iPhone 4 water damaged, everything fine except PERMANENT LED LIGHT?!

[alex.m90]

Stupid me, I left my iPhone 4 outside in the rain for the best part of 2 days and it got water damaged. GREAT. It was fairly messed up when I first recovered it, water behind the screen, touchscreen was extremely unreliable and the hold button didn't work. I dried it off, put it in a bag of rice for 2 days and thank god it was all fixed..

Except this one problem with the LED on the back of the phone, its on (not full brightness, if you take a picture it goes MUCH brighter) but its still enough to annoy be none the less. Its been on for 2 weeks now and I was hoping it would fix itself with time but its just not happening.

Apple want to charge me £150 for a new phone, and the phone is in immaculate condition aside from this and everything works - so I think £150 to turn the light off is probably a huge waste of money.

Thats about it, the light occasionally flickers and it remains on even if the phone is off or out of battery.. any advice on how to turn it off, preferably without taking the phone apart or smashing the LED would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Alex

 

[Jessica Lares]

Try draining the battery and see if it comes on after a reboot?

 

[JTToft]

Have you tried restoring the phone in iTunes? If not, do that.

Also, it is impossible for the LED to be on if the battery is drained.

 

[bumzo1]

how could you leave your phone out for 2 days? I start getting antsy if I don't see it after 5 minutes

 

[cambookpro]

Tried a DFU restore?

 

[Frenchjay]

Try getting a light app it might overide the function!

 

[James Howlett]

I've come across this before, I had an led light on my lifeguarding keys, and the first time I went into the water with it the light stayed on, not bright but on, it's a sign that there is still water inside, because it's completing the circuit to connect power to the light. once it dries, it will stay off. At least that's my experience. But this was with a little led flashlight, not an iPhone.

 

[DirtySocks85]

More time in a bag of rice seems to be called for here. I agree with the theory that you have something shorting the circuit that powers the LED. Good luck, last year my boss jumped into a man made moat to save a lemur (I work at a zoo) from drowning and he had his 3GS in his pocket. The backlight on the display never worked again.

 

[ntrigue]

Place in rice. Electrical tape over flash.

 

[alex.m90]

I have tried restoring, DFU restore & a reset. I have left the phone out of battery for over 2 days & the light still remains on. I am wondering how long you guys think it will take to completely drain the battery so not even the LED can come on?

Thanks

 

[Turkeywrap]

I have tried restoring, DFU restore & a reset. I have left the phone out of battery for over 2 days & the light still remains on. I am wondering how long you guys think it will take to completely drain the battery so not even the LED can come on?

Thanks

Open the back of your phone, place your phone with no back in a baggy of rice and put the bag on your window sill when theres light out. Its sure to dry out.

 

[Baylee79]

Don't worry there's hope

Ok so I have dropped my iPhone 4 into water 3 time. Yes THREE times. Once out of the back pocket into the toilet, 2 times it flew off my shelf into the bathtub. All times it was completely submersed. The first two times, the phone actually stayed on...shut it off, threw it into a bag of rice for 24 hrs and voila, working fine. Third time (yesterday) not so lucky. It shut off immediately with just the LED light on. Nothing worked, couldn't turn the phone on, so put it in rice, frantically stressed out today about the replacement cost of a new phone with no warranty, kept it in the rice, wept a bit, plugged it in to my computer and all of a sudden after 5 minutes, beep beep beep, text messages and alarms were sounding, it was working! Problem is couldnt see anything on the screen, totally black with the LED light still on. I used a flashlight to peer into the screen since obviously the phone was still half alive, and was able to faintly see the slide to unlock button, then the settings. Got into settings and turned up the brightness, and voila! can see the screen. But the LED light was still on. So, did a sync, restored the phone and halfway through the restore the LED just suddenly went off. The restore has just finished and I have a fully functioning phone with no shining LED light. I think the circuits just need to dry out. Do the bag of rice, do the restore, and it may work for you. But don't try to turn it on until at least 24 hrs or more drying out in the rice. These phones are tough, just be patient, don't panic and chances are yours may work again. Give it a few days to dry out and don't frantically buy another phone. Good luck!

 

[Gaokaos]

Man isn't rice a life saver in these situations? I had my iPhone 4 for about a month when I was caught in a rain storm in the middle of nowhere without any shelter. When I finally got some shelter I noticed that my home button wasn't working and that sometimes it popped into voice control without any action from me, figured out it must have been shortcircuit near the home button. Put it in box of rice for 24 hours and it was fixed.

So yeah I agree, take of the back and put it in some rice. Just give it some time. Taking of the back panel is really easy, so don't worry about that. And an LED really needs minimal power to light up, so it might take very long for your phone to get drained to the point where the led doesn't light up anymore at all.

Key is here to give it some time, pretty confident it will get fixed if you let it dry out.

 

[wvphysics]

If you know someone with a vacuum pump you could try to put it in a small, air tight enclosure, and rig up the pump to pump out the air, any remaining moisture will boil off. I know a guy that did it with a digital camera.

 

[Gjwilly]

Look around for those little baggies of dessicant that come in new shoes, new leather items, and all sorts of electronics nowadays.
I think you can even get them at Radio Shack.
They work a little better than the rice.
Then put the phone in the baggie in a hot car and really try to get some evaporation going.

 

[binjunior.apple]

HI, i figure out how to fix that annoying problem, I know for sure many people has been bothering by this trouble.it's easy remove the black shield on the right side of the camera remove five screws, each one has a different size, after that unplug the camera ribbon form the main board and remove the camera from the iPhone after that just put a tape or any kind of adhesive in the golden part leaving only a little part on the edge without adhesive, then place the camera and all the parts in the right place, you are done!!!!!
I've done it in over 5 iPhones and all had worked, I hope that's resolve and help everybody.

 

[tksoft]

Thanks!!! Although it was a bit strange for me. BTW my phone got wet about a month ago and the light has been on for the whole time. I tried opening the back and drying with no luck. I also earlier today installed the latest software from Apple which noted that it supposedly fixes an issue where the flash light always stays on. No Luck. So following your instructions I carefully cut masking tape to leave all but the very tip of the "golden area" covered. Put it back and the light was still on dimly as before. Then I disassembled and put another tiny piece of masking on top of that so everything was completely covered (I thought that might disable the light permanently which I was thinking was a next best solution). That seemed to work for a moment but then it came back on. I was starting to pry off the connector to try something else and the light went out. Testing the flash and it works fine and the light goes out! I don't understand it or know exactly what I did but it worked!