My smartphone phone is surrounded by rice

[wrcsixeight]

It got wet. It happens. galaxy s4 Mini.

It was playing music at the time, it stopped. I noticed it was wet, I ripped out the battery. Likely too late, but time will tell.

I also pulled out the sim card, and microSD card.

I am not holding much hope it will power up and be 'just fine', but have to at least try

I am not rolling in spare cash to replace it with the latest and greatest and don't care about those attributes anyway. The s4 mini did all I required and could do a bunch more I never would require and do not care to learn.

I want texts, Wifi, and a phone capabilities. I use the camera for unimportant stuff, but not the selfie one.

My carrier, Ting, uses Sprint towers.

What are the poor man's options to having a 'basic' inexpensive smartphone up and running? I am not really willing to go back to flip phone for any significant duration. I'd enjoy the replacement to have a microSDhc card slot, assuming my 32GB sdhc card with all my music on it was not corrupted in its soaking as well.

Can My SIM card be put in any sprint compatible phone, like perhaps my friend's old s4 and just fire up and be able to read any texts that came in after submersion?

Suggestions?

 

[demarpaint]

Good luck!

 

[bioburner]

There was an offer over a dealnews for refurbished Samsung S5 for 119. And they are water resistant

 

[Andrew1972]

I bought my child an Amazon phone with their ads in lock screen for under $100. It would fit your needs. She used for sending me snapchats all day family members and listening to music.



BLU R1 HD - 16 GB - Black - Prime Exclusive - with Lockscreen Offers & Ads https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H2E0J5M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2LzizbCNS2M3V

 

[Kuato]

The rice could save it...saved my old phone twice when it got wet. Once was into water....

Don't know of any deals...sorry.

 

[maximus]

I once had a Galaxy Note II that I dropped in the bathtub-fully submerged! I was in a hotel room and immediately dried it with a blow dryer and was somehow able to get some rice and left it in a bowl of rice over night. The next day it powered up and worked flawlessly till I stopped using it. The extreme low humidity in AZ might have helped, too.

 

[JamesBond]

Skip the rice, take it apart and hit it with the hair dryer for a few minutes then set in front of the fan for an hour, repeat until nightfall.

If it's dead, switch to cricket and get a free phone.

 

[C1KLTX]

Only phone I EVER messed up was a Note 4. It got completely submerged and only powered back on once. I know the phone I have now would survive what happened to the Note 4 but I'm not trying it out lol.

Good Luck to you.. hope it still works.

 

[dishdude]

You might get lucky, I dropped my S3 in the hot tub. After it dried out, it worked fine! I think being able to remove the back and battery is a huge advantage in situations like this.

 

[Rand]

what price range.. for some $300 is inexpensive.. others $50

and do you have amazon prime?

 

[wrcsixeight]

I got lucky. I cleaned the Sim, microSD and battery contacts and 3.5mm jack and USB input with Deoxit d5 before reassembly, and it fired up. Not saying the D5 was the fix, only that I decided to do it anyway beforehand.

BTW if you have never tried this stuff, well try it on the USB input and see how nicely it 'clicks' when inserted afterwards. It also appears it can charge faster when the contacts are clean and lubed. I like Deoxit Gold for this.

It did seem to be a bit slower at first to respond to commands, but now a while later, it appears to be normal again and is playing music from SD card.

After it happened, I used my small 'buckethead' shopvac on reduced speed via a router speed controller to suck across the underside in various positions for 15 to 20 minutes, then left it in the open bag of rice overnight with a fan blowing across the top in some low ambient humidity.

If the worst happened, I was mainly wondering if one can simply transfer the Sim card to any sprint compatible phone and have it work, or if one would have to do some sort of procedure to get the new phone to respond to my account and how that all works. Like if I could not get a new phone for a few days and borrow a friend's phone, put my sim card in it and open up my contacts list, perhaps make a few calls, send a few texts on my account. Not sure how/if that works like that.

Looking at Ting's offerings yesterday, I was considering the Samsung J7 at 163$ if the phone had indeed fried. Not sure how it compares to my several year old S4 mini in features/performance, not that I really require much in that department.
I really dont want a giant phone and prefer the size of the mini and am glad I do not have to immediately replace it. I paid 400$ for it in early 2014, but funds are tighter now, and I no longer have Amazon Prime.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Everyone I know who's tried this trick,it's worked for them.