water damage...what's next?

[awinterbreeze77]

Hey guys,

Awhile back my bro dropped his iPhone in water, and after it had seemed to stop working he just bought a new one, leaving his old Original model to rot.

Now his original iPhone has started come back to life(sort of) and I, being a penniless college student, want to capitalize on this opportunity to get a sort of working iPhone that really just functions as an iPod touch. So I've made it my project to see if I can get it completely working.

Here's the deal: everything about the phone seems to work fine, except too things: the function button, and the power button. So, basically, I can access everything within the phone - all the music, applications, everything - but I cannot perform any of the things that the function button would do, like go back to the mainscreen (so, once I enter into Safari, I'm stuck in Safari.) Also, I cannot turn it off or on, except with the help of the phone's power charger cord. Sounds like I should just give up, right?

Well, I'm just wondering, if there is anyway I could reprogram the buttons, or somehow put a different OS on there entirely that would help me work around the broken buttons, or replace the broken buttons, or what? Perhaps there is a software utility I can use to manipulate the iPhone... perhaps I should have posted this in iPhone Hacks, but still, any help you could offer would be appreciated. I have access to both Mac and Windows computers, so I can use software for either.

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

 

[drew68]

Did you try the bag of rice yet? Maybe there is some water left inside. The uncooked rice may dry the rest of the water causing the buttons not to work.

 

[awinterbreeze77]

no, I haven't tried that yet, and, to be honest, up until I'd never heard of that. A bag of uncooked rice... sounds like an interesting solution anyways, I'll try it and let you know if any progress is made.

Thanks
Anthony

 

[SchneiderMan]

no, I haven't tried that yet, and, to be honest, up until I'd never heard of that. A bag of uncooked rice... sounds like an interesting solution anyways, I'll try it and let you know if any progress is made.

Thanks
Anthony

then you should also start putting some rice in your salt shaker..

btw the phone is gone if you did not put it in some rice the day it got wet.. good luck with that. i bet part of the touch screen doesnt work.

 

[awinterbreeze77]

well... everything about the phone works (even the whole touchscreen) except for those darn two buttons. but perhaps there is nothing that can be done..... ay, mi. any other suggestions?

 

[-aggie-]

well... everything about the phone works (even the whole touchscreen) except for those darn two buttons. but perhaps there is nothing that can be done..... ay, mi. any other suggestions?

Well, since it's basically unusable you could open it up (I normally don't recommend that, but since it's pretty fried any way, why not). There are people that sell the parts of the iPhone, you could google for them. Still, you may not have much luck replacing the parts. Who knows.

 

[CBR900RR]

You said the water damage was done awhile ago, very likely corrosion on the switch contact is the problem.

If you jailbreak your phone, install sbsettings, you can install a toggle/widget call "close button widget", you can use it to close apps, also sbsettings can turnoff or reboot you phone.

 

[benflick]

Get mQuickDo from Cydia, you will need to jailbreak to get Cydia, however.
Basically mQuickDo is a virtual home and power button for the iPhone, this will solve all of your problems.

 

[uBreakiFix]

The "virtual" home button sounds like the best way to go. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can try replacing the parts yourself. Most likely there is residue or corrosion on the power and home button contact plates, you probably need to replace the home button flex cable (controls home button functionality) and the headphone jack Flex cable (controls power button and other button functionality). The parts will only cost around $10 each but it is a fairly involved replacement. There are also iPhone repair websites that can do the repair for you for a relatively low cost.

 

[awinterbreeze77]

okay, so I'm trying hte QuickDo thing... thank you all for your suggestions..