blackberry in water
 

My blackberry fell in a large puddle yesterday-submerged for about 3 seconds. Didn't stop vibrating until I removed the battery. Tried to take it apart to dry but I'm having problems removing the screws. Is it futile? Can it be saved? What is recommended? Please help-it was purchased 4 days ago. I always have bad luck with new electronics-somehow they always seem to fall into a body of water.

I found this on the forums and saved it to my laptop!

Sometimes a BlackBerry doesn't survive exposure to liquids, but that's not always even the end of the BlackBerry. Here's how to successfully resurrect a BlackBerry that's damaged by liquids...

My BlackBerry 7280 was a former Cingular that was damaged by a bath in a dirty puddle sometime ago... I repaired this over a year ago (April 2004) via disassembly and I gave the BlackBerry motherboard a fully immersed underwater bath for 10-minutes in distilled water, and then baked for 2-3 hours at 150-180 degrees F to dry it out. I still use this BlackBerry to this day.

If your BlackBerry ever gets immersed, there's a good chance of recovery if (1) The battery is removed immediately; (2) The BlackBerry is dried out for a few days under an incandescent/halogen desk lamp before you reinsert the battery. This is shortenable to 2-3 hours if you disassemble with a Torx T6 screwdriver and bake at 150-180 degrees F.

Exception is if you get immersion in chlorine or salt water (or salty winter road slush), you must disassemble IMMEDIATELY and wash the BlackBerry parts in water (use tap water if distilled not available) to arrest damage by salt/chlorine. You may only have 10 minutes to do so. You may have to wash the whole saltwater-damaged unit, battery removed, for quite a while under running tap water if you can't find a TorxT6 screwdriver "on time" within 10 minutes or so of saltwater immersion. As this is "Lesser of two evils" as they say - your BlackBerry is going to be broken anyway otherwise. Once this is done, you now have more time, likely a few hours, to dissassemble and purchase distilled water to finish rinsing the BlackBerry motherboard, and then after a 2-3 hour bake at 150-180 F (under boiling point), and then reassemble the BlackBerry. You must detach the BlackBerry screen if possible. (Note: Early RIM8XX/9XX units had fragile screen connectors that got easily damaged by water, when rain went under the edge of the screen. Screen replacements will be required on these units. Newer BlackBerries are much more immune to raindrops accidentally seeping underneath the edges of the screen.)

If your BlackBerry gets wet inside and/or starts acting strange after a recent liquid exposure, it is VERY IMPORTANT that the battery be removed immediately, and never reinserted until the BlackBerry is totally dried out (if you do not disassemble, this may take as long as one week). Clean water doesn't damage the BlackBerry components - electricity in water does!

Good luck man! I hope this helps!

Best of luck,
Dylan.

You beat me to it - went to search for the post, didn't have it saved to my BB. Here's the link to Mark's Thread.

Rcbjr

Haha yea! All that matters is that this dude's BB gets saved lol. But yea dude check out Marks, as I like to call it "UBER FAQ." I finally sat down and read it all last night. I have really good memory and I learned SOO much from that FAQ answered basically all of my remaining BB questions.

P.S. I have no clue if your new or not so dis-reaguard that if your older on the forums.

thanks-I hope it will work-I'll let you know!

Yea dude keep us updated!!!

That is great info to know

Hotsuace i can email you the file if ya want. so you have it all the time in case ur not hooked up to the net.

This really does work. I just recently saved a 7100t after a dump in a hot tub. I had the user remove the battery and let it dry out. He put it back in a day or two later but said the unit was dead. I got it a few days after that in a zip lock bag. I took it apart, dried the water out of it and let it sit for a few hours, (didn't bake it), and reassembled. After wiping the unit with javaloader and reloading the software, due to a jvm error it displayed, it all worked fine except for the display. The display got water marks inside it that were impossible to remove even after disassembling the display itself. I replaced the display with one from an old broken 7100t and it's still working fine after a couple weeks. I think I could have even saved the display if I had gotten to the unit sooner.

UPDATE: For grins I just dug out the BB that I used to rob the display out of to fix the one that got wet. I haven't looked at it since I swapped the displays. The display actually finally dried out. So, long story short, even the display will most likely dry out. I thought it was toast. Maybe if I had baked it I wouldn't have had to swap the displays. Can you bake the display along with the board at that 150-180F?

