My beloved iPhone 3G got wet while sitting in my pocket during a heavy rain shower. At first, I didn't really see the harm (it was just wet, so I wiped it dry) since it was still working. But about an hour later, I got it out again and noticed that the screen was flickering (backlight on and off) and the volume was constantly going up and down, which concerned me a lot since I'm just in love with this machine! The rain must be the cause, especially since the camera window had drops of water behind it. In an attempt to 'rescue' it I tried turning it off, but it kept on rebooting itself! This drove me crazy, since I didn't want the water to make any more (maybe harmful) shortages.
As soon as I came home, I put the phone on the radiator and a small heater blowing warm air onto it. Via Google I found an interesting topic (also on MacRumors) about iPhones that experienced water damage. It sounded as a good idea to me to put the iPhone in a bag of rice, and so I did. I was very pleased to read that most iPhones survived even the most deadly amounts of water, so I kinda got my hopes up.
The iPhone still kept on rebooting, even while in the bag of rice, but the battery eventually died. After about 4 hours of warmth and 12 hours in the bag I decided to hook it up to my mac. It might sound a little bit short, but I figured that the damage would be done by now anyway (since it kept rebooting), so it wouldn't hurt to try. The water behind the camera window was gone by then and the flickering of the screen had stopped too. It did not behave normally though, when hooked to my mac, it only showed the Apple logo and when I unplugged it, it started the never ending reboot cycle. So I tried getting into DFU mode, which failed too. I'm sure this is not my fault, since I carefully followed the steps to get there and furthermore, I had put iPhones into DFU modes before. I could only get into the Recovery mode (where you see the 'connect to iTunes' logo) and so I tried restoring. That's where I got the Error 28. To be more precise:
I have read the Apple page about error 28, but they all suggest doing things with the computer itself. But I'm sure that it's not my mac being the problem. I did however, tried these things:
At this point I stopped worrying about trying to troubleshoot my mac, because I kinda knew it wasn't my mac causing the trouble, but my iPhone.
I honestly have no idea what to do next, you could even call me desperate. Is my iPhone lost or is there a way to solve this? Do you guys think this is an hardware error (damaged due to the water) or a software error caused by the shortages it had. In the last case, I can still see hope on my horizon.
As soon as I came home, I put the phone on the radiator and a small heater blowing warm air onto it. Via Google I found an interesting topic (also on MacRumors) about iPhones that experienced water damage. It sounded as a good idea to me to put the iPhone in a bag of rice, and so I did. I was very pleased to read that most iPhones survived even the most deadly amounts of water, so I kinda got my hopes up.
The iPhone still kept on rebooting, even while in the bag of rice, but the battery eventually died. After about 4 hours of warmth and 12 hours in the bag I decided to hook it up to my mac. It might sound a little bit short, but I figured that the damage would be done by now anyway (since it kept rebooting), so it wouldn't hurt to try. The water behind the camera window was gone by then and the flickering of the screen had stopped too. It did not behave normally though, when hooked to my mac, it only showed the Apple logo and when I unplugged it, it started the never ending reboot cycle. So I tried getting into DFU mode, which failed too. I'm sure this is not my fault, since I carefully followed the steps to get there and furthermore, I had put iPhones into DFU modes before. I could only get into the Recovery mode (where you see the 'connect to iTunes' logo) and so I tried restoring. That's where I got the Error 28. To be more precise:
- "Extracting software"
- "Preparing iphone for restore"
- Flicker of the screen
- Apple logo on iPhone (seems to be booting)
- Rotating wheel under the iPhone logo
- A glimpse of the install bar under de iPhone logo
- Rotating wheel again
- iPhone screen goes black (seems to reboot)
- Error 28 on iTunes
I have read the Apple page about error 28, but they all suggest doing things with the computer itself. But I'm sure that it's not my mac being the problem. I did however, tried these things:
- Updated to the last version if iTunes
- Reboot my mac
- I'm pretty sure that ports 80 and 443 are open
- gs.apple.com works, the others don't
- Try a different USB port
At this point I stopped worrying about trying to troubleshoot my mac, because I kinda knew it wasn't my mac causing the trouble, but my iPhone.
I honestly have no idea what to do next, you could even call me desperate. Is my iPhone lost or is there a way to solve this? Do you guys think this is an hardware error (damaged due to the water) or a software error caused by the shortages it had. In the last case, I can still see hope on my horizon.
