Water Damaged iPhone

kuhawk06 · Feb 8, 2009

iPhone 3g 8GB got briefly wet, tripped the indicator strip near the charging pins, the touch screen doesn't work although the rest of the systems seem intact (screen pixels are bright/undamaged, speakers work, etc), apple store won't replace (obviously). I have already buckled down and bought a new iphone and do not hate apple for not replacing it.

After the phone had been dried out, i plugged it into my laptop. The phone started up and went to my wallpaper but because the touchscreen wasn't working, i couldn't drag the slider to unlock it. Given that my laptop recognized it, wanted at least to restore it to erase part (I know, not all) of my data from it. Midway through the restore the iphone disconnected itself. Now when I connect it to the laptop it gives me the "connect to iTunes" screen on my iphone and my computer doesn't recognize it. Understandable that the software is now messed up because of a mid-restore disconnect.

Because the damaged iphone seems mostly intact, i am looking for suggestions on ways to fix it. I think most of the corrosion is located at the bottom of the phone. It would be great to have the phone working as a backup in case anything happened to my new one. I would love to just at the very least get it connected to my computer long enough to wipe out most of the data on it so I can resell it as a water damaged phone on ebay to help subsidize the cost of my new one. Is is technically possibly (ie easy) to open the iphone and clean the connections (both internal and charging pins)? How would this be done? If so, what do you need for cleaning/repair? Is it worth sending it to a LEGIT repair service instead (please do not post links to your bogus repair sites)?

I'm sure i'm missing plenty of information that will be necessary to help answer this...

Thanks for any advice you can give!

DPA · Feb 8, 2009

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You can take a look at PDAParts and Mission Repair to buy parts. It seems you will only need a Digitizer which is the touch panel and glass. They don't just sell a touch panel. You have to buy them together since they are glued together.

It's east I you are good with very detailed handy work. I you decide to do the repair yourself, PDAParts has a YouTube channel with many videos on PDA and iPhone repair.

David

kuhawk06 · Feb 15, 2009

Thanks FCP....i can definitely check the digitizer out. Is there any other damage that i should worry about from the water exposure? what other damage should i be looking for when i open it up? is there a way to "clean"parts that have corrosion?

Thanks :apple:

DPA · Feb 15, 2009

Well, as long as it boots correctly I can tell that the motherboard and logic board, and all other hardware, was unaffected by the water. If, for some reason, something else isn't working after the repair then you can post here and we will try to resolve the issue. I wish you the best of luck on the fix!

David

kuhawk06 · Feb 15, 2009

Thanks again. Before I order a digitizer, I need to fix a new problem that has manifested itself. Now when I connect this iphone to the computer, iTunes won't recognize it. I get an error "iTunes cannot activate your iPhone because the SIM card is not inserted or a SIM PIN is required". Now, the SIM card is inserted and i don't have a SIM pin (as far as I know). I've done a restore while in recovery mode ans still no luck. The screen is just stuck on the apple logo or on the USB connect to iTunes screen.

DPA · Feb 15, 2009

Now we have a problem. I have little experience with testing hardware so I would send my device into a place like iResQ that will test it and give you an estimate on how much it will be for them to fix it and they will tell you what is wrong. They will also fix it for you if you want. I think they are reasonable and very reliable.

David

DPA · Feb 16, 2009

For your problem with booting, have you tried the steps below? This really sounds like a hardware issue but it's worth the try.

Hard Reset:
1) Power iPhone on.
2) Hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons for about 7 seconds, or until the screen turns black.
3) Your iPhone should reboot. If it doesn't don't worry, just hold the Sleep/Wake button for about 2 seconds.

Forced Restore:
1) Turn iPhone off by holding down the Sleep/Wake Button for about 5 seconds or until the Slide to Power Off slider appears.
2) Slide Power Off slider. If iPhone is unresponsive, follow the Hard Reset instructions up to Step 3.
3) Open iTunes on your computer (Mac or PC).
4) Hold the Home Button down while you connect your iPhone to your computer via a USB cable.
5) iTunes should prompt you with a message saying an iPhone has been detected in Recovery Mode and that you must Restore it to before it can be used with iTunes.
6) Click Ok.
7) Click Restore a message should appear confirming that you want to Restore and Update.
8) Click Restore and Update. The restore has been initiated. Leave your iPhone connected until you iPhone reboots and syncs with iTunes.

David

benflick · Feb 16, 2009

kuhawk06 said:
Thanks again. Before I order a digitizer, I need to fix a new problem that has manifested itself. Now when I connect this iphone to the computer, iTunes won't recognize it. I get an error "iTunes cannot activate your iPhone because the SIM card is not inserted or a SIM PIN is required". Now, the SIM card is inserted and i don't have a SIM pin (as far as I know). I've done a restore while in recovery mode ans still no luck. The screen is just stuck on the apple logo or on the USB connect to iTunes screen.

Your phone is not activated. That is why it doesn't work with iTunes. You may need to run QuickPWN on the phone to "Hactivate" it.

DPA · Feb 16, 2009

benflick said:
Your phone is not activated. That is why it doesn't work with iTunes. You may need to run QuickPWN on the phone to "Hactivate" it.

iTunes does activate an iPhone after pwning. You have to deselect the Activate box in Pwnage Tool because it doesn't activate it properly. If iTunes didn't recognize deactivated then how do you think millions of iPhone 2G owners activated there iPhones at home using iTunes, and how millions of iPhone 3G users activated there iPhones at the Apple Store using iTunes? I can tell you from personal experience that iTunes recognizes deactivated iPhones. If you have ever jailbroke an iPhone before, the right way, you should know this.

