06 January 2008
He Desiccated on What?
Well, I have officially joined the millions of electronics users whose prized devices have become waterlogged. As I leaned forward over the bathtub, where I was bleaching the whole shower, my beautiful, loyal XV6700 fell out of my hoodie pocket, where it had been casually placed only moments before, and into the bath water.
My eyes widened as the screen lit up white under six inches of aqua.
Like lighting, I snatched it out of the water and stripped the battery cover, battery, SD card, and stylus out of the phone with the same style and efficiency as Jackie Chan took apart a gun in Rush Hour. I promptly put all of the above in front of a fan in our warm living room and sat down to Google.
The ideas floating around are crazy, neat, and too un-tested to call one "the best." All around, the best procedures are as follows:
1) Clean the unpowered device with distilled water or 99% rubbing alcohol if it was dropped in dirty water, coffee, beer, or something other than pure water. The rubbing alcohol is a bit dangerous, as it may cause discoloration and fogging of plastic components and screens. For larger devices such as laptops, I recommend a good wipedown of all circuit boards with 99% rubbing alcohol. Lintless cloths work best, but cotton swabs will do in a pinch. Careful not to leave any cotton threads on sharp components.
2) Dry the device quickly in a hot-ish environment. Every piece of your device was manufactured at high temperatures, so it can probably handle up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven or behind your CPU vent. Some people recommend hair dryers...but I do not find the idea of sitting there nursing my phone for half an hour appealing.
3) Place the device in a sealed container surrounded by a desiccant. I know, it is such a fancy word! A desiccant is basically any material that absorbs or adsorbs (or both) moisture from its immediate environment. The simplest one you are likely to have lying around is white rice. White is best because it absorbs slightly better than brown, but it is still not the best you can manage. The list I found includes silica gel, salt, anhydrous sodium sulfide, quicklime, and a slew of other chemical compounds. My personal mixture is a bed of white rice and salt, a small packet of silica gel with the corner torn off, and a perimeter sprinkling of crystals of DampRid, a product my roommate purchased some time ago to fight mold.
The DampRid appears to be some anhydrous crystals with a slight fragrance. The fragrance bit worries me and I don't know how reactive these crystals are with plastic and metal, so that's why these crystals are around the perimeter of my device-dryer.
After a few days in the mix, the crystals of DampRid appear to have broken down and taken on some moisture, and the salt crystals have darkened a bit. I just added the silica gel today, so we'll see how that pans out.
4) Wait. Seriously. Don't give it a try after two days. Any water in the device could permanently fry it. Wait longer. If you are lucky and plan ahead like me, you have a back-up device (in my case the Samsung SCH-U540 I used to take the above pictures) to use while you take a vacation from your main device. I am waiting almost a full week before I turn on my device.
Unfortunately the whole process is a hurry up and wait sort of thing and does not always have a happy ending. Best of luck to you in your quest to dry the device!
UPDATE 18 Jan 08: The phone was revived after over a week of drying. Also...now that I have a sort of an "Anything-goes, I have been within an inch of brick!" I have flashed the thing with Windows Mobile 6...more to come, I'm sure.
My eyes widened as the screen lit up white under six inches of aqua.
Like lighting, I snatched it out of the water and stripped the battery cover, battery, SD card, and stylus out of the phone with the same style and efficiency as Jackie Chan took apart a gun in Rush Hour. I promptly put all of the above in front of a fan in our warm living room and sat down to Google.
The ideas floating around are crazy, neat, and too un-tested to call one "the best." All around, the best procedures are as follows:
1) Clean the unpowered device with distilled water or 99% rubbing alcohol if it was dropped in dirty water, coffee, beer, or something other than pure water. The rubbing alcohol is a bit dangerous, as it may cause discoloration and fogging of plastic components and screens. For larger devices such as laptops, I recommend a good wipedown of all circuit boards with 99% rubbing alcohol. Lintless cloths work best, but cotton swabs will do in a pinch. Careful not to leave any cotton threads on sharp components.
2) Dry the device quickly in a hot-ish environment. Every piece of your device was manufactured at high temperatures, so it can probably handle up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven or behind your CPU vent. Some people recommend hair dryers...but I do not find the idea of sitting there nursing my phone for half an hour appealing.
3) Place the device in a sealed container surrounded by a desiccant. I know, it is such a fancy word! A desiccant is basically any material that absorbs or adsorbs (or both) moisture from its immediate environment. The simplest one you are likely to have lying around is white rice. White is best because it absorbs slightly better than brown, but it is still not the best you can manage. The list I found includes silica gel, salt, anhydrous sodium sulfide, quicklime, and a slew of other chemical compounds. My personal mixture is a bed of white rice and salt, a small packet of silica gel with the corner torn off, and a perimeter sprinkling of crystals of DampRid, a product my roommate purchased some time ago to fight mold.
The DampRid appears to be some anhydrous crystals with a slight fragrance. The fragrance bit worries me and I don't know how reactive these crystals are with plastic and metal, so that's why these crystals are around the perimeter of my device-dryer.
After a few days in the mix, the crystals of DampRid appear to have broken down and taken on some moisture, and the salt crystals have darkened a bit. I just added the silica gel today, so we'll see how that pans out.4) Wait. Seriously. Don't give it a try after two days. Any water in the device could permanently fry it. Wait longer. If you are lucky and plan ahead like me, you have a back-up device (in my case the Samsung SCH-U540 I used to take the above pictures) to use while you take a vacation from your main device. I am waiting almost a full week before I turn on my device.
Unfortunately the whole process is a hurry up and wait sort of thing and does not always have a happy ending. Best of luck to you in your quest to dry the device!
UPDATE 18 Jan 08: The phone was revived after over a week of drying. Also...now that I have a sort of an "Anything-goes, I have been within an inch of brick!" I have flashed the thing with Windows Mobile 6...more to come, I'm sure.
Labels: dessicant, phone hacking, windows mobile 6, xv6700
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
