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teenyk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 10, 2012
10
0
My iPhone 4 was dropped in water and I let it dry for 2 days. After 2 days the iphone luckily booted up and all things were working except the sound is gone - no ringer sound, no ipod sound, no volume bar in ipod. the external volume buttons work, but the ringer level is blank. Anyone experience the same thing and/or have a solution to fix this?
 

GuardDogTech

macrumors newbie
Dec 10, 2012
11
0
Colorado Springs
My iPhone 4 was dropped in water and I let it dry for 2 days. After 2 days the iphone luckily booted up and all things were working except the sound is gone - no ringer sound, no ipod sound, no volume bar in ipod. the external volume buttons work, but the ringer level is blank. Anyone experience the same thing and/or have a solution to fix this?

The only way to tell for sure is to open the phone and check the connection, but it sounds to me like the speaker is just shot. There is a lot of shiny copper on the Logic Board, and well we all know what happens with a penny in water.

The connection in the pic that is circled is your speaker connection. I do believe that is a pic of a 4S but it will look the same and be located next to the battery connector.
iphone-4-logic-board-mf.jpeg


If this is is burned out it will look black, or even have a green looking mold and its shot. If its clean the the speaker burnt out. Hope this helps!
 

teenyk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 10, 2012
10
0
The only way to tell for sure is to open the phone and check the connection, but it sounds to me like the speaker is just shot. There is a lot of shiny copper on the Logic Board, and well we all know what happens with a penny in water.

The connection in the pic that is circled is your speaker connection. I do believe that is a pic of a 4S but it will look the same and be located next to the battery connector. Image

If this is is burned out it will look black, or even have a green looking mold and its shot. If its clean the the speaker burnt out. Hope this helps!

Thanks GuardDogTech!....So, apparently the ringer is working (I hadn't received a call before to know for sure), just when I click the volume buttons the ringer level doesn't appear. I can make phone calls using it the normal way and putting it on speaker phone and hear no problem. The things that aren't working are the ipod sound [volume level doesn't appear nor does bar that shows the progression of the song], sound in movies, sound in games and the 'clicking' noise of the keyboard when the sound is on. Are these controlled by different speakers...I thought I read there was only one.
 

GuardDogTech

macrumors newbie
Dec 10, 2012
11
0
Colorado Springs
Ok, Does the vibrate button work? How about the headphone jack? Go into settings/sounds and make sure all of your settings are correct.

Ok, if the vibrate button doesn't work, try the headphone jack. If you get sound through the headphones, back up and restore the phone. If the headphone jack doesn't work then you'll have to replace the headphone jack/volume button/vibrator switch ribbon cable. Let me know how it goes!
 

teenyk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 10, 2012
10
0
Vibrate button works. Headphone jack works with calls and listening to voicemail, but doesn't work for ipod sound, video sounds, game sounds, etc (there's just no sound for it to transfer to the headphones).

All settings look like they're correct (volume limit is off in 'music', sounds are all on under 'sounds' and when I hit the volume buttons the slider level bar for 'ringer and alerts' under 'sounds' goes up and down).

I'll try the backup and restore and see how that goes!

(Thanks again for all your help!)
 

teenyk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 10, 2012
10
0
No luck with the restore. It made a keyboard clicking sound for a fleeting second yesterday, but nothing since...
 

teenyk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 10, 2012
10
0
It's working sporadically now...almost like something is a bit loose.
 

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
This is caused by rust shorting pins in the dock connector, or where the dock connector connects to the MLB. Shorting certain pins makes the phone think it's connected to a sound dock, hence why you get no sound or volume control (they're redirected to the audio out pins which are connected to nothing :p).

You can fix it (sometimes) by (gently) cleaning the dock pins with a toothpick, toothbrush/paintbrush and compressed air. If that doesn't work, it's either a new dock connector, or a replacement phone depending on how handy you are (or aren't) with a screwdriver.
 

teenyk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 10, 2012
10
0
This is caused by rust shorting pins in the dock connector, or where the dock connector connects to the MLB. Shorting certain pins makes the phone think it's connected to a sound dock, hence why you get no sound or volume control (they're redirected to the audio out pins which are connected to nothing :p).

You can fix it (sometimes) by (gently) cleaning the dock pins with a toothpick, toothbrush/paintbrush and compressed air. If that doesn't work, it's either a new dock connector, or a replacement phone depending on how handy you are (or aren't) with a screwdriver.

BMA, you're brilliant!! Cleaning the dock pins did it! Thank you!!
 

jwjsr

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2012
335
0
Fairhope, Alabama
This is caused by rust shorting pins in the dock connector, or where the dock connector connects to the MLB. Shorting certain pins makes the phone think it's connected to a sound dock, hence why you get no sound or volume control (they're redirected to the audio out pins which are connected to nothing :p).

You can fix it (sometimes) by (gently) cleaning the dock pins with a toothpick, toothbrush/paintbrush and compressed air. If that doesn't work, it's either a new dock connector, or a replacement phone depending on how handy you are (or aren't) with a screwdriver.

