Question for the Experts: iPhone Water Damage, with a TWIST!

[Sounds Good]

Any repair experts out there?? Here's what happened:

Last week my wife accidentally dropped her iPhone4 in a few inches of water, then immediately took it out of the water and towel dried it. After doing some quick research she found out about putting the phone into a bag of rice, which she did for a few days. After a few days she took out the iPhone and tried to turn it on, but only the Apple logo would come on the screen (like from a reboot).

So I did some research and learned that I should try doing a DFU (Device Firmware Update). I did it, then did a full restore, then did a full sync with iTunes... and to my delight the iPhone worked perfectly! No problems, period -- every single aspect of the iPhone worked normally.

Now, fast forward to about a week later. After working completely normally for a full week, while my wife was checking messages she noticed the screen start to get dim, then it went dark with these faint blueish/purplish vertical lines on the screen. That was it, it was basically dead. I tried re-doing the DFU and syncing, etc, which seemed to work (based on feedback from iTunes) but I couldn't see anything on the screen. In fact the screen is now almost black, we can't see a thing.

So here are my questions:

1. Obviously this has to do with getting wet... but why the heck would the iPhone be working absolutely perfectly fine for a full week, then suddenly stop working?

2. Has this ever happened to any of you? (if so, what did you do?)

3. Any suggestions at all on what I can maybe try doing?

I appreciate whatever help I can get in this matter. And my wife does too!

Thanks in advance...

 

[SandboxGeneral]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

There may have still been some moisture inside and it took that long after being moved around for a week to get to the part that hurt the screen.

It could also be that it was damaged from the initial water drop and didn't manifest itself until later. Rust may have been forming on a circuit somewhere.

Typically, the rice bag trick should be done for at least a week or more to try and get it all. Even then, it may not always work.

It's probably time for a new phone or seeing about getting it repaired.

 

[Sounds Good]

There may have still been some moisture inside and it took that long after being moved around for a week to get to the part that hurt the screen.

It could also be that it was damaged from the initial water drop and didn't manifest itself until later. Rust may have been forming on a circuit somewhere.

Yeah, I could see that happening the same day or maybe the next day after it was "fixed", but the thing worked properly for A FULL WEEK. It just seems rather odd, doesn't it?

I don't know...

 

[Sounds Good]

I'm bumping this one, just in case!

My wife is eligible for a $199 upgrade to the new iPhone 4s in just a few months, so I'd hate having to spend $199 just to get her an iPhone 4 replacement now.


Thanks.

 

[Kyotoma]

Get a $20 popper prepaid and slip her sim into until she is able to get the upgrade.

 

[Eager Beaver]

Get a $20 popper prepaid and slip her sim into until she is able to get the upgrade.

This ^^^ is a very good idea -

 

[Sounds Good]

Okay, I give... what's a $20 popper?

.

 

[Kyotoma]

A popper was slang for a crappy phone. Sorry. But yeah AT&T has a $20 prepaid phone that will work for her needs until she is available for upgrade.

 

[Sounds Good]

Ahhh, I see. That's not a bad idea.

What about her data plan? Should we just continue paying for it so the account remains the same? Or ???

Thanks.

 

[Kyotoma]

If she has unlimited then definitely but otherwise it does not matter if that option is available to you.

 

[Sounds Good]

Gotcha. I have unlimited on my iPhone 4 but my wife does not.

Okay, I guess we'll give this some thought. Thanks very much!