Dropped phone in water

[sannitig]

Hey There everyone,

My phone was dropped in water a month after purchase. The battery drains quite quickly and the phone heats up (short circuit).

I have sent it in for repair but the company says there is water damage even though I made sure the indicators were white. From what I remember they said there was water staining on the board...I am going to double check it tonight and see if this is true.

What should I be testing to find the issue? I am going to take a look (visual) at the transistors and capacitors when it's apart. What else can I test? I have a multi-meter but don't usually test little electronics like this.

Any help/guidance will be greatly appreciated. I am confident I can get this fixed if I find the issue.

 

[bosshaug12]

With water damage you are not going to be able to effectively test each and every component on the board. A multimeter will do you little to no good in this situation. There are so many thousands of components and solder points you'd spend days testing everything then still not be able to fix it.

As far as the staining on the board goes...that's close to accurate. It's not so much "stained" as it is corroded. You will be looking for a blueish-grey corrosion on the components, solder points, and connectors. Best way to clean it off is some 99% isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush. It also helps to completely soak the board in alcohol and just let it sit until it dries up then repeat the process a few times. Just make sure all the alcohol has dried before testing. Also be gentle scrubbing with the toothbrush because sometimes depending on how corroded the individual components are you could knock them and the pad they sit on off irreparably.

Good luck, if you have any other questions just let me know.