Water damaged Nexus 7 (2013) - new Volume Buttons to fix it?

haegon

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Dec 8, 2014
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hej guys,

after a water damage my nexus 7 always boots in safe mode.
I think the volume (down) button is broken as the boot option list 'switches/runs' through permanently and the volume down button doesn't respond when I click it.
Everything else works fine but I can't install any new apps due to safe mode.
Do you think I can fix that problem with new volume-buttons?
I don't want to spend 50€ on fixing a tablet that cost me 100€ once...
Any tips and suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks in advance
 

STARGATE

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Oct 8, 2012
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Water damage is very tricky, did you place your device in silica or rice for a few days?

It sounds like something inside is not connecting right. The volume button is hardware that could not get damage by water.
 

haegon

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Hey..
Wow, thanks a lot guys for your fast replies!! Well, it's been about 3 months now since the water damage but I was travelling when it happened. I wasn't able to put it in rice too quick: it took about 3-4 days so most of the damage was already dealt by then I reckon.

So do you think I can do anything to fix that without spending too much money on it at a professional repair service? :'(
cheers
 

Rukbat

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No. Not that I don't think you can, I know you can't. First, if you have to ask the question, you don't have enough experience working on cellphones to repair them )I did that for years, since I owned cellphone stores - and I trained my techs to do repairs). Second, you don't have the experience to know that you're going to have to replace everything but the case, and that's going to cost more than buying a new phone.

Since you didn't wash out all the minerals and salts that were in the water that got into the phone (even the purest bottled water has salts of various kinds in it - the only water you should allow near electronics is ionized or triple-distilled water, and even that's not a good idea), the metal parts of the phone (including parts on the motherboard) is going to keep eroding, keep electroplating and keep shorting. So you have to remove all the metal parts (unless there's metal in the case, then you neutralize any chemicals bonded to it and polish the surface micron or so off the metal) and replace them.

Read Wet Phone so you know what to do the next time your phone gets wet. (Preferably, if it might get wet, keep it in 2 zippered plastic bags so it doesn't.)

Oh, and drying a wet phone is the WORST thing you can do - whoever came up with the rice idea should be imprisoned in a jar of rice for life. All drying does is concentrate all the impurities in the water, making the damage proceed that much faster. WET the phone, as soon as possible - in alcohol. (I've saved phones from bay water, full of gasoline, motor oil, bunker oil, micro-organisms [some of which eat metal or metallic salts] and salt - with an immediate immersion and wash in alcohol.)