Cell Phone went for a spin in the wash machine

[lairdwd]

Cell phone went through a spin in 40 degree cold water. LOL. Let the thing dry out for a little while, and it fired right up. My color palette is screwed up, and the camera is shot, but the phone itself works fine.

The only serious problem is that it rapidly drains the battery. By the end of the day, it's completely discharged. I have verified that it's NOT the battery by swapping two different new batteries in. Same results. This is a simple phone that doesn't have any apps running. Bluetooth and GPS are both turned off. I have turned power saving on, and display brightness to barebones minimum. Again, there is nothing running on the phone that should be draining the battery. There is some electronics issue that is causing this.

Any ideas?

 

[Pablo]

Either live with it OR soak in pure distilled water (no minerals added back) then dry well with canned air, and let sit in a bowl covered with uncooked hard rice. Idea is to cheaply clean out ionic salts causing the short. If that doesn't work - I'm out of ideas. Well other than buy a new phone.

Wife has done the washer thing twice and dropped a phone in a creek once...every time we got the phone working again.

 

[crazyoildude]

let it dry without the battery for a few days...if it continues to eat batteries its shot unless you have an electronics geek you know..

 

[demarpaint]

My wife recently spilled soda on her phone, it worked a short while after then died. I removed the battery, cleaned it up, did the rice gig and no cigar. The good news was she was due for a free upgrade. The bad news is I lost two videos that were on the phone of my dog who died a little over 2 years ago. I was sick over that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Verizon store told me there was no way of getting them back!

 

[beast3300]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
Either live with it OR soak in pure distilled water (no minerals added back) then dry well with canned air, and let sit in a bowl covered with uncooked hard rice. Idea is to cheaply clean out ionic salts causing the short. If that doesn't work - I'm out of ideas. Well other than buy a new phone.

Wife has done the washer thing twice and dropped a phone in a creek once...every time we got the phone working again.


Yes! or bread crumbs will also suck up moisture.

 

[Familyguy]

About 2 years ago, I found a Motorola RAZR while shoveling my patio in my very rural CT home. I knew it wasn't mine and didn't recall any of my friends mentioning a lost phone. I took the battery out and then left it on the fireplace hearth to dry for a couple of days. A friend still had a RAZR so I borrowed his battery and the phone fired right up. The last call in the phone log was *two* years prior to that. It had been sitting outside THAT long in the rain/snow/weather. I thumbed through the log and it turned out it belonged to a roofer who had replaced the chimney flashing 2 years prior. I called him up and he came and picked it up. He was still using a (newer) RAZR...and now he had a spare.

 

[lairdwd]

I should have clarified - the water "event" happened two weeks ago. What's done is done and it's dry in there by now. For whatever reason, it's sucking the juice hard off the battery, and is probably leaking current internally. I'll have to take it apart and see what's up.

 

[unDummy]

I've had the same problem. Its hit or miss with a phone going through the wash. Some work fine, some die, and some have issues.
Time for a new phone.

 

[LAGA]

I washed my Razr a couple of years ago. Blew out what ever I could with compressed air and put it in the oven at 250 for about an hour. Got a year out of it.

 

[gfh77665]

Bite the bullet, and just toss the thing. The aggravation of trying to milk it along while it eats battery, etc. ain't worth it. Toss it and be done with it. The $$ you spend on a new one will be well worth it.

 

[Cutehumor]

Originally Posted By: Familyguy
About 2 years ago, I found a Motorola RAZR while shoveling my patio in my very rural CT home. I knew it wasn't mine and didn't recall any of my friends mentioning a lost phone. I took the battery out and then left it on the fireplace hearth to dry for a couple of days. A friend still had a RAZR so I borrowed his battery and the phone fired right up. The last call in the phone log was *two* years prior to that. It had been sitting outside THAT long in the rain/snow/weather. I thumbed through the log and it turned out it belonged to a roofer who had replaced the chimney flashing 2 years prior. I called him up and he came and picked it up. He was still using a (newer) RAZR...and now he had a spare.



interesting, when I bought my house in november, I found a blackberry in the garbage can and was covered in lightly dry mud/grass. must have been outside in the garbage can for almost a year. I didn't have a charger for it, so I retossed it in the garbage can. After reading your post, it makes me wonder if I could have cleaned it and sold it on ebay.