Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

my luck then (it has diven AND survived for more than an year)

-i was really lucky to get it quickly out of the water.
-prior to that i had noticed the case was built better. the interior is way more dustfree than my last phone (nokia 6600)
-perhaps the combination of rice-heat-rice (and a little shaking) has made every last droplet either come loose or evaporate by heat

either way what's really clear is
-take out the battery ASAP

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

It was mentioned so much time in this forum, that I'm very surprised there are still people repeating the same mistakes all over again.

first thing - *never* ever try to turn it on, if You soaked it by accident... First thing to do ASAP is to remove battery. then, after drying it as much as You can with paper towels, disassemble it completely (it's not hard process, many youtube videos showing it etc), and put parts into bag of rice. Personally, I would left it for at least few hours there. Using hair dryer (after bag of rice) may be good idea also.

After that, left it for *few days* in dry, warm and *well ventilated* place. Yea, you heard correctly - leave parts for few days. You'll be on safe side, cause some moisture can still be left in very hard accessible places.

Then, it should be safe to put parts together, insert battery and turn on.

Of course risky people try to turn it on after few hours of drying, or even without taking it fully apart - just removing cover - it may work after that, even for months, but You're risking oxidization damage showing up after unspecified amount of time. I think you can left N900 in warm, dry and ventilated places, for sake of it's good health.

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

The reason we wash is to get out any substance than can cause corrosion as this process can take months and months to occur, the tell tale sign is components go white or even yellow or brown.

Often than not there is already dangerous substances already inside of your mobile that will get "washed" about inside which actually spreads and starts the erosion procedure that can take many months to even start.

ANY mobile or electronic device MUST be stripped down and washed if it has been anywhere near water because you just do not know what is in the water and more important what the water will do when it get's inside of the device.

Mobiles are very low voltage and use little current and unless you got some kind of step up circitry inside such as switch mode power supplies there will be no damage normally except of course fuses and they can be replaced.

Lcd's can be damaged because of the "step up" voltages needed to light the screen.

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

Drown your N900 for a good few hours?

Yeah, whatever you say you clown.

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

as said my N900 has functioned 100,0% for 15 months post facto, so +1 for build quality

perhaps i'll strip my n900 then if i have the time

is there any known method to estimate / measure the damage done? i mean other than visual inspection?

1339 CET: thx for all info
might come in handy since i'm sometimes on sea/sweet water with my n900
and dutch summers are not what they have been lately either ;)
im heading on byebye

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

You can use a watchmakers eyeglass and inspect every component close up for dis-colorisation and the obvious green color "mould" and if all looks ok, thank yourself a lucky man to have dried it out properly in the first place.

I once got a bach of mobile phones from a water damaged basement and they were all completely under water for maybe 2 months and after a few of us stripped them down we had a 99% success rate after replacing some minor components such as fuses lcd's and mostly dead batteries.

Some people obviously know very little about electronics to even understand that water damage is not always fatal.
If your dealing with high voltage and high current then the situation totally changes.

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

1st step. . take out battery!

put phone in container of rice. . dry rice. .

leave for 3 days. .

it will return to u. .

same **** happened to me. .

good luck. .

3 days then reboot!

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

It's always unfortunate when people recommend putting electronics in rice, rice is dusty and makes for a rather poor desiccating agent. It wont dry out your N900 any quicker than if you just put it on your kitchen table.

Wet N900? Remove the battery, strip it down to pieces, dry each part as best you can, then hit each part with a hair dryer or put it all in your oven at a temperature of not more than about 50 degrees C until you are convinced that it is utterly dry.

Once you are convinced, don't be. You've probably still got moisture underneath the surface mounted IC's. Pull off all the metal covers and hair dry it for another half hour or so. Then leave it all for half a day or so and let nature do what you might not have.

After this, if your N900 works, it works, if not, it probably never will.

Don't use rice, you would get far more benefit just sticking your N900 on a sunny windowsill than you ever will by submerging it in rice.

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

You should do a little research before you jump to gut instinct conclusions. An N900 in water for a few days could very well survive, in fact it probably would so long as the battery was removed and the water relatively clean.

I used to routinely wash dusty motherboards, heat sinks, and video cards in an industrial dishwasher, soap and all, then I'd leave the parts in the sun for a day after rinsing. I don't recall having ever lost any hardware from this either, though more than a few machines became less buggy after removing all the crud from various ports.

Re: n900 swimming: now dead!
 

HAHAHA this made me laugh, the good old days eh... mind you i never had an industrial washing machine as we had to do it the painfull way hahaha good one.

But yes water inside a device does not mean it end's its life at all, far from it as many many people who know understand just a few are not knowedgable enough to know this.

Batteries these days have an internal fuse and that will pop under a short condition appearing so even when batteries are inside of the device during the accident it can still survive and in fact i could go as far as to say that every device dropped into water IF taken apart and washed WILL survive if you do it properly.

Thankyou for your comments as i am sure people think i am crazy when i talk about water "damage" hahahaha.