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Water Damage... But sensor is still white as snow!

D

djshott

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 5, 2009
24
0
I dropped my iPhone EDGE directly into a sink filled with water. It fell to the bottom as I rushed to get it out as quickly as possible. The phone's display began to flicker, and it eventually just turned off.

After hours, upon hours of keeping the phone in front of a fan, and a day of keeping the phone in a bag of dry uncooked rice.... Whaddaya know... the thing turned back on when I hooked it up to my MacBook Pro. I was so excited. On the surface eveything seemed fine. The touch screen worked flawlessly, the speakers sounded fine, the accelerometer was good as new, the camera works fantastically. NO apparent issues. Then a message popped up saying : "This accessory is not made to work with iPhone." and then something about airplane mode. This message is continually appearing about every minute and a half. So after I disconnected the phone from my computer... the same message continued to appear... WITH NO ACCESSORY OF ANY KIND ATTACHED! Then I tried to make a called my girlfriend to let her know my phone came back to life! About 2-3 minutes into the conversation she could no longer hear me. I could hear her just fine, but ever since then NO ONE can hear me unless I yell at the top of my lungs... even then they can barely understand what I'm saying.

Here's the kicker: After researching what Apple has done for other people in this situation, I was made aware of the white water sensor in headphone jack of the 1st iPhones. It turns red or pink if exposed or comes into contact with water. I've read how sensitive that little thing can be. Some people have taken their phones into the bathroom, and left it on a sink while they showered....and the sensor turned pink because of the humidity and moisture in the air of their bathroom. But mine? After being fully submerged in water, is still white as snow. and shows no other apparent water damage signs.I've even looked at it with a high intensity LED light.... there is NO pink, red or any color but White.

If I fail to mention my dropping of the iPhone into my sink... does Apple have any other ways of seeing water damage? And why wouldn't my sensor change color since I DID drop the thing into water?
 
I don't believe so. The burden is on you to be honest, since not telling them the damage was caused by dropping it into water and having them replace it on false grounds is fraud. But, you are free to do whatever you want. I don't think they have any other methods.
 
There's also a water sensor in the connector dock. What does that one look like?
 
djshott said:
I dropped my iPhone EDGE directly into a sink filled with water. It fell to the bottom as I rushed to get it out as quickly as possible. The phone's display began to flicker, and it eventually just turned off.

After hours, upon hours of keeping the phone in front of a fan, and a day of keeping the phone in a bag of dry uncooked rice.... Whaddaya know... the thing turned back on when I hooked it up to my MacBook Pro. I was so excited. On the surface eveything seemed fine. The touch screen worked flawlessly, the speakers sounded fine, the accelerometer was good as new, the camera works fantastically. NO apparent issues. Then a message popped up saying : "This accessory is not made to work with iPhone." and then something about airplane mode. This message is continually appearing about every minute and a half. So after I disconnected the phone from my computer... the same message continued to appear... WITH NO ACCESSORY OF ANY KIND ATTACHED! Then I tried to make a called my girlfriend to let her know my phone came back to life! About 2-3 minutes into the conversation she could no longer hear me. I could hear her just fine, but ever since then NO ONE can hear me unless I yell at the top of my lungs... even then they can barely understand what I'm saying.

Here's the kicker: After researching what Apple has done for other people in this situation, I was made aware of the white water sensor in headphone jack of the 1st iPhones. It turns red or pink if exposed or comes into contact with water. I've read how sensitive that little thing can be. Some people have taken their phones into the bathroom, and left it on a sink while they showered....and the sensor turned pink because of the humidity and moisture in the air of their bathroom. But mine? After being fully submerged in water, is still white as snow. and shows no other apparent water damage signs.I've even looked at it with a high intensity LED light.... there is NO pink, red or any color but White.

If I fail to mention my dropping of the iPhone into my sink... does Apple have any other ways of seeing water damage? And why wouldn't my sensor change color since I DID drop the thing into water?
Click to expand...

Take it in and let them make their judgements. If its water damaged they will tell you.
 
do the right thing man. if it fell in water it's water damaged - regardless if the sensors show.

if you are planning on being a huge jerk you could list a no return eBay auction and state everything you know with it (not including the water damage) and show the pictures. include 'as is' in there.

your reputation on eBay would be ruined, and you'd have terrible karma + feel like a jerk but you would get all your money back
 
jrm27 said:
There's also a water sensor in the connector dock. What does that one look like?
Click to expand...

It will only have a water sensor in the connector dock if you have an iPhone 3g. The 2G only has one which is in the headphone jack.

