Samsung Galaxy S3 - water damage (doesn't read SIM)

[afonsom2]

Hey,

I mistakenly left my samsung galaxy s3 inside my jeans' pocket and put the them in the washing machine. After noticing that, I removed the battery and SIM card, dried the phone and left in on bag with uncooked rice for 24h. I turned it on and then left it for 24h hours more. After those 48h, I turned it on to test it. The phone seems to be working fine with exception for tha battery life which decreased significantly, the camera lens is still wet inside and the phone doesn't recognize the SIM card. The SIM is functional since I've tested in other devices. I took the phone to a repair shop with the hope that a new SIM reader would do the job. The guy there told me that probably a new SIM reader won't fix it since the problem might be in the motherboard. Does anyone had similar problems or knows what the problem might be. I'd very much appreciate your help. Thanks in advance

 

[mobilecrackers]

Water might have damaged your phone , my s4 fall into a bucket full of water but nothing happened working fine . give the phone another service centre, lets see what will they say

 

[GSDer]

Welcome to the forums!

the camera lens is still wet inside

If the camera lens is still wet then you didn't leave it in the rice long enough before turning it on. You didn't say how much of the wash cycle it went through, or whether it was a top loading (fully immersed the whole time) or front loading (only immersed at the bottom of the cycle) washer but it sounds like it was thoroughly soaked (not to mention the detergent [and fabric softener?], which aren't good for electronics either).

I'd suggest putting it in a different batch of rice (it'll absorb only so much moisture), be sure the container is sealed and forget about it for a week. Check on it again and if the lens is still foggy then leave it for another week. After that amount of time the rest of the phone should be fine but if the lens is still foggy you may have to bite the bullet and replace it. Power it up and see what happens.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[afonsom2]

but what about the sim reading issue? Would a new sim reader do the job, or is it maybe a motherboard damage?

 

[GSDer]

Would a new sim reader do the job

It might; if there's still moisture in the phone you're just asking for trouble by not solving that issue first. Admittedly, if you don't care about camera pictures you can ignore that, since it'll be more difficult to dry the area between the lenses out, but you really want to be sure the rest of the phone is good before proceeding. Just my opinion.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk