have some other issues later on like corrosion, but it is another story...

Here the issue is that accessing the iPod classic battery in a very short time is a challenge : iPod Classic Battery Replacement ! I'm afraid it is already too late for your device!

To conclude: If you suspect any remaining water on your device, my first recommendations are to:

Remove any charger (wall socket, computer).
Open it. iPod Classic Rear Panel Replacement
1. Disconnect the battery. iPod Classic Battery Replacement
2. Dry all part: you can use an hair dryer. iPod Classic Hard Drive Replacement
3. Particularly focus the hard drive because it is not a good idea to disassemble it.
Once it's completely dry, reassemble it for testing and eventually come back here for troubleshooting help so that we can see what need to be changed.

Good luck !