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Guys i need help, im new to this but this community seems so smart about these types of things, i dropped my phone in the toilet and during flushing i dropped it in the toilet and picked it out immediately, i had no rice here so i nipped to the shop and put it in a bowl of rice approx 35 mins after the contact with water, is it saveable?
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Before I get into the actual fix for the phone, rice fixes nothing. It typically makes things worse because of the placebo effect where you THINK it helped, but it makes things worse by slowly killing the phone until it’s so far gone it’s unrepairable. The rice myth needs to go away, but somehow it hasn’t.
The main thing to do with water damaged phones is to unplug the battery and cut off power as soon as you can. The problem with this on the iPhone is late model 4's and newer use a P2 Pentalobe, which very few people have handy. Most electronics oriented driver kits now include it, but it's still not as common as it should be. Refer to this guide to remove the battery: iPhone 6 Battery Replacement.
Once you remove the battery, remove the motherboard from the phone and check the parts like the camera. The link to do this can be found here: iPhone 6 Logic Board Replacement. Once the board is removed, follow this guide as a starting point to clean the board: Electronics Water Damage.
If you have access to a ultrasonic cleaner and cleaning solution, this is the best way to clean the board. While it isn't worth going out and buying one as a single use item, it may not a bad investment. The trick is to remove the shields if possible to allow for a full cleaning, which will improve the chances of the phone fully recovering. If you don’t remove the shields, you will not expose the shielded chips to cleaning, which may be a problem is something got under them. Harbor Freight sells a small one for $78.
The next thing to do is to replace the battery - replace and recycle it. In most cases with water damaged phones the battery gets compromised. The runtime damage usually forces you to, but it may not show signs of damage if the cell works, but the BMS is compromised. Change it for safety and sanity reasons.
While the board is out this is also a good time to clean the connectors for things like the TouchID sensor and camera modules and other damaged components. It’s better to replace these before you reassemble the phone so there are no unwanted gotcha problems. It's likely your speaker and headphone jack will be damaged, so I'd recommend ordering replacements when you order the battery. Keep these around just in case as well, as you may need them in the future because of the fact it has water damage.
Guide
Difficulty:
Moderate
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30 - 45 minutes
Guide
Difficulty:
Moderate
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30 minutes - 2 hours
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Here he is! .
My phone (a 6) has been sat in rice for about 48 hours is there any chance it’ll work it was in the water for about 10 seconds
@ripmyphone I have an iPhone 6 that encountered water for about 5 seconds. It’s been 3 months and it works fine but the home button doesn’t work most of the left side of the screen is dead and I’ve been getting poor cell reception. I’d say that your phone is likely to still function, but I wouldn’t recommend relying heavily on it. I should also add that it spent 48 hours in rice.
@Ian D It would probably have come out better if you didn't put it in rice. Clean the board properly and try to see if that helps. Doubtful if it's been a while, but you've already damaged it with the rice if it's like this you have nothing to lose - the rice didn't ruin the phone but the stabilized corrosion did it.
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Save the rice for cooking (although not that used rice)
Give this video here a shot:
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Appreciate, shall have a browse now fella.
I beleive @nick is pretty good with these issues
@captainsnowball is there anyway i can private message him
I don't think so...
Maybe tomorrow @oldturkey03 or @mayer will be able to help.
Note to Mayer: sorry I've been calling you so often. just trying to send people to get help where my expertise end.
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Aaron Cecil you should've skipped the rice. It does not work and does not protect your phone from corrosion. The very first thing you want to do is to not try to restart/sync the phone. This may further damage your phone. The next thing to do is to clean it. Disassemble your phone using these guides. You must remove all the EMI shields of the logic board. If you do not remove those you are not cleaning 3/4 of the board. Clean everything with +90% (no less than 90%) isopropyl alcohol. Follow this guide, and even so it was written for an Apple iPhone 3G all the points are still pertinent to your phone. Pay particular attention to the SMD components, check for charred missing or broken missing. You can then dry the board in an oven or equivalent at 220deg F (not higher;-) for a few hours. Best way to clean it would of course be through an ultrasonic cleaner. Consider professional help with that When it is properly cleaned, replace the battery. All these steps are to avoid delayed failure caused by corrosion. Once all this is done, reassemble your phone and reevaluate.
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