cell phone question

[bribrius]

I lost my cellphone a few days ago. Ransacked everything. it finally turned up.
But it had already gone through the wash machine.
so a couple questions.

a. will the tide with bleach cause soap scum? im considering running it through a extra rinse cycle.
b. Should I continue on and put it in the dryer too? wife says no. But im thinking maybe low heat........
c. what are the odds of it sitting for three days or the bag of rice trick working?
d. This is the most important. As much as the cellphone, im kind of worried about the pics on it. im hoping at least the memory card will still work. Thoughts?




on a good note. it does seem really really clean.

 

[KmH]

Put 1 - 2 cups of uncooked rice in a zip lock bag. Remove the memory card. Put the phone in the bag . Zip lock the bag for 3 - 5 days days. Remove phone from bag.

 

[trojancast]

You're kidding right?

 

[bribrius]

You're kidding right?

no

 

[480sparky40 39]

Take phone to a local office of your carrier, and buy a new phone.

Have them transfer everything for you... they usually do this any way.

If there's a transfer issue, take old phone home, remove memory card and perform a recovery.

 

[Designer]

No, he's not kidding. I laundered a phone last year. I never kept anything of any particular importance on it, so no great loss.

 

[Overread16 4]

Water in itself is often not the whole of the problem, its minerals and particles in the water which, when the water dries, are then dried into the surface of the electronics. That can be a major problem and its why removing the battery and memory card and then giving it a soak in distilled water and then drying it out can work. Because the distilled water helps to wash out the minerals and materials without adding any of its own. Then when you dry it out the water lifts off leaving behind clean electronics

 

[bribrius]

Water in itself is often not the whole of the problem, its minerals and particles in the water which, when the water dries, are then dried into the surface of the electronics. That can be a major problem and its why removing the battery and memory card and then giving it a soak in distilled water and then drying it out can work. Because the distilled water helps to wash out the minerals and materials without adding any of its own. Then when you dry it out the water lifts off leaving behind clean electronics

shoot. I already put it in the bag of rice. And pulling the memory card and sim, battery I did see some soap residue. I think im going to lose this one. water came out when I opened up the memory card slot and popped the battery. I don't have a regular carrier, or insurance. I buy phones outright no plans. But like I said, it is the info on the phone and memory card im worried about not as much the phone. im going to go looking for old phones to see if I have one I can put in the memory card to at least try to retrieve the photos off that.

 

[480sparky40 39]

Many cards are fairly resilient when it comes to a short soaking. Let the card dry out, then try reading it from a card reader.

 

[otherprof87 28]

Absolutely correct. I once spilled a cup of black coffee on my phone, which stopped working. When it dried out, about three days later - I didn't think of using the rice rescue - it worked again. I was later told by a Verizon employee that if I had been drinking coffee with milk or cream in it, the phone would have been toast. BTW, the spill happened in an ethics class I was teaching, and the phone was brand new. I asked the class if I should take it back to Verizon and tell them it just stopped working. All but one student voted "yes." When I asked the single holdout why he thought I should not lie about what happened to the phone, he answered "They can tell." I don't remember what grade he received in the ethics class.

 

[bribrius]

Absolutely correct. I once spilled a cup of black coffee on my phone, which stopped working. When it dried out, about three days later - I didn't think of using the rice rescue - it worked again. I was later told by a Verizon employee that if I had been drinking coffee with milk or cream in it, the phone would have been toast. BTW, the spill happened in an ethics class I was teaching, and the phone was brand new. I asked the class if I should take it back to Verizon and tell them it just stopped working. All but one student voted "yes." When I asked the single holdout why he thought I should not lie about what happened to the phone, he answered "They can tell." I don't remember what grade he received in the ethics class.

yeah. when they hit liquid there is a white dot in the phone that turns red. usually in the battery compartment. And on the battery itself sometimes. Both my dots are really really red on this one. That is how they can tell.
I had a blackberry that got a little wet once and still worked for a year. But that just turned white to pink. This is RED RED.

 

[Overread16 4]

Not just that, the presence of excessive mineral content also indicates that the unit has been submerged or had liquid spilt onto it. Most people just dry it out and don't think (nor are even aware) of the minerals that are left behind.

 

[ratssass]

how long do you need to boil the rice?

 

[KmH]

how long do you need to boil the rice?

That depends on if you use brown rice or white rice.

You don't cook the rice.

Put 1 - 2 cups of uncooked rice in a zip lock bag.

The rice absorbs the moisture.

 

[bribrius]

so.. do I take it out of the rice and go get some distilled water and start over?