htc One m8 got wet. Is damage battery or processor?

Question

HTC One M8

The second generation HTC One—dubbed the HTC One (M8)—features a dual flash and the new Sense 6 UI, and was released March 25, 2014.

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Barry Paulus @slayerbp

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게시일: 2017년 3월 4일

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htc One m8 got wet. Is damage battery or processor?

Hello.

Should I try a battery replacement, or just forget it?

My wife's htc One m8 got dunked and totally wet with water. (Water intrusion marker strip is completely red/pink).

From what I recall (been a few months now & already bought a replacement), she was at the Dr office, but shortly thereafter (in the car), she put it on the charger. I told her the best thing would have been to power it off, until we dried it. However...

When she got home I got the phone. It was hot and I could barely see the display. I was trying to select Power Off, but it was difficult to see anything on the display. I either turned it off, or it just went off by itself.

I took the case back off it, peeled back the foil tape, pulled off all the connectors, and did my best to totally dry it. I stopped short of lifting up the motherboard.

After 24+ hours in rice and disassembled I put it all back together and tried to power it on. Nothing. I tried all combinations of Power button, Vol up and Vol dwn. No indication that it was trying to turn on, whether on the charger or not.

When it is on the charger the indicator LED is orange (solid), but after a lot of time on the charger it will not power on, the LED never goes green, and it seems like a little warmth on the body when charging, but not really sure.

As a replacement battery is about $20, I thought this may be worth a try, unless the indication is that the motherboard got fried.

Connecting the phone to a computer, the pc does not see the device. However, it will not power on, so this may not mean anything.

Any suggestions on what I should do? Thanks.

BP

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Thanks.

I believe I will try better cleaning and a new battery. I did not notice any debris or mineral residue on anything, but that does not mean it is not there.

Water gets in places easily, and is very difficult to get out if air cannot get at it.

Something I failed to mention in OP, there is a small piece of a board (possibly part of the IR emitter?), near the power button at the top that I either broke on initial disasembly, or was either already broken. A tiny square, perhaps 1 or 2mm square, and what looks like a tiny, tiny cable or flat ribbon which looks like it came unglued or detached from the board where it lays. I know it is hard to imagine what I mean, or "troubleshoot-over-the-phone" with what I am describing. I can take pics, if it helps.

I didn't want to spend $$ on a battery if someone had this exact experience and found that there was some way to know that the damage is in the motherboard or daughterboard, and not the battery, given that the phone does not power on.

Thanks.

BP

Barry Paulus 의 2017년 3월 4일

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oldturkey03 @oldturkey03

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@slayerbp first off skip the rice. It is absolutely useless. It will not help you fix your phone. All it does it provides a false sense of security. It will not clean your phone, it will not prevent corrosion.

Second, stop continuing to try to charge, sync or otherwise use your phone. This potentially can make a bad situation worse.

Water will get your components to corrode very severely. The very first step I would take is to disassemble your phone. Use these guides to disassemble your phone. Take a careful and close look at all components and connectors. Truly assess the damage. Look for major corrosion, evaluate the pins in the connectors etc,. Take a look at all connectors as well as cable ends. After that I would suggest that you clean it a couple of times in sterile water, not drinking water (that might have helped right after it got submerged in the salt water). Use a soft brush and clean it very, very thoroughly with the sterile water. You will have to remove all the EMI shields. Once you got the gross contamination cleaned, use 90%+ isopropyl alcohol and clean your parts some more. For a proper cleaning, use this guide. It was written for a Apple iPhone 3G but it is still pertinent to your phone as well. I can not stress the importance of a good cleaning enough, so do it over and over while replacing the alcohol after each cleaning. Do not use compressed air for the cleaning since that can drive liquid as well as corrosion particles into areas that will cause trouble later on. Do not use drinking water, if you need to use water, use sterile water. Also, you do not need to leave it to dry for a day. Isopropyl alcohol in the higher concentration will evaporate quickly and dissipate the water. The importance here is the cleaning. It'll be great if you can get it professionally cleaned but the isopropyl alcohol cleaning at home does work, just not as good. After that reassemble your phone. Do not forget to replace the battery. This is a must and not an option. It will fail if you do not take care of it now. Keep in mind that water damage is the hardest to troubleshoot and to repair. So even with all this, you phone may not work properly etc.

@slayerbp I get the saving money part and totally agree. Remember that water damage is very difficult to trouble shoot and to repair. Any part may have failed... I'd clean the phone first and get it done really well. After that, get a battery from a place where you can return it easily in case your phone should just be past the point of repair.

You can post your pictures directly with your question by using this guide.

안내서

Repairing iPhone Liquid Damage

난이도:

어려움

—

1 - 2 hours

안내서

기존 질문에 이미지 추가하기

난이도:

아주 쉬움

—

2 - 5 minutes

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Thanks.

I believe I will try better cleaning and a new battery. I did not notice any debris or mineral residue on anything, but that does not mean it is not there.

Water gets in places easily, and is very difficult to get out if air cannot get at it.

Something I failed to mention in OP, there is a small piece of a board (possibly part of the IR emitter?), near the power button at the top that I either broke on initial disasembly, or was either already broken. A tiny square, perhaps 1 or 2mm square, and what looks like a tiny, tiny cable or flat ribbon which looks like it came unglued or detached from the board where it lays. I know it is hard to imagine what I mean, or "troubleshoot-over-the-phone" with what I am describing. I can take pics, if it helps.

I didn't want to spend $$ on a battery if someone had this exact experience and found that there was some way to know that the damage is in the motherboard or daughterboard, and not the battery, given that the phone does not power on.

Thanks.

BP — Barry Paulus