N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Chaps,

I'm looking for some advice and hopefully you can help me out!

A very tiny amount of seawater entered my N900 through the volume key and possibly the power key last weekend.
The phone was professionally cleaned after that, and is now working fine with the exception of the WiFi and GPRS/3G connectivity.

What happens now is that whenever a 'Select Connection' dialog opens up, it searches for a data stream for a while, then, after quite some time (maybe a minute or so) i get a 'no connection available' and a greyed out option for the GPRS/3G stream.

The funny symptom is that after i close the failed 'Select Connection', some, but not all, of my desktop applications freeze - changing desktops and contacts work, but the 'Conversations' and 'Fm Transmitter' widgets stop working.

So I wonder if (1) my WiFi module is dead (but is GPRS data integrated w/ it?) and (2) if this could be some sort of software fault or file corruption - i had to remove the battery while the phone was on when it got wet.

Could you guys help me out diagnose this issue?

Thanks and all the best,

Charles Young
www.paisagembrasileira.com

P.S.: how do I access the .deb files for the maemo repositories? I'd like to install some health check utilities but have been unable to so far.

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Its probably fried the chips for the faulty parts.. Without seeing it unable to tell for sure. I doubt its software tho. Did you immediatly pull out the battery when it got wet, for any other users its best to turn it off if your near water then if it does get wet let it dry out for a week before powering it on.

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Hi Crsnwby,

Thanks for the comment. I plan to open up the the phone soon and I'll post images if there's any obvious damage.

Are you aware of any utility that checks the health of the wifi module?

Just to add to the initial message, I found an aditional weird behavior: if i shut down after a failed 'Select Connection' screen the phone reboots automatically.

Thanks,

Charles

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

I have to second this.

Possibility one would be fried chips or connectors (bad)
Possibility two would be short-circuing due to saltwater being much more conductive than normal water.

The latter can be solved by cleaning the MB with Q-Tips and destilled water (basically erasing every trace of salt or minerals on it).

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Hope this help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVEHm325-z8

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Several points.
If a phone gets wet in _clean_ water - would you drink it? - then drying out completely may help.
However.
Saltwater (or indeed coke, or ...) is _much_ nastier - perhaps ten thousand times more conductive, and it never fully dries. Even if you dry it for a week in a warm place, you still don't remove the salt, which when there is the slightest hint of moisture in the air will absorb it, and get damp, and start to conduct.

This causes various effects - the wires on parts of internal circuitry are only a few thousandths of a mm thick, and can easily corrode through.

Corrosion can also add 'leaks' between parts of the circuit that should not be connected together, and cause failures that way.
Some of this is not repairable.

The only reliable way once it's got salt water in to clean it is to immediately pop the battery out - turning it off is not enough - there are plenty of bits still active.

Then dismantle the phone completely, including removing all of the cans, then wash in water with a hint of detergent, followed by a rinse in hot distilled water, then air dry at 80C or so for a few hours.

If this hasn't been done - there is no way of getting the salt out. And it will continue to corrode - even if it's been externally cleaned - or any saltwater just sponged off the motherboard.

However - the above procedure alone risks damaging the phone.
One engineer on these forums with many years of electronics experience broke his n900 while taking it apart.

In short.
Get accidental damage insurance.

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

I have the exact same problem. Had some grime on my screen so i washed the front in front of a running tap. Don't ask me why I did it, I wasn't thinking properly.

I'd imagine that not much water got into the unit. But I have the exact same symptoms as the original poster described.

Did anyone find a solution to this?

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Fresh water can be just as bad on an older device. Old devices are full of salt from your fingers, and this salt together with dirt (which also may contain large amounts of salt) is deposited in cracks around buttons. Fresh water on this will dissolve some of the salt before entering the phone. Water is bad no matter what.

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

So to sum up:

Water + Electronics = :(

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

tried full reflash, wifi still doesnt work. put in the oven for an hour, still doesnt work.

might have to just forgo wifi and 3g access. which is kinda pointless on this phone.

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

if the wifi module is damaged am sure a new part can be bought

http://www.thenokiaparts.com/eng/tuo...e-parts?page=2

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Should be:

SaltWater + Electronics = :(

In know, I have the parts left over.

Mine still boots up and even charges,
but the water hosed the display and
when I got the metal screenlids off various locations
(including the wifi circuitry) I could see that all was lost.
It was dirty saltwater and exceedingly difficult to even get
the worst stuff out. The only way to even try is immersion
in distilled water and an alcohol rinse,
but even then residue remains to wreak havoc.
(Note - you need to remove the camera module and the display
as these have bits that simply cannot be cleaned)

The best you can hope for really is if the screen and camera
still work then they are ready spares for a replacement unit.

Saltwater on the Motherboard inside the cages is a terminal event. :eek:

My next test unit I will disassemble and properly waterproof.:D

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

Wow! Did it really drown on the sea? I can see those chunks of salt... Really... Did a professional cleaned it?

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

When I took my N900 to the beach I bought a waterproof camera bag (pick one up at any £1 store near the coast). As its a resistive touch screen it was still semi-usable inside this.

Or, (and this may sound crazy) do you really need your N900 at the beach?

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

The OP had his at the beach

I, on the other hand, dropped mine in the swamp where I work.

The globs are sand and clay - the salt is more a white residue.
The pix I took were before I cleaned it up myself,
but I don't have much to work with here.
When I get back to civilization I may see if I can run it through a vat.

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

My N900 got wet too but only WiFi is not working. I can connect via 3G to the internet.

When I try "ifconfig wlan0 up" x-term stops responding. No error messages.
HealthCheck isn't working either due to no response from the wifi-module.

Any suggestions?

Re: N900 beach disaster - Wireless and GPRS data no longer working
 

External wifi adaptor using usb host mode?

Not sure if anyone has got them to work but it seems that it may be the only option short of gutting your N900