Cell phone went through the wash
ToolFreakBlue
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
I guess its a tool.
My ATT/Cingular Motoralo V365 phone went through the wash. It did not go through the dryer. I am trying to dry it out but it is not looking good.
I am not eligible for a new phone until 8/1/08 (two months).
Can I buy an ATT “Go Phone” and put my current sim card in it and keep going until I can get a decent replacement without spending an arm and a leg?
Anyone had god experience doing this?
Happy with the service and with the family plan and all and do not want to change carriers. They change more than do.
TFB (Bill)
Replies
Talk to your cell co. They usually have a pro-rated deal on new phones.
May just do that. Thanks.
TFB (Bill)
You may be surprised. My dear daughter threw my phone in the toilet once. We thought it was dead but a couple of days later it dried out on its own and now works fine.
I gave it to my son.
Now I know why you are always talking shid. ;-)
Dropped mine in a toilet (cheap phone clip!) before I got started. Pulled the battery out, opened up the back case and stuck it in the sun for 4 hours. never has a problem. I think the secret is to avoid any shorting out by shutting it down immediatly and crossng your fingers from there.
I always have a fear of dropping my phone in a porto-let. Just can't ever see myself retrieving that phone, no matter what #'s I have in there or how expensive the replacement would be
Plop plop, fizz fizz, do you know where your cell phone is? Mike
Trust in God, but row away from the rocks.
Had to jump in a pool once to get my 3 yr old.
It's amazing how much can go through your head in the 2 seconds it takes to go from the pool edge to the water.
As I'm jumping, I can see he's fine. Half way down, I say, "Oh Chit, my phone is in my pocket."
I left it on the dash of my car in the sun with the battery out and the sim card out. It took about a day to get all of the water cooked out. But it still works 1 yr later (the 8 button sticks a little, but that's not a big deal)
another vote for the dash of car for a day or 2. next step ebay for a used phone larry
if a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?
Edited 5/25/2008 11:24 pm by alwaysoverbudget
Place it in a bag of dry rice in the warmth. The rice will attract the damp. Take all the covers off that you can first.
One of my neighbors left his Motorola Razor in a pocket of a pair of pants that went through the washer and dryer. He took the battery and SIM card out and let it dry for a couple of days. New battery and all is good except a little portion of one corner of the screen doesn't work right.
Washed my Nokia once. Never had a problem after it dried out.
When I was mate on a tug in NY harbour one of the deckhands lost an 8" angle-grinder over the side of the tug one day without noticing (it kinda fell out through the freeing port during a ship-docking manœuvre). But it got hung by its power cord and we musta dragged it all the way from the KV bouy to the Deep Water Range before I noticed it.
Chief hauled it in, took it down to the engine room and dunked it in a pail of methyl hydrate for a while then blew it out with compressed air.
Good as new after lunch....
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
"dunked it in a pail of methyl hydrate for a while then blew it out with compressed air."I would be afraid of it damaging the plastic parts in a phone.Here is what I suggest.Remove the battery and sim card.Fill a container with rubbing alchol. Then swish the phone in it.The shake it out and blow it out if you have a compressor. Then let it sit for a couple of days, open, in front of a fan..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Okay, I'm gonna ask my annual stupid question:
Ain't methyl hydrate and rubbing alcohol pretty much the same thing? I mean, you're not gonna drink either one of them. I hope....
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
Yes, no, maybe, depends on which side of the Atlantic that you are on, depends on which side of the equator that you are on.Phase of the moon probably affect it.In my other reply I was mistaking thinking that meth hydrate was denatured alcohol.Apparently that is not true. It is wood (methanol) alcohol. AKA carbinol, wood alcohol, wood naphtha or wood spirits.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MethanolMethanol is one of several different chemicals that can be used to denature enthanal (grain alchohol). In some places denatured alchol is called methylated spirits. That is what I was confusing with meth hyudrate.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcoholNow rubbing aclohol can be either a 3 rd type of alcohol, isopropyl, or it can be denatured aclohol.I don't have a bottle handy but I think it is isoproyl is what I am familar with.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubbing_alcoholNow aren't you glad that you asked <G>..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Fill a container with rubbing alchol. Then swish the phone in it.
