[catchnow]

So, my pearl may have gotten a little bit wet last night, but not much. However, none of the buttons are active and the pearl spins but doesnt click. Recently the whole thing will light up with the little hourglass icon spinning on the screen and then it goes black and the red LED light flashes once.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Any advice?

[winnieb]

I set mine in a cup of water once- I normally keep the pearl in the cup holder while driving. I forgot I had a cup of water (w/o lid) in the cup holder and set the pearl right into the glass. I didn't have any problems though. How wet did you get the pearl, did you drop it in the hottub?

[Fungineer]

Originally Posted by catchnow

So, my pearl may have gotten a little bit wet last night, but not much. However, none of the buttons are active and the pearl spins but doesnt click. Recently the whole thing will light up with the little hourglass icon spinning on the screen and then it goes black and the red LED light flashes once.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Any advice?

Umm, there are some instructions somewhere about cleaning your BB after a "dip", but if you have not already, you should pull the battery and dry the device out. it sounds like the keypad interface may be skuppered, which might mean that the processor is toast, or (if there is still water in the device) you're shorting some pins together. Same thing for the hourglass - if there is water between the processor and the memory, that could spell bad things.

[John Clark]

It is saveable if you don't try and turn it on too soon. If you immediately remove the battery, disassemble the BB and dry it out you may be able to save it. There are some disassembly instructions for the 8100 on the forum somewhere. Water doesn't kill the BB. Electricity and water does. Remove the battery and don't play with it anymore until you dry it out and you may stand a chance.

[SanFrancisco]

Originally Posted by catchnow

So, my pearl may have gotten a little bit wet last night, but not much. However, none of the buttons are active and the pearl spins but doesnt click. Recently the whole thing will light up with the little hourglass icon spinning on the screen and then it goes black and the red LED light flashes once.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Any advice?

Ditto on John's advice. IMMEDIATELY STOP USING IT. TAKE THE BATTERY OUT!

[SanFrancisco]

OK, now that I have screamed at you, here are some tips.

First off, are you saying that the phone was sitting on the edge of the hot tub and it got steam on it? If so, that does not sound too bad.

So the question is, did your trying to turn it on, etc. cause it to short out. I don't think so. Seems like the keys or something else temporarily have crossed [circuits, solder, wire, copper, connectors].

Rather than disassemble it, I'd put it into a warm area [do not use a blow drier] and let it dry out for the balance of the week. Don't try it until Friday or so.

All this is assuming the Pearl did not get dripping wet. I assume you have dried off the surfaces.

If that does not fix it, I'd say that it was a fluke or coincidence and make a warranty claim. See my thread on doing that [enter "warranty" in the search box]. I am assuming the water detectors did not activate. Check the threads for discussion and pics of those [enter "detector" in the search box].

Again, wait it out, don't be tempted to try the phone until Friday. Do you have a backup phone you can place the SIM card into and use it until Friday? If not, buy one on eBay for $25 for the next time. I bought an extra 7100t for $25 one time [so now I have three 7100t's with SIM cards as spares for my girlfriend and myself].

[John Clark]

True, if it didn't get too wet you could just put it in a warm dry place for a while. Personally, I'm not that patient. I would get the T6 torx screwdriver needed to disassemble it, and dry it out. I saved one this way that went to the bottom of the hot tub. It was a 7100t and it still works to this day.

As far as the warranty claim, that's up to you. Check the water detector in the battery compartment. Mine is located under the battery cover just above the top left corner of the battery stuck to the side of the battery compartment. If it's red, you are out of luck. If it's still white you can try but I've been told there are other water detectors inside the unit but I've not been inside mine to see them. Good luck....let us know what happens!

[SanFrancisco]

Originally Posted by John Clark

True, if it didn't get too wet you could just put it in a warm dry place for a while. Personally, I'm not that patient. I would get the T6 torx screwdriver needed to disassemble it, and dry it out. I saved one this way that went to the bottom of the hot tub. It was a 7100t and it still works to this day.

As far as the warranty claim, that's up to you. Check the water detector in the battery compartment. Mine is located under the battery cover just above the top left corner of the battery stuck to the side of the battery compartment. If it's red, you are out of luck. If it's still white you can try but I've been told there are other water detectors inside the unit but I've not been inside mine to see them. Good luck....let us know what happens!

I agree about disassembly, but I think most people are not that good at taking things apart and might screw it up to where it cannot be returned.

On taking it apart maybe the test should be if they do NOT know what a torx is or looks like, then stay away.

[John Clark]

I agree as well!! Nice pic!

[catchnow]

Thanks guys for all the help!
I dont think I'm too keen on the idea of taking it apart, I'm not so good with tools. I did try to plug the phone in last night and actually left it charging during my three hours of sleep. The lights just stayed on then, it was still doing the turn on, turn off thing this morning. I took the battery out about an hour ago and it doesn't seem to be wet. It didnt seem to be too wet last night either, I think what happened was that it got hit with sprinklers for a bit. Do you think that maybe if i let the battery run out after it's dry that that would do anything?
O well, I'll keep trying, but soon I'm just going to get on the phone with cingular and try to get them to send me a new one.
Guess it's back to my busted RAZR. :(

[SanFrancisco]

Originally Posted by catchnow

Thanks guys for all the help!
I dont think I'm too keen on the idea of taking it apart, I'm not so good with tools. I did try to plug the phone in last night and actually left it charging during my three hours of sleep. The lights just stayed on then, it was still doing the turn on, turn off thing this morning. I took the battery out about an hour ago and it doesn't seem to be wet. It didnt seem to be too wet last night either, I think what happened was that it got hit with sprinklers for a bit. Do you think that maybe if i let the battery run out after it's dry that that would do anything?
O well, I'll keep trying, but soon I'm just going to get on the phone with cingular and try to get them to send me a new one.
Guess it's back to my busted RAZR. :(

Why are you trying to use it? Sounds like you really screwed it up now, with all you tried to do.

