Fixing wet cell phones.
 

I must be in a fixing mood tonight.. taken apart two laptops, a rotary tool and now my malfunctioning cell/handheld computer.. I got a splash of water in it a week or so ago and it hasn't quite worked right since...not anymore. The secret:




take out the motherboard and dunk it in ISO-HEET, or another source of dry isopropyl alcohol, and put in front a fan. The alcohol will mix with the water and make it evaporate far faster than it would alone. Bluetooth is working again, as well as the USB port, and signal strength is back to where it used to be before it got wet.

My father used to work for Eaton/IDT who make custom human interface equipment for industrial systems control. When the terminals came back in for repair, they opened the cabinets and washed them with distilled, filtered water to get all the dust and debris out.

Then they put them in a "hot room" at about 120 deg. with low humidity to dry them out and prep them for service.

I have a camera that quit working some time ago due to water, I may have to try something like this...

I fixed my wet cell phone by removing the battery and moving a portable hair dryer over it for about 5-10 mins.

I've been involved in recovery procedures using the same type of procedures:

A flash flood at the Grand Ole Opry ended up submerging a whole host of electrical gear...and not just water...sediment and other crap!

Most of it was salvagable doing it the way you mentioned above...

I really baby all of my electronic devices and yet still have gone through 3-4 Bluetooth earpieces and managed to crack the screen on my Treo. My sister, on the other hand, dropped hers into a bucket of latex paint. She fished it out, washed it off in the kitchen sink, and dried it with her blow dryer. It still worked.

I must have some bad mojo . . . .

Latex paint is a better cushion than concrete.

I don't baby my stuff at all and its still lasted me 2 years now, it stands up to drops just fine, I keep a screen protector on, and have an identical dead phone I got for free to swap my motherboard into if/when the housing finally gives out.. Its super scratched up, but still works find as long as I keep it dry... Bluetooth headsets are another story...all the ones I've ever had have had the battery crap out on me, opened some up, but have no idea where I can buy batteries..

Try RatShack...they can USUALLY cross a battery for you...if not, some stores have been able to reference local people that may have an alternate source...