Will keep it simple. My N900 got very wet and now won't switch on. If I try to charge it with the existing battery in it, the light goes from orange to green in about 10 seconds, but the power button or lock slider don't do anything - phone stays off. I bought a new battery (in the hope it would be that) but the light doesn't come on at all when it's plugged in charging. I'm stuck as what to do. Do modern phones short if they get wet? Will even listen to old wives' tales of putting them in a bag of rice to dry them out at this stage (I've had it in the airing cupboard for a few days, but no luck either). Hoping for a miracle here.... Thanks, Ian

remove your battery, keep the battery cover off, let it totally dry out in as dry of a place you can on a towel in open air.

clean the battery leads, try again tomorrow or later once it's fully dry.

First of all, it's *very* bad, that You tried to charge it/turn it on. First thing You should do is removing battery... Still, You can try to disassembly it (many videos on net - youtube for example - process is easy), then put in bag of rice and warm, well ventilated place. Doesn't hold Your breath, thought.

By the way, being "modern" doesn't make phones (any device, in particular) waterproof. Even best short-circuit prevention system can/will fail, if You short every element with each another (what is basically thing *possible* when You cover it in electrolyte), not to mention oxidization etc...

Some people successfully resurrected their devices after diving deep in water while turned on, but they didn't tried to kill N900, by charging it and turning on while wet inside.

// Edit

Ops, too late. Still, *doesn't* try again tomorrow, cause it *won't* be dry inside, if You don't disassemble it as much as possible. Taking off only backcover isn't enough.

the first thing you wanna do is remove the battery, it will short circuit inside if you don't. open the phone, take a bowl full of rice, not kidding, yes, put the phone along with the battery in it for atleast 24 hours, the rice will suck out the moisture from the phone, i did this with an iphone, an old nokia N97 mini, worked, they work great, try it out, you won't regret it. also make sure the entire phone and the battery are buried in the rice

You must take it apart and clean it thoroughly. Otherwise, the water and all the chemicals in it will create a very nasty layer on the circuitboards that will shortcircuit everything.
Use a lot of isopropanol to clean it, it will vaporise quickly...

But Mobile inside dry rice including battery for 24 hrs. It might fix ur n900.

yeah, i heard about that solution also. Don't know if it works, but let us know if it does?

remove the battery and drown the phone in a bowl of dry rice
Stress test [5]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC9gW3Sfiig

TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK !!!!

I'd try the rice first, but if that doesn't work I have another possible solution. A number of years ago,a friend of mine dropped his laptop in a lake. He took out the motherboard (or maybe just opened up the case) and put it in the oven on low heat for a while. He managed to resurrect it that way. I've since lost track of said friend, so I can't tell you how low he had the oven set or how long he left it in there.

Hi everybody. Thanks for your replies. To confirm, as soon as it happened, I took out the battery, dried off what I could and put it in a towel in a warm cupboard. I only tried to switch it on after about 4 days. Rice is worth a go, so will report back. Ian