Alcohol used to be used to clean electronic assemblies, but more recent electronics are often not compatible with alcohol. Alcohol is a solvent for many of the adhesives used in electronic assembly, such as the glue used to attach SMT parts to the boards prior to reflow soldering. Placing a cell phone in alcohol may well destroy it.
Here is what I would do (and have done):
1. Take out the battery and remove the case.
2. Wash the electronics in distilled water. It's OK to immerse it - that's how they manufactured it (they clean the flux with water). You need to get out all of the conductive contaminants introduced by the water (or whatever else got on it).
3. Gently pat it dry as best you can with a paper towel.
4. "Shake" the phone to dislodge as much of the free water as you can.
5. Place it to dry in a warm but not hot, dry area out of direct sun.
6. Let it dry at least two days, and until you can find no signs of moisture.
7. Put it back together and hope for the best.
I've never owned a cell phone but I'll be needing one soon. How should I go about selecting a service provider and a phone?
The phones themselves aren't nearly as important as the service. Your best bet is to talk to people in your area and ask about the network coverage. It's particularly important that the service provider covers where you live, but you do have 30 days to cancel the service if you're not satisfied (I'm pretty sure that's true for most, if not all, service providers).
The phones that come free with signing up are usually pretty good, but might not have all the bells and whistles, like a camera. You can always upgrade the phone, but most services require a 2-year commitment or you pay an early termination fee.
BTW, I've been pretty happy with ATT (formerly Cingular)
Thanks Don,
I'd expected that would be the answer but recent TV ads have led me to believe that ATT and some others have total coverage, coast to coast, so I figured I should ask.
I won't know until I get back to my area of NY, who's who and what's what with cell service. No big deal. I seldom use the phone anyway.
Thanks for your help.
NO provider covers every sq inch.While they might have coast to coast coverage. One might have a tower right on the hill next to the sea and work 5 miles out.Another might have on 3 miles alway and will it will work at the coast line when the tide is high you can't go out the other 50 ft with the tide is low and have it work..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
talk to anybody and everybody in your area about coverage and dropped calls.IF there are some folks that you will be calling more than others find out what service they have. Often calls form one user to another within the same network do not count against your allocated minutes, (Called mobile to mobile).Phone wise, I have always preferred flip phones, the keypad usually folds up against the screen. This prevents the buttons from being pushed and inadvertanly having your pocket call someone in your adddress book. (Wish my sister had that, her purse calls me about once a month, though have heard some interesting conversations)Blue tooth head sets are handy for multitasking while you talk.MP3 (music) capabilities are probably not on your list of needs.Camera - nice to have in a pinch for existing conditions but can be a pain to get out of the phone.Web browsing, probably also low priority.What else?
TFB (Bill)
I think that covers the subject quite well, thanks.
You can find deadzones with any and all carriers, I live in one.
I have ATT now, barely get signal, Nextel was worse, and Verizon worse yet..so ask who have cells in your area what they find the best.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
New book alert; Eckhart Tolle "A new earth"
A must read.
so ask who have cells in your area what they find the best.
Yep. Living in a rural area, that's been my plan all along. I'll be doing a lot of asking, in several areas spread over about forty miles.
Thanks for the insights.
If you can swing it, try and borrow a friend's phones and make a call or calls form INSIDE your home or office. What may work in the front yard may not work inside. Shoot, none of them may work inside but at least you would know going in.
TFB (Bill)
To answer your original question. Yes you can put your sim card in a go phone and it will work. A guy I work with did it. Also, like someone else said AT&T will let you re up early and give or sell you a new phone. Check out Wirefly dot com if you want good deals. They are a reseller and have way better deals on phones then the carriers do. Saved me four hundred dollars on the last set of phones I purchased for the wife and I.
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk. .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy3LM5_-i1Q&feature=related
Cool. Thanks for the verification.Took my kid to Wally World to get a football and got a $15 Motorola Go Phone from ATT. Charging right now. The battery (BT60)that came with the $15 phone is the same one in my washed phone. I think I spent $25 to $30 for a replacement battery a year ago. Probably a little smaller amp hour rating but still battery more than the phone?, sounds like cordless drills.
TFB (Bill)
Don't turn it on until it's dried out. IT's not the water that usually does them in, but the shorts from the power.
