Wet phone

[Phil L]

Dropped my nokia in a pint of wine at christmas and it packed in for a few weeks then started working again, then after a few more weeks packed in again and it's been working perfectly now for about 7 months.

If it was just water, it should work perfectly well once dried out - I was told that the reason mine played up after I'd dried it out was that it was the wine causing the problems and that I should have washed it off thoroughly in clean water!!

Take the battery out, sim card and any covers off and leave them on a warm radiator for 24 hours, turning occasionally to allow any trapped moisture to be evaporated.

Don't know about tesco, but all asda's phones are unlocked

[Scott M]

Take battery, sim, memory cards out, put in a fan oven at its lowest setting (40-50C) for an hour or two, let it cool and it'll be fine.

Even better if you've got a small Torx driver and can just disassemble it but the above approach works well and for all sorts of things (eg a friend who's daughter's phone took a dunk in a river and was in there for five mins while they found it again.)

[Donwill]

Isn't there a capacitor/battery thingeme to retain memory in the phone which will also provide a small current which might ruin a wet contact? Don

[The Medway Handyman]

Nightjar

[Dave]

You can put a keyboard under a shower, key side up and wash the drink out of it. The water can't get to the switches. If you don't believe me, take the top off it and try to find a rout for the water to get into the switches.

Dave

[Dave]

I don't know the origin of this post, but my spare PAYG phone did the same with me a couple of weeks ago.

I went to the Orange shop and they suggested it was Orange had switched it off for lack of activity.

Phoned Orange, who told me it was a phone problem and that I should visit my local Orange shop. Can't get to one till Thursday.

Dave

[Scott M]

I presume you're referring to a post earlier about current getting where it oughtn't. Memory batts/caps aren't going to provide a significant enough current through water to damage anything. Similarly, the main battery wouldn't either as there just isn't the voltage to push any significant current through the water.

Circuitry is pretty hardy stuff and a good dunking, whether powered up or not, is not going to do any harm.

[The Medway Handyman]

Funny enough, the first thing I did was spray it with WD40 - but I wasn't going to mention it :-)

However, after 24 hours in the airing cupboard - it works! Screen is a bit iffy, but I managed to transfer all my contacts from the phone memory to the SIM.

So I'm reporting back and WD40 worked yet again.

[Bob Eager]

The Germans call a mobile phone a 'handy'.

[The Medway Handyman]

Oh. Strange lot those krauts....

[tony sayer]

We have over time had a number of Handportable two way radios dropped in various flavours of water;!..

Now if they are rapidly cleaned up with even ordinary tap water and then dried out rather quickly then 9 times outa 11 there're fine and survive.

However leave then to stew for a day or two and then have them powered up and the corrosion sets in and that .. with surface mounted devices and the very fine PCB's in use .. will be that..

So get then washed and dried as soon as possible and you in with a chance

Airing cupboards or on top of the boiler or radiator or under a bright high wattage lamp are fine tho don't over do it and melt anything..

.. but please no microwave ovens to dry 'em;!.

[Nightjar]

Indeed. I'm not sure there is any rating for shock resistance.

As you say, it sounds like an ideal phone for the sort of work you do. I only needed one that would survive jumping out of my pocket onto a concrete floor.

Colin Bignell

[Man at B&Q]

Electronic assemblies are mostly washed in water at the factory these days. The problems come with unsealed components such as connectors or switches that are added after the wash stage. They CAN be damaged but it may not apply to a mobile phone.

MBQ