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I have a Sanyo 8200 which I, stupid me, let too near water. I thought that these new phones were a bit more resistant to the elements, but it crapped out on my right away. I took it into the sprint store and, you guessed it, was SOL. The marker on the battery has turned colors.
Anyway, I got a hold of an old Samsung, so I have a phone, but I thought it was a shame to just throw away the Sanyo if it could be salvaged at all. I bought the tri-wing screwdriver for $6 off Amazon (through a parts store called Laura Specialty Tools... I can dig up a link if you want) and followed the instructions in this thread (http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51323) to take the thing apart. It wasn't before long when I had the "layers" set out in front of me. My question for this forum is this: Has anyone ever been able to ressurect a phone that had water damage? From what it looks like, there is very little corrosion. It is also localized to two parts which appear to be surface mount resistors or capacitors (hard to tell these days) based on the just two leads (as opposed to a transistor, for example). Should I just clean out the corrosion and put it back together and cross my fingers, or should I attempt to replace the parts that look damaged, that is if I can find replacements online.
I am open for suggestions, any help is appreciated! Please share your thoughts; I can take better, more specific pictures if you'd like.
To update this, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning working on this, and got it to work! What I did was just use a toothpick, q-tip, and a bit of rubbing alcohol and scraped/wiped down as much corrosion as I could. I held the pieces together in my hand without fully re-assembling it and plugged it into the wall, and repeated until it finally lit up in my hands. The best part is that everything works now, plus it never lost any stored information like my contacts and pictures and such.
Anyway, it was a fun experience, albeit a frightening one!
Evilwonderwoman
09-07-2005, 10:02 AM
To update this, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning working on this, and got it to work! What I did was just use a toothpick, q-tip, and a bit of rubbing alcohol and scraped/wiped down as much corrosion as I could. I held the pieces together in my hand without fully re-assembling it and plugged it into the wall, and repeated until it finally lit up in my hands. The best part is that everything works now, plus it never lost any stored information like my contacts and pictures and such.
Anyway, it was a fun experience, albeit a frightening one!
My mom used to have the same exact phone and later found some weird corrosion in it as well.My mom was nowhere near any water though.And when we brought back her phone to get a replacement one, the people at sprint told her that it looked liked she put whip cream near it......needless to say my mom didn't do that either....but Sprint still wouldn't replace the phone, so we ended up buying her something else.
Now that I hear someone else having the exact same problem it makes me wonder if there just isn't maybe something wrong with the 8200's themselves.Maybe something weird happening at the factory.
stilldavid
09-07-2005, 12:38 PM
After looking over the phone all night, I noticed that the corrosion was right under where the volume up/down button and select (blue) button are. I'm wondering if it is a bad seal there that is especially prone to letting stuff in? I wouldn't call it a design flaw or anything, but just something to look out for in the future.
Whatever, my phone works now, and that ameks me happy :)
Suliman
09-07-2005, 09:17 PM
Same thing happened to my son's phone (washing machine) and we could never get it going again. Traded it at a Sprint store for another phone.
Suliman
JNA
09-08-2005, 12:56 AM
Congrats on getting the handset working again....
We do similar tinkering on handsets in stores and often time we can get them to "come back to life." Unfortunately, anytime corrosion is present the manufacturer will wipe their hands clean of the unit and it's all in our lap, thus our vigilance in determining it if we can. As for corrosion around the side keys, this is no more or less common than corrosion appearing smack dab in the middle of the PCB board without any indication of how it got there and no one maker is more prevalent in this than another.
But, while you've got it working again, you're biggest concern may not be the corrosion but rather static discharge it may have been subject to when you opened it up. It may work for five more years or only five more days.....tough to say.
stilldavid
09-08-2005, 11:04 AM
Yeah, that's what the girl at the Sprint store said when I brought it back to have it reactivated. She said that alot of times the phones will only work for a short period before they just break again; I can't blame the manufacturer for not wanting responsibility of a phone that has been wet!