Check to make sure there is no corrosion on the dock connector. When I got just a little bit of water on the bottom of my iphone it did the same thing. I just took a needle and scraped off the corrosion that had happened (only after a few days) and it was working like new again. I don't think that will fix the microphone problem but it might help.
 
djshott said:
The water sensor in the connector dock is only on the 3G from my understanding.
Click to expand...

The headphone jack. Also a hidden one on the inside.

I don't advocate 'fraud' or anything - but it's up to the sensors to tell the story, not you. Put another way, if the sensor was red, they'll tell you to take a hike no matter what you said about it NOT being water damaged.

Apple put the onus on the sensor, you don't gotta take on any extra 'responsibility'.
 
I often get those "This accessory is not made..." errors when pocket lint or some other detritus gets in my dock connector.

Did you make sure a piece of rice isn't stuck in there? Even if you don't see anything try a couple of quick blasts of compressed air to the dock connector.
 
My wife ended up throwing my iphone in a glass of water. Everything happened to me as you. I only had heard about the headphone jack sensor. Well took it in to apple and the guy went straight for the dock connector sensor. And sure enough it was a nice shade of pick/red. Voided warranty... nothing they can do. Like a idiot I bought another one full price... Oh I'm selling the water damaged one on ebay and guys are offering me 250 bucks for it....
 
You could view it from the standpoint of a return due to a "failed watermark sensor."

After all, you paid for working watermark sensors....
 
Hardcoredan52 said:
My wife ended up throwing my iphone in a glass of water. Everything happened to me as you. I only had heard about the headphone jack sensor. Well took it in to apple and the guy went straight for the dock connector sensor. And sure enough it was a nice shade of pick/red. Voided warranty... nothing they can do. Like a idiot I bought another one full price... Oh I'm selling the water damaged one on ebay and guys are offering me 250 bucks for it....
Click to expand...

Was this a 3G? Because after some google image searching... I don't have the dock connector water sensor. I even compared mine to a friends dock connector which HE has... I don't see this in mine. I just want to have all my ducks in a row before I fulfill my Genius appointment.
 
I would totally take it back and say nothing happened to it. Some of you act like you would be stealing from your grandmother's purse if you did this. And I'm sure none of your consciences are squeaky clean. Apple is not your friend or a fellow neighbor. They're a frickin corporation, for God's sake. They may be 100x more innovative and make better products, but they're just as greedy and cutthroat as Microsoft. If you still have qualms, just think of all the people who left their iPhone in the bathroom as they showered and were later told to take a hike by Apple after something totally unrelated broke. Or, all the people being given brand new iPhones after discovering a stray piece of lint under their screen, costing Apple (or, in reality, its customers) more money. For some inspiration about how to feel entitled to bring your phone back and to not accept anything less, just peruse the "Will Apple Exchange" thread. If people can return phones with one dead pixel, you should be able to return a phone with a defective liquid sensor.

As for trying to sell it on eBay without stating the water damage, I agree, that would be wrong.
 
kas23 said:
I would totally take it back and say nothing happened to it. Some of you act like you would be stealing from your grandmother's purse if you did this. And I'm sure none of your consciences are squeaky clean. Apple is not your friend or a fellow neighbor. They're a frickin corporation, for God's sake. They may be 100x more innovative and make better products, but they're just as greedy and cutthroat as Microsoft. If you still have qualms, just think of all the people who left their iPhone in the bathroom as they showered and were later told to take a hike by Apple after something totally unrelated broke. Or, all the people being given brand new iPhones after discovering a stray piece of lint under their screen, costing Apple (or, in reality, its customers) more money.

As for trying to sell it on eBay without stating the water damage, I agree, that would be wrong.
Click to expand...

That's the thing - they put the damn sensors in there in the first place because of people like you. I've seen some false reports - condensation causing the sensor to change, even though the iPhone wasn't water damaged, meaning they wouldn't touch it, not even to repair something that's obviously cannot be caused by water damage.

That bullcrap because of people like you who'd water-damage the iPhone and take it in acting all innocent and costing all of us.
 
It was a 3G. I don't know if I can get a picture.. I'll try later... but its behind the dock connector.... The apple guy took like a pen light and shinned it in the bottom and there it was...
 
ravenvii said:
That bullcrap because of people like you who'd water-damage the iPhone and take it in acting all innocent and costing all of us.
Click to expand...

No, people who bring their phone back for light-leaks or 1 dead pixel or if someone sneezes on it. I hardly believe there is a big contingent of people who dropped their phone in the water and the sensor never changed. lol. And to let you know, there is not one shread of evidence that Apple has raised the iPhone's price due to "people like" me. In fact, the iPhone's price has actually decreased since it was first introduced. Either way, boo hoo that a corporation with 30 billion dollars of cash on hand loses a hundred dollars or less (price of manufacturing phone) due to someones honest mistake.
 
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