Copper Wire--Help!

[Winterswind]

Today has been a grand ol' day of stupid. From the beginning:

This morning, I spilled water all over my desk...including my new Nexus 7.

The unit seemed ok, but to be on the safe side, I turned it off and immersed it in a box of rice.
Unfortunately, the only rice available was instant rice.
I later discovered that the rice had left small granules in the seam (bezel?) between the screen and case back.

I grabbed an exacto knife blade, and attempted to work these granules out, in fear that they would find their way into the unit.
In doing so, my blade seemed to catch a hair-thick, copper wire in the seam along the top of the screen, not too far from the camera.
I immediately stopped what I was doing, but am afraid I may have done something.
In the gap at the top of the screen, I can see a tiny glint of copper now.

Can anyone shed some light on this tiny wire I may have caught? And tell me how badly I screwed up with my day from bad to worse?

 

[Little Darwin]

I don't have a clue, but since nobody has responded, I'll tell you what I would do.

I would look for a web site or YouTube video that explains how to disassemble the unit and/or replace the screen. I don't know if any exist yet, but I have seen them for other devices, so I assume someone will eventually. Perhaps looking at the guts of someone else's device you can figure out what you are seeing on your device.

By the way, my guess for a wire that close to the edge of the device would be an antenna wire, but that is based on the gut instinct of a non-electronics guy.

Good luck!

 

[Gary300]

If your unit still works, I would get some black epoxy, and using a toothpick carefully cover the exposed conductor up. Don't know what that wire is, but could be anything from a LED backlight to antenna as suggested or one of the display X-Y row column signals. If your Nexus isn't working after drying out, then you might try some kind of warantee return.

 

[jerrykur]

If your unit still works, I would get some black epoxy, and using a toothpick carefully cover the exposed conductor up. Don't know what that wire is, but could be anything from a LED backlight to antenna as suggested or one of the display X-Y row column signals. If your Nexus isn't working after drying out, then you might try some kind of warantee return.

I doesn't sound like a defect, so why would there be any warranty coverage. Please don't suggest the OP commit fraud.

 

[asus_usa]

Hey OP, would you be able to take a clear photo of what the wire looks like? I'm not sure exactly what you could have gotten caught on that would be along the bezel like that - unless you really dug the knife in the seam. Maybe a photo would help.

Also, warranty would not cover something like this - both the water spill and the cut copper wire. If the water damage did, indeed, damage the tablet so it wouldn't turn on, there are indicators that will tell the repair center there's been water contact. And we, unfortunately, cannot fix something that is user induced, such as accidentally cutting a wire.

Does the tablet turn on? If it does than the water probably didn't damage it, but I am still curious as to what was accidentally cut along the bezel.

 

[Gary300]

I doesn't sound like a defect, so why would there be any warranty coverage. Please don't suggest the OP commit fraud.

 

[Gary300]

Google probably wouldn't replace it, but I would still try to seal it up by some method and continue to use it if it still works OK.

 

[garublador]

Disclaimer: I have no actual knowledge of what's in this tablet, this is pure speculation.

My guess is the copper wire was part of some mesh covered foam that's uses to connect grounds between parts in your tablet. It would be really odd to have copper wire just floating around in the tablet without some sort of insulator on it unless it's used like I described. The antennas are usually little chip components and the interconnecting cables usually have either insulation or are flat, flex PCB style cables. Sometimes they need to do stuff like add ground connections between the screen and the main PCB to help reduce emissions or noise.

 

[asanatheist]

Disclaimer: I have no actual knowledge of what's in this tablet, this is pure speculation.

My guess is the copper wire was part of some mesh covered foam that's uses to connect grounds between parts in your tablet. It would be really odd to have copper wire just floating around in the tablet without some sort of insulator on it unless it's used like I described. The antennas are usually little chip components and the interconnecting cables usually have either insulation or are flat, flex PCB style cables. Sometimes they need to do stuff like add ground connections between the screen and the main PCB to help reduce emissions or noise.

There's no copper wiring on the edges, I've taken the nexus 7 apart already. Only wiring is a couple connectors but those are a bit too deep into the tablet to be fetching out with a toothpick.

 

[asus_usa]

I've taken a look also and I don't know what it could have been that was cut..