As for static discharge, I'm pretty good about grounding myself before I start working on something like this, but are there any signs that something did get shocked? I was under the impression that if something got shocked like that that it was wouldn't even start back up...
tlhop911
09-08-2005, 09:23 PM
alot of times it is just from sweat that gets under the case and causes the problems i know quite a few people that that was the problem with their phones
Normbuddha
09-09-2005, 11:52 PM
So, everyone is having trouble with corrision? How long have you had the phones cause I have had mine for a little over a month and haven't had any trouble yet but I am getting worried with the 8200s cause first I read about the hinges cracking and now corrosion. I have a friend who got the 8200 in march and 5 months later the hinge cracked she purchased it through radio shack and sent it back to get the hinge replaced and they told her that it had corrosion in it on the hinge and when you looked at it there was no corrosion. We took it to a sprint store and they fixed it no problem but its got me worried if this is what I have to look forward to in the future with the 8200
JNA
09-09-2005, 11:56 PM
Corrosion is not a new or uncommon thing regardless of maker or company. The only real difference is that now we can confirm the presence of corrosion in stores by disassembling the handset whereas before it was simple speculation based on external appearances.
As for the 8200 hinge, it is a warrantied issue which will be repaired free of charge, especially if you have ESRP.
sweetjesus
09-10-2005, 12:06 AM
If there is corrosion inside a handset, it's not the phone's fault. You got moisture in there. I've had my 8200 for over a year and the phone is fine. No corrosion, no broken hinge, I've taken care of my handset.
JNA
09-10-2005, 01:24 AM
I'm not saying that it's necessarily anyone's fault, but the OEM disregards the warranty for internal corrosion. Not much can be done about that....
AzTater
11-05-2005, 06:30 PM
I had a 4900 that my gf dropped in the toilet, well let it sit for a couple of weeks it works awesome. I have a 4920 it dropped in the dog's water dish works awesome.
Guess I'm lucky after the bad luck lol
have a 8200 now, just hoping nothing happens to that one.
Normbuddha
11-05-2005, 10:24 PM
yeah its amazing how hardy some phones are my mom has a samsung A460 and she has literally washed it in the washing machine probably twice and dropped it in water several times...she just lets it dry out for a day or so under low light and it works fine....I personally haven't had any real issues with the 8200 all of my issues so far are with the wireless web but I love the 8200 the only thing that I would change on it was louder volume sometimes i have a hard time hearing it if i am in a noisy place which is something that never happened with my vga1000 I could always hear that ring
japawaiian
11-06-2005, 05:40 PM
1 great thing i learned that would benefit all of you, is that...ok first off, you know when you buy a bag of Beef Jerky, and theres always those little packets that your not supposed to eat. Well they are SILICON packets, Silicon absorbs moisture very well, hence it keeps the food fresh by sucking up the oxygen and moisture. well from now on DON THROW THOSE AWAY!! they do come in handy, if you ever submerge your phone in water, quickly take the battery out so no current is flowing (so you dont short anything out), take a ziplock bag, throw as many of those packets in the bag, put your phone and battery in there, and wait a few days...being without a phone for a few days is much better than having to spend another $300 dollars on another phone, or having to result to a cheap O phone cuz your nice one got ruined. THIS WORKS!!! just patience...and after a few days of letting the silicon soak up all the moisture, its safe to put the battery back in it and start it up...it will be like it never happened. just try to take the battery out asap when you get it wet....thats the only thing to worry about, dont worry...your phone isnt done yet! hope this helps everyone out...tell people!! its stupid to have to buy a new phone..an lose info and pictures..
AzTater
11-06-2005, 07:12 PM
1 great thing i learned that would benefit all of you, is that...ok first off, you know when you buy a bag of Beef Jerky, and theres always those little packets that your not supposed to eat. Well they are SILICON packets, Silicon absorbs moisture very well, hence it keeps the food fresh by sucking up the oxygen and moisture. well from now on DON THROW THOSE AWAY!! they do come in handy, if you ever submerge your phone in water, quickly take the battery out so no current is flowing (so you dont short anything out), take a ziplock bag, throw as many of those packets in the bag, put your phone and battery in there, and wait a few days...being without a phone for a few days is much better than having to spend another $300 dollars on another phone, or having to result to a cheap O phone cuz your nice one got ruined. THIS WORKS!!! just patience...and after a few days of letting the silicon soak up all the moisture, its safe to put the battery back in it and start it up...it will be like it never happened. just try to take the battery out asap when you get it wet....thats the only thing to worry about, dont worry...your phone isnt done yet! hope this helps everyone out...tell people!! its stupid to have to buy a new phone..an lose info and pictures..
That actually makes alot of sense and sounds like a great idea.
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