Let it dry out with the battery out of the phone, if it's not too late.

And if you call Cingular and tell them what happened, I would not think they are going to send you a phone, at least not for free. But that's your choice.

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by SanFrancisco

Why are you trying to use it? Sounds like you really screwed it up now, with all you tried to do.

Let it dry out with the battery out of the phone, if it's not too late.

And if you call Cingular and tell them what happened, I would not think they are going to send you a phone, at least not for free. But that's your choice.

For sure!! If you want to have a chance of saving then take out the battery and let it be for a few days. They say you can put it in a 150 degree oven but that seems a little warm for me. I used to have a clothes dryer that had a shoe rack you could put in it. That seems ideal to me, on a low heat setting. Something like that. If you have nothing then just let it be for a few days and come back to it. Otherwise you will be out of a phone for sure.

[Szadzik]

Originally Posted by John Clark

Otherwise you will be out of a phone for sure.

He's already used the phone for a long time after the 'bath'.
He can already consider himself out of a phone. For sure. Sooner or later.

[catchnow]

Battery is out and has been for hours. Won't be going back in any time soon.
The battery I know isnt the issue because the same thing happened with a different battery.

The water indicator on the left side inside the battery compartment is completely white, no red...I dont know if that counts for anything.

As far as Cingular goes, I'm going to call and see about how to do a hard reset. If they say I did something wrong, I'll play dumb. Since I've had the phone for all of 1 week, I think they may give me the benefit of the doubt...hopefully.

Michelle

[kasperapd]

Originally Posted by catchnow

Battery is out and has been for hours. Won't be going back in any time soon.
The battery I know isnt the issue because the same thing happened with a different battery.

The water indicator on the left side inside the battery compartment is completely white, no red...I dont know if that counts for anything.

As far as Cingular goes, I'm going to call and see about how to do a hard reset. If they say I did something wrong, I'll play dumb. Since I've had the phone for all of 1 week, I think they may give me the benefit of the doubt...hopefully.

Michelle

There you go, screw over Cingular because of something you did wrong.

[SanFrancisco]

Originally Posted by catchnow

Battery is out and has been for hours. Won't be going back in any time soon.
The battery I know isnt the issue because the same thing happened with a different battery.

The water indicator on the left side inside the battery compartment is completely white, no red...I dont know if that counts for anything.

As far as Cingular goes, I'm going to call and see about how to do a hard reset. If they say I did something wrong, I'll play dumb. Since I've had the phone for all of 1 week, I think they may give me the benefit of the doubt...hopefully.

Michelle

Someone else had a return with T-Mo. They said the T-Mo rep said they were within there two week grace period to return the phone, no questions asked. But since he wanted to return it by mail, he was going to wait out until after two weeks so he could get a return authorization over the phone.

Maybe Cingular has the same thing? So you may want to wait a couple weeks, so to do it on a warranty return by mail rather than returning the phone "as new" within the two week period.

[SanFrancisco]

Originally Posted by kasperapd

There you go, screw over Cingular because of something you did wrong.

I'm not too sure that she did something to the phone. May just be coincidence.

I have had my phone on a shelf in a steamy bathroom and the Pearl did not suffer any damage. That's why I am saying it may be coincidence or a defect in manufacture in her case because the phone should be able to take moist environments [humidity, steam, rain drops, etc.]. Albeit on reading her post I am not going to take the Pearl into the bathroom again inasmuch as I may have been lucky with the steam not getting into my phone.

I thought she was going to say that the phone fell in the hot tub, but she did not. If it did, that would be a different story.

My impression of the Pearl, on reading some posts, is that it is fairly delicate, e.g., look at how the battery door mechanism is constructed. Plus, that door does nothing to seal the inner compartment from the elements, e.g., steam, dust, etc.

Just a thought.

[Pearl Buddy]

Originally Posted by kasperapd

There you go, screw over Cingular because of something you did wrong.

cingular is making thousands of times more on the monthly service contracts that people pay for, the phones' cost are not of worry to them. they would surely rather have a customer with a fully working phone then a customer stuck in endless frustration. the worst case scenarios for the phone companies are when people lose their phones and they have nothing to exchange.

[SanFrancisco]

Originally Posted by Pearl Buddy

cingular is making thousands of times more on the monthly service contracts that people pay for, the phones' cost are not of worry to them. they would surely rather have a customer with a fully working phone then a customer stuck in endless frustration. the worst case scenarios for the phone companies are when people lose their phones and they have nothing to exchange.

That is true. I recall asking a service rep why they replaced my phone so quickly and with no questions asked [this was about 8 years ago]. She said that the company wants me using the phone. A custo without a phone is not using the service [this was in the days of by-the-minute charges and no plans like we see nowadays].

[catchnow]

Originally Posted by kasperapd

There you go, screw over Cingular because of something you did wrong.

That's kind of harsh, don't you think?
I do agree with what you said afterwards though.

And no, it wasn't dropped into the hot tub.