I took my Galaxy S5 GM-900A into the pool, now it's not working. How can I fix it?

[AC Question]

Galaxy S5 GM-900A

Yesterday I decided to take some pictures underwater at the pool with my galaxy S5
I only took it 1 to 2 feet underwater to make a video of my friend diving in and it turned out pretty cool. It was working fine when we took it out again. At some point I turned it on and the screen was flickering yellow, and there was a picture of the android robot and some words in green and red and white at the top left of the screen. After that finished it went to the lock screen and all was normal, but after a few seconds it flickered yellow and randomly shut down. Whenever I try to turn on the phone it doesn't even turn on at all, holding down the power button doesn't work, not anything. When we got home we put it in a bag of rice with all the battery and sd cards out, but it still doesn't work, It doesn't turn on, but if it does, the display just flickers yellow and shuts off. HELP!

 

[espacepublishing]

Re: Galaxy S5 GM-900A

There is a small chance that it could recover if you keep it in the rice bag for several days more and if possible don't be tempted to keep trying to turn it on in between as this will likely do more damage. If that fails then you'll need to take it for repair.

 

[can3gxw]

Re: Galaxy S5 GM-900A

Three things:

1. You're probably screwed and will need to send your phone in for service.
2. The S5 is "Water Resistant", not "Water Proof". That's the difference between accidentally dropping it in the sink full of dishes and quickly fishing it out and going swimming with it.
3. If water got inside of it to do that, there must have been a seal somewhere that wasn't closed - back not snapped on all the way or the USB cover not completely closed.

Read this article about what the IP scale actually measures.

Water-proof or water-resistant? Can your new Galaxy S5 or Xperia Z2 truly swim, or is secretly afraid of the water?

The S5 is rated at IP-67 - this means only 1m (3ft) of water - you most likely crossed that mark, so I would think it's probably a combination of that and most likely a non-sealed unit.

Sorry for your loss... I hope it doesn't cost too much - I would strongly press for warranty repair if you only took it 2 feet under (which is clearly within the IP standard), while Samsung itself touted the S5 sitting at the bottom of a pool for 30 minutes then working again.

 

[larrykay]

Re: Galaxy S5 GM-900A

OK, I have seen a few of these types of posts, and I only have one question; What would posses you to taking your "water resistant" phone into a pool to take pictures underwater?
These phones are not advertised as underwater cameras...