If it's dead, you can get a Go Phone and pop your sim in. It will work fine. Although since you are close you can try for a new subsidized one.
Cheap Go phone is working for me. Hope the washed phone recovers but in the meantime I'll use the no frills Go Phone.The first thing I'm going to do if it comes back to life is download the phone book to the PC. Last time I did it was six months ago. What prompted me to do it then was my cousin was having problems with his phone and took it in to the store. The fix was to replace the sim card but the yoyo didn't tell my cousin they replaced it, nor did he bother to download any data on the sim for him. They shredded the sim card at the end of the day. Cousin was was not happy. In my case most all my numbers are down on the phone not the sim so I need to get it to power on so I can get it all.
TFB (Bill)
Happy with the service and with the family plan and all and do not want to change carriers.
wow, don't think those words were ever spoken before.
fwiw, i have att also and they are fine.
last year my wife dropped her blackberry into the deep vat of blue stuff on a chartered bus while driving.
she actually reached in and got it.
but it didn't work in the end.
you have no idea what a big deal this was. my wife won't touch a store door handle or push a shopping cart with her bare hands because of the germs.
carpenter in transition
"last year my wife dropped her blackberry into the deep vat of blue stuff on a chartered bus while driving."I thought that the blue stuff was usual at the back of the bus. How could she reach it while driving the bus?.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I was gonna comment about "it didn't work in the end". Given the size of a Blackberry I'm not surprised.
What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. --Bertrand Russell
it was pretty funny in retrospect.
after a stop, i took my seat next to her and she had the phone on the window ledge where the air blows.
i looked at her funny, and she just said "don't ask".
so i didn't. until we got home.
then we had a heck of a laugh.
took it apart and wiped it down with alcohol and then put it in a bag with drying crystals.
dead as a doornail.
carpenter in transition
For a $300 or more phone and all the information that is on it, I'd go in after it too! Was her hand blue for long?TFB (Bill)
the weird thing is that she previously had the same cell phone for 10 years before she was given the blackberry. her cell phone was at least twice as old as anyone's i had ever seen. an old motorola timeport. great phone.
the ironic thing is that the blackberry was the pearl model that had the new reduced size keyboard with the predictive text. it was the most horrible software interface ever created.
that phone deserved to be run over by the bus.
it was replace with a blackberry curve, much better phonecarpenter in transition
Good grief one phone for 10 years? Did it have a bag you carried with it?TFB (Bill)
actually, the phone was ahead of its time
http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_timeport_p7389-81.php
read the reviews at the bottom, one said he has been using the phone non stop for 7 years and just bought his first battery.
who keeps a cell phone for 7 years ?
the things were bulletproof.
carpenter in transition
I don't know if it's only available from Verizon, but I got a phone from them--model GZ-one.
It's shock/water/dust resistant.
A buddy withthe same phone has put it all the way thru the wash twice adn it's fine.
Kadunk kadunk, in the dryer, "What is that....??"
Is that the Mil Spec one the Jeff Buck has talked about before?
TFB (Bill)
Not sure, Just looking at it, it's made by casio.
Here it is... http://www.casiogzone.com/
I have the "S" type one.
My last phone was done in by drywall mud and dust.
thats the "G Shock" phone!
was it talking dirty and needed to clean up its act?
;)
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Hah. I would have gladly given it a stern talking to, or a time out for that matter.TFB (Bill)
ebay, you can get used phones of all types on ebay for less than the insurance plan for most phones.
if the phone dries out it may yet live.
I spent 10 years on a volunteer fire dept. I dropped a few pagers in the salt chuck, left one on a roof a bit too long. Anyhoo, these are $400 a shot, worth trying to save. We learned to pull the battery immediately then dry for days before powering up again. Compressed air will speed things up. Sometimes there is a bit of corrosion to clean up. I was able to save my pager many times. I could have learned to be more carefull I guess.
Can't speak for ATT exactly, Have done it with T-Mobile though.
Thanks Neil,ATT is working. Motorola Phone Tools on the PC won't open unless it is connected to a phone. So even the 6 month old back up I have I can't see, yet. I'm going to look for the data file and hopefully find it and be able to open with excel.TFB (Bill)