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macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2010
63
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I have an iPhone 4 16 GB.

This morning I woke up to water spilled on my iPhone and on its charger which it is plugged into. &$#^. I turn on the iPhone, it comes up just fine. The volume is being inconsistent (sometimes it'll not work and show me the volume icon with no bar under it, which is a concern but not my chief concern).

My chief concern is this. I unplug my iPhone, and my charger is blackened at the end, there's an ember on it. I quickly put it out and laid the charger to rest. But now, my iPhone won't take a charge when plugged into my (perfectly functional) spare charger, and it won't recognize when I plug it into iTunes. I'm afraid what happened is the water + electricity of my charger heated it up and fried the 30 pin connector in my iPhone.

As of this writing, my phone has 43% battery and will not take a charge. I am backing it up to iCloud right now in the event of needing a new phone.

Have I come to the only possible conclusion here? If so, what do I need to do to get it fixed? Or am I going to need a new iPhone?

EDIT: It's quite possible that the liquid indicator has not activated, though I can't tell for certain. If this is true, might I be able to get it fixed/get a new phone based on the fried 30 pin?
 
How well do you think I'd do if I omitted the detail about the water and just said my dock connector got fried? I don't think the water sensor triggered, though I can't tell for sure? Is it still "$99+ for a new iPhone" for me?
 
Very much so. However, learning that apparently I can spill water on my iPhone in my sleep will not solve my fried iPhone. It may prevent my next iPhone from getting fried, though... ;)
 
Very much so. However, learning that apparently I can spill water on my iPhone in my sleep will not solve my fried iPhone. It may prevent my next iPhone from getting fried, though... ;)

No more storing it by the water glass! LOL

And I suggest you try your luck with Apple, but remember, they have respect for honesty!
 
How well do you think I'd do if I omitted the detail about the water and just said my dock connector got fried? I don't think the water sensor triggered, though I can't tell for sure? Is it still "$99+ for a new iPhone" for me?

If you spilt water on an iPhone the water sensor would be triggered they are very sensitive and often go of due to condensation.
 
If you spilt water on an iPhone the water sensor would be triggered they are very sensitive and often go of due to condensation.

Really? I've tried looking where they're supposed to be and I don't see them.

Regardless, I've given up hope of troubleshooting this myself, it's got 20% battery and it sat on the charger for an hour without taking the charge, so I'm going to conclude that yes, the 30-pin connector in the phone is damaged irrepably. Looking in there now, I see that it is heavily corroded.

So tomorrow I contact Apple Customer Service (nearest Apple Retail Store is an hour away). Should I tell a part of the story, or go for truth, whole truth, nothing but the truth and see if they have some kind of help for me?
 
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Haugisen said:
I would go for the truth. They'll find out if you lied anyway.

Another way to fix it, is to replace the 30-pin connector in your iPhone yourself:
http://www.ifixit.com/iPhone-Parts/iPhone-4-Dock-Connector-GSM-ATT/IF182-009

I'm not 100% sure if replacing the connector will solve your problem, but it may be worth a try.


Remember that you ruin you warranty if you replace the parts yourself

Too late, warranty was void during water damage that's of course if they can tell there was water damage, but chances are they can if there is corrosion.
 
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