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lindseybwitmer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2018
1
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This morning at school I dropped my phone into the toilet. I did not know what to do so I immediately started blowing air into the charge port. The screen was very staticky looking and so I wanted to see if the touchscreen would work but it looked like the phone obviously had some damage to it. The screen then went black after the phone tried to restart a few times. I am now back home and my phone is now sitting in a bag of rice. How long do I wait for it to work again?WILL it ever work again? Do I just wait and not try to turn it on? I am a mess trying to figure out what to do because I just got my phone replaced for the same reason within the past three weeks for the same reason. ( I know, stupid teenager clumsiness and forgetfulness) I am desperate for any kind of help because If it ends up breaking, I am completely screwed. Thank you!
 
Leave it for at least a couple hours before you try to turn it on again but it's possible it's too late.
 
This morning at school I dropped my phone into the toilet. I did not know what to do so I immediately started blowing air into the charge port. The screen was very staticky looking and so I wanted to see if the touchscreen would work but it looked like the phone obviously had some damage to it. The screen then went black after the phone tried to restart a few times. I am now back home and my phone is now sitting in a bag of rice. How long do I wait for it to work again?WILL it ever work again? Do I just wait and not try to turn it on? I am a mess trying to figure out what to do because I just got my phone replaced for the same reason within the past three weeks for the same reason. ( I know, stupid teenager clumsiness and forgetfulness) I am desperate for any kind of help because If it ends up breaking, I am completely screwed. Thank you!
The main thing was to wipe it off and turn it off as soon as possible. Beyond that, rice might not really do much, but it's worth a try if there's nothing else available. You'd want to leave it there powered off probably for a good day or two if you can to see if it might work then.
 
The rice is, in reality, useless - completely a myth. Doesn't help at all. It's just something that you can try, so you can say you are doing something. Way better to open up the phone, and try to dry it out with other methods (but that's often unlikely to help, too) Fixing it now would be a bonus, because you would have an extra phone after you buy a replacement for the one that took a dive :D
 
This morning at school I dropped my phone into the toilet. I did not know what to do so I immediately started blowing air into the charge port. The screen was very staticky looking and so I wanted to see if the touchscreen would work but it looked like the phone obviously had some damage to it. The screen then went black after the phone tried to restart a few times. I am now back home and my phone is now sitting in a bag of rice. How long do I wait for it to work again?WILL it ever work again? Do I just wait and not try to turn it on? I am a mess trying to figure out what to do because I just got my phone replaced for the same reason within the past three weeks for the same reason. ( I know, stupid teenager clumsiness and forgetfulness) I am desperate for any kind of help because If it ends up breaking, I am completely screwed. Thank you!
Ideally, geting the phone opened up so the internals can be dried using IPA and then compressed air(low psi) would be the best bet. You may want to prepare yourself with the notion that your phone has a good chance of not working properly anymore..
 
The rice myth...is just that, a myth!

The water is inside the phone, on the logic board and under the shields, even under the IC's. The rice is nowhere near where the water is. So while it ‘’may’’ soak up some water vapour, the real problem is the mineral deposits that can cause short circuits or the corrosion that is taking place as the water evaporates. Leaving the power on the device accelerates the process. The longer you let a phone sit in rice, the more time you are giving corrosion to damage your logic board. The saltier or harder the water is, the more damage will occur. The water needs to be displaced, not evaporated.

On some phones, rice treatments appear to work. But those are phones that had minimal water ingress and not anywhere near a danger area on the logic board. They would have recovered regardless of the intervention.
 
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