David

benflick · Feb 16, 2009

FCP.guru.guy said:
iTunes does activate an iPhone after pwning. You have to deselect the Activate box in Pwnage Tool because it doesn't activate it properly. If iTunes didn't recognize deactivated then how do you think millions of iPhone 2G owners activated there iPhones at home using iTunes, and how millions of iPhone 3G users activated there iPhones at the Apple Store using iTunes? I can tell you from personal experience that iTunes recognizes deactivated iPhones. If you have ever jailbroke an iPhone before, the right way, you should know this.

David

Okay dude, no need to explode. iTunes does recognize deactivated iPhones, but you can not use an iPhone that is deactivated with iTunes, which is the problem that the OP is having. Besides I have more experience in this than you do anyway.

DPA · Feb 16, 2009

benflick said:
Okay dude, no need to explode. iTunes does recognize deactivated iPhones, but you can not use an iPhone that is deactivated with iTunes, which is the problem that the OP is having. Besides I have more experience in this than you do anyway.

Just as a little heads up, you might not want to go around telling people you have more experience in something than them. It's very arrogant and quite rude. And I wasn't exploding, I was stopping a piece of inane misinformation. You said that iTunes doesn't work with the deactivated iPhone. Not that the iPhone doesn't work because it's deactivated. Just curious, but how can you tell if you are more experienced than someone in a field if you have said less than 30 words and I have been successfully helping this member for 7 days and have waited in two ten hour lines for the device we are talking about?

David

benflick · Feb 16, 2009

If anyone is "arrogant and rude", it would be you. You know what I meant in my Original Post. Had you politely responded to it, we would not be in the situation we are in now-an arguement. The only thing you can do with an un-activated iPhone in iTunes is activate it. (Without the use of DFU mode) This is the OP's problem, he tried his SIM card in the iPhone but to no avail. Thus running QuickPWN will hactivate the iPhone, so you can use all of the features of the iPhone in iTunes.

DPA · Feb 16, 2009

To not violate the Forum Rules, we should not get in an argument which is completely off topic of the thread. It would be wasting other viewers time and the OP's since it would be no help to him. If you wish to continue this I will reply to a PM from you, but I would rather not provoke this matter.

Just for clarification, how can you expect someone to understand something if it means something else. I didn't understand what you meant and I don't expect anybody else to. You are correct about hacktivating. He would then be able to erase all data that wasn't erased with the restore so he could then sell the iPhone if he gets it running.

David

kuhawk06 · Mar 23, 2009

Progress! + Delays!

FCP.guru.guy said:
For your problem with booting, have you tried the steps below? This really sounds like a hardware issue but it's worth the try.

Hard Reset:
1) Power iPhone on.
2) Hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons for about 7 seconds, or until the screen turns black.
3) Your iPhone should reboot. If it doesn't don't worry, just hold the Sleep/Wake button for about 2 seconds.

Forced Restore:
1) Turn iPhone off by holding down the Sleep/Wake Button for about 5 seconds or until the Slide to Power Off slider appears.
2) Slide Power Off slider. If iPhone is unresponsive, follow the Hard Reset instructions up to Step 3.
3) Open iTunes on your computer (Mac or PC).
4) Hold the Home Button down while you connect your iPhone to your computer via a USB cable.
5) iTunes should prompt you with a message saying an iPhone has been detected in Recovery Mode and that you must Restore it to before it can be used with iTunes.
6) Click Ok.
7) Click Restore a message should appear confirming that you want to Restore and Update.
8) Click Restore and Update. The restore has been initiated. Leave your iPhone connected until you iPhone reboots and syncs with iTunes.

David

David-

Thanks for all of your help. I wanted to give you an update and again, ask for some of your knowledge. I was able to get the iphone to stay connected to my computer (macbook pro intel) long enough to restore it. I purchased a digitizer from one of the sites you had mentioned and installed it. It all went so smoothly. Unfortunately, when the moment of truth came along and I restarted my iphone I ran into 2 problems.

1. The touchscreen still does not work. I thought for sure that my touchscreen problems would be solved by the replacement digitizer. Thoughts?

2. The screen is now extremely dim. I can barely see anything but as far as I can tell everything is booting up correctly. it goes to my home screen and waits for me to drag the slider to unlock the phone. Why would the screen be so dim?

Thanks for any suggestions....

Kuhawk06

kuhawk06 · Apr 30, 2009

Still not fixed...

kuhawk06 said:
David-

Thanks for all of your help. I wanted to give you an update and again, ask for some of your knowledge. I was able to get the iphone to stay connected to my computer (macbook pro intel) long enough to restore it. I purchased a digitizer from one of the sites you had mentioned and installed it. It all went so smoothly. Unfortunately, when the moment of truth came along and I restarted my iphone I ran into 2 problems.

1. The touchscreen still does not work. I thought for sure that my touchscreen problems would be solved by the replacement digitizer. Thoughts?

2. The screen is now extremely dim. I can barely see anything but as far as I can tell everything is booting up correctly. it goes to my home screen and waits for me to drag the slider to unlock the phone. Why would the screen be so dim?

Thanks for any suggestions....

Kuhawk06

Can anyone help with this? Still having the above problems...

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Water Damaged iPhone

kuhawk06

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DPA

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DPA

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kuhawk06

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kuhawk06

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