WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR PHONE DROPS INTO WATER

Did you just drop your iPhone into a hot bowl of fail? Is your Galaxy swirling in the bottom of a toilet? Follow these instructions right now to give your phone its best chance of surviving immersion and avoiding water damage
We tested nine different desiccants. The most effective: silica gel. The tastiest: garlic and herb couscous. The messiest: Instant Oatmeal!
1. Remove it. The longer your phone stays underwater, the more likely it is to suffer a catastrophic failure. Get it out of there! NOTE: If your phone is someplace dangerous (like a clogged toilet), take your time and find a safe (and sanitary) way to retrieve it. You’ll still have a shot at saving it.
2. Power Down. Shutting the phone off protects it from short circuiting.
  • iPhone: Hold the Lock button and the Home button simultaneously for 5 seconds for a hard shutdown.
  • Android: Remove the battery to shut down instantly.
3. Make Way. Water can quickly fill an entire phone. Make a path for it to get out by opening or removing all obstructions.
  • Remove the battery (if possible)
  • Remove any headphones
  • Remove the SIM card
  • Remove the memory card
3.1 [OPTIONAL] Wash it out. If your phone fell into salt water, dirty water, or something other than water, run it under clean tap water to flush out any residual salt, minerals and contaminants. Don’t worry, your phone was already full of water, so you’re not making it wetter – just cleaner.
4. Drain it. Force out as much water as possible. Tilt it, shake it, blow air through it, or use a wet/dry vacuum cleaner to suck out the liquid.
5. Open it up. The best way to save your phone is to open the case so air can get in and water can get out. You can visit www.fixonlinetech.blogspot.com to find instructions for opening your phone. NOTE: You don’t have to worry about breaking your warranty, because that was null and void as soon as water hit the damage indicator.
6. Dry it. Your phone is still wet inside, and you’ll want to speed up the drying process to help reduce the damage to your phone. Here are three options to try:
  • Air it out: In dry climates, good air circulation may be all you need. In our tests, open-air drying worked best. A fan may improve airflow through the phone’s ports.
  • Warm it up: If you can reliably warm it to 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit (but no more!) you will dramatically speed evaporation. Apple lists the maximum tolerable temperature as 113 degrees Fahrenheit, so be careful!
  • Absorb it: If you are someplace that’s too humid for open-air drying, you may want to use a drying agent to soak up the moisture. Don’t bother with the “rice trick.” We tested it, and uncooked white rice is the least effective for absorbing liquids. Instead, try the following:
    • Silica Gel. The best common drying agent is silica gel, which can be found in the pet aisle of your grocery store as “crystal” style cat litter.
    • Couscous. Instant couscous or instant rice are acceptable substitutes for silica. In our tests, these absorbed water much faster than conventional rice. Instant oatmeal works too, but makes a mess of your phone.
    • Open Air. We compared the water absorption of eight different materials (including silica gel and rice.) None of these materials was as effective as leaving the device in an open space (such as a counter top) with good air circulation.
7. Resist the urge to turn it on. Give your phone a few days to dry. Water may be trapped in tight spots or absorbed into your phone’s circuit boards.
8. Test it out. Once your phone is dry and reassembled, it may turn right on. If not, there are a few things you can try:
  • Charge it: A few hours of charging may get it going.
  • Sync it: One of our test-iPhones appeared dead but could still sync, allowing us to recover data.
  • Swap the battery: Two of our drowned iPhones came back to life with a battery swap.
  • Keep your cards: Your SIM and SD cards contain your contact lists and some of your data.
If your phone truly takes the deep dive, check out here for a replacement, a low-cost solution for smartphones and tablets. Your drowned phone may also be worth extra cash through trade in
Let us know in the comments whether this helped you avoid water damage.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IPHONE 5 PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Image
Apple sold 5 million iphone 5 unite  in the first three days after release. Considering most of these buyers never saw, held or played with an iPhone 5 in person, that’s a big leap of faith. While we haven’t seen any flubs the scale of “ Antennagate” this time around, there have been plenty of complaints about the new smartphone. Let’s take a look at the most common gripes people seem to have. While not necessarily universal or even exceptional in the world of smartphones, these are the iPhone 5 problems that people have been complaining about the most online and around the world. Wherever possible, we’ll also let you know how you can work around these issues or fix them if you’re encountering them as well. Problem: Apple Maps It’s no secret that Apple and Google are no longer exchanging Christmas cards. The “thermonuclear” war Steve Jobs initiated on the Andriod  platform is far from over. With iOS 6 and the new iPhone 5, Apple stripped out the Google Maps app as the def
Read more

HOW TO FIX A PHONE THAT WON'T CHARGE PROPERLY

Image
If your battery isn't charging properly, don't immediately assume your phone charger or your battery is broken. Based on personal experience, the problem – and solution – may be much simpler than you think. If your phone or tablet isn't charging properly or at all, take a look at these 12 ways to fix a phone that won't charge. Why a phone doesn't charge The problem occurs in various degrees. Either your phone won't charge at all when it is plugged in, or it will only charge very slowly (sometimes barely faster than it is discharging). It’s a very common complaint, so here are a few solutions. 1. Do-It-Yourself USB port fix The quickest, easiest, and often most successful solution, is to do a little DIY repair on your actual hardware. The problem is often that the metallic surfaces inside the USB port and the microUSB charger are not making good contact, either through a manufacturing defect or because of the continual plugging and unplugg
Read more

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR IPHONE SPEAKER WON'T WORK

Image
Your iphone, iPad, or iPod touch all have a built-in speaker system that allows you to hear sounds when you play videos, music, or take phone calls. Although some devices have more speakers than others, that’s not to say that you will never have a problem with any of them. Speakers may malfunction, or user error may lead to problems with the device’s settings that make sound inaudible. In this tutorial, we’ll give you some troubleshooting tips to follow if you can’t hear the sound coming out of your IOS device. Some reasons you can’t hear your iOS device & how to fix There are a myriad of reasons why you might be experiencing issues hearing your iPhone, whether it’s related to ringtones, videos and music, or it sounds muffled. We’ll try to cover a few main aspects of why this happens, and then we’ll give you some tips on how to troubleshoot. Some of the reasons you might be experiencing sound issues are: Your iPhone may be stuck in silent mode Problem: If your
Read more