BMA, Before completely replacing the dock connector could I unplug the original ribbon cable from the logic board and plug in a new one just to see if it is the problem?

I'm not sure what his tells me, but I unplugged the flex ribbon cable from the board, turned on a music app, plugged the cable back in and got music from speakers for 2 or 3 seconds before it quit and went back into to dock mode
 
Last edited:

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
BMA, Before completely replacing the dock connector could I unplug the original ribbon cable from the logic board and plug in a new one just to see if it is the problem?

I'm not sure what his tells me, but I unplugged the flex ribbon cable from the board, turned on a music app, plugged the cable back in and got music from speakers for 2 or 3 seconds before it quit and went back into to dock mode

That's more than likely going to be the dock. Any you can by all means plug one in (if you can get hold of one) without screwing it to the phone.
 

jwjsr

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2012
335
0
Fairhope, Alabama
That's more than likely going to be the dock. Any you can by all means plug one in (if you can get hold of one) without screwing it to the phone.

Thanks BMA, I did all that plugging and unplugging whilst the phone was on so hopefully plugging in a replacement will not screw up the phone. I think I will order replacement from OWC as I didn't see any on eBay I was comfortable with ordering from.
 

jwjsr

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2012
335
0
Fairhope, Alabama
Fixed mine

That's more than likely going to be the dock. Any you can by all means plug one in (if you can get hold of one) without screwing it to the phone.

I bought a dock connector off ebay for $5.85 total. Unplugged the installed dock connector from the logic board, plugged the new dock connector in and determined it was the problem and then went through the fairly tedious process of installing the new dock connector following the ifixit instructions. I was successful woohoo!!
Also i found you can do all the plugging unplugging, of the dock connector flex cable, from the iphone you want while the iphone is on without damaging the phone
 

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
I bought a dock connector off ebay for $5.85 total. Unplugged the installed dock connector from the logic board, plugged the new dock connector in and determined it was the problem and then went through the fairly tedious process of installing the new dock connector following the ifixit instructions. I was successful woohoo!!
Also i found you can do all the plugging unplugging, of the dock connector flex cable, from the iphone you want while the iphone is on without damaging the phone

Yay! Glad you got it fixed! :D

Most of the internal components are actually hot swappable (camera, vibrate motor, dock) - not too sure why though.
 

MartyCan

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2012
1,530
365
Near Toronto, ON
My wife's 4S is in a similar bind. Got wet. We dried it and all works but the built in microphone. If you use the mic on the headphones it works. Any suggestions?
 

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
My wife's 4S is in a similar bind. Got wet. We dried it and all works but the built in microphone. If you use the mic on the headphones it works. Any suggestions?

Is the speaker (music from the bottom - not the earpiece) working? and do you get the volume slider? Finally, if you record a voice memo - does the microphone work in there?

It's a tough one to call - it could be the speaker assembly or it could be the dock connector. It could of course be the logic board, but I'd say that was unlikely.

I would be tempted to replace both the speaker and dock - both parts together will be less than $10 - so you won't lose too much if it does turn out to be the board (this will also prevent any corrosion in the dock connector worsening and causing issues later down the road :)).
 

MartyCan

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2012
1,530
365
Near Toronto, ON
Is the speaker working? and do you get the volume slider?

It's a tough one to call - it could be the speaker assembly or it could be the dock connector. It could of course be the logic board, but I'd say that was unlikely.

I would be tempted to replace both the speaker and dock - both parts together will be less than $10 - so you won't lose too much if it does turn out to be the board (this will also prevent any corrosion in the dock connector worsening and causing issues later down the road :)).

No, just the mic. Speakers are fine. Both the phone speaker and the larger speaker are fine. Charging works too. No problems with any of the other operations on it.
 

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
No, just the mic. Speakers are fine. Both the phone speaker and the larger speaker are fine. Charging works too. No problems with any of the other operations on it.

In that case you *should* be OK just replacing the speaker assembly, but I'd be tempted to replace both just in case (should be around ~$10 for both and it's easy to do if you're handy with a small screwdriver and have some patience).

The speaker is much easier to fit though if you just wanted to do that though :).
 

MartyCan

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2012
1,530
365
Near Toronto, ON
An update. It worked for a few days but today it has gone funky. It powered off with 85% battery and when I restarted it, it went into an "infinite-loop" (apparently) of reboots without ever coming up to a home screen.
 

Amxlina

macrumors newbie
Jan 5, 2015
1
0
Okay so my phone dropped in a pool of water but I pulled it out immediately. It seemed to be working at that point of time but I turned it off and overnight it with rice. This morning I checked my phone and everything seems to be working except the speaker. However, I can hear music when I use my ear piece. Not only that, when I go to settings, I can play my ringtone perfectly fine and loud. So I believe that my phone is on "ear-piece mode". Can anyone help me solve this issue? I'm using an iPhone 5c
 
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