I'd be careful about drying the display. Some are very sensitive to temperature. If you do, keep it to the lower end of the suggested range.

And Dylan, you can get an limited indication about experienc on this forum by checking the post count of a poster under the avatar or username.

Hope this helps.
Rcbjr

I dropped my BB in my dog's water bowl about six weeks ago, and did what was suggested on here. I thought it would never work, but six weeks later no problems. Still concerned about the long term effects.

I am glad that my water-damaged BlackBerry resurrection instructions are helping many people here. It's all old repairman's secrets, of washing and/or drying circuit boards. Historically, fixing a water-damaged cellphone has about a 50% success rate -- simply disassembly, washing, drying, reassembly -- well worth the attempt to take apart a BlackBerry.

My water-damaged BlackBerry 7280 is still functioning, as a backup. Two months ago, I lost my 8700r. I was using the 7280 again! Someone has returned my 8700r, since I have a "LOST - REWARD - CALL" sticker on the back of my 8700r. (Those stickers really work!)

To answer the other poster's question about baking the LCD display to dry it out, I do not recommend it -- detach the BlackBerry display and BlackBerry casing before baking the circuit board to dry it out. It is probably OK to bake the display a little bit in a hot parked car (140F max). The circuit board is generally much more temperature-resistant (180F is typically okay).

As a note to the posters in this thread, don't forget that the screws used by BlackBerry is TORX T6 (get some TORX T5's too as well). Although you can sometimes buy these bits at certain stores (precision screwdriver set, set of security screw bits, etc), it is often easier to buy this type of screwdriver or screwdriver bits online. You can buy TORX T6 screwdrivers online too -- google around for it.

(Delicious baked cellphones for dinner, anyone? 8-) )

I'm an idiot
 

OK, first things first ... I should not be allowed to own technological products. I have gone through six phones in the last year, two handhelds (Axim and iPaq), a Treo (somehow salvaged), and my beloved BB7280.

The day I bought the thing, I dropped it in a bowl of soup. It was in there a few seconds. I took the back plastic casing off, tried testing it, etc ... didn't know about the battery situation (went to Catholic School, so common sense lacks with me). Eventually, after sitting on my desk for about two weeks, the thing worked again.

I had tried cleaning some glue off from under the metal frame around the display. (A previous owner did a crummy super glue job). I used rubbing alcohol on a q-tip to clean the area. I made very sure not to let it seep into the keys or other areas, but again ... the unit powers on, but none of the buttons nor the wheel works.

Have I completely destroyed my BB? The display is fine. I got past the set date/time screen (to the window where it gives me the date/time settings) and I was able to wheel back and forth, but I have been able to do nothing since. I have tried keeping it under a lamp for a brief bit, but didn't think to keep the battery out.

It is now sitting out on my desk, battery out. I don't know how to dissaemble, aside from removing the back casing. Is there anything else I can do?

OK... I just realized how to take the damn thing apart (I said I was an idiot ...) and I noticed liitle spots of white (I would assume corrosion...) on the metal piece. I have done my best to clean it off, and there seems to be no damage to the motherboard itself ...

Mine got wet while in a seat bag during a bike ride in the rain this AM. Took the battery out, used a hair dryer to dry out, it appears to be working fine, but the display has greyish splothces over the white background, does anyone know if these will dry out over time or do I need to get a new unit ? BTW I have an 8700C.

Thanks !

Wirelessly posted (7100t: BlackBerry7100/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

It will probably dry out. My 7100t did after a week or two. Don't but a new one just yet.

Just as a tip for people here in the States, I have always had luck finding and replacing T5 and T6 screwdrivers at SEARS in the craftsmen tool departments, each time I am in a different state, and see a Sears I go and check, sure enough they have them, either in sets or by themselves.

That's good to know. I was in Target yesterday and they had this little screwdriver kit for $2.50. I bought it thinking it might have a T6 in there but I really don't know much about screwdrivers and now seeing what a T6 looks like (I googled it), don't think it's in there. But I've got a Sears near me, so I'll check it out. Thanks.