My wife dropped her cell phone in the toilet at work, and it water logged. Later, I noticed the phone sitting in rice on the kitchen table, as I guess this would be a "ye olde Indian trick" that they told her to do. (The phone was off at the "plunge.")
Well after several days, and we were at the table, she was ready to" boot it," and I said, "wait, let me pull a deep vacuum on it." She said, "do you think that might hurt the large touch pad LCD screen?" I said, "I don't think so, but wasn't sure."
Deep down I knew the rice wouldn't be a desiccant for the water, (maybe the moisture).
So I went to the garage to find my home made "canning" mason jar, with the r-22/r-12 schrader valve that I soldered to the top metal lid. I put the phone in this glass jar for 10 minutes in a 500 micron vacuum from a refrigeration/air conditioning evacuation pump, and immediately watched about 10 drops of water ooze from the phone casing halves.
I broke the vacuum and removed the phone, and did the acid test: Put battery in and turned it on. Nothing, no power, put on charger, then Walla! It booted up fine, and I made a phone call. Later, she then tried the large touch pad screen (on this LG "Venus") and it was "frozen." We thought Taps, "lights out" - new phone!
Well, I pulled another vacuum for about an hour this time, and thinking this last ditch effort was as meaningful as the first effort; (especially as it was powered under these condtions, now) and surprisingly this worked! The phone is as good as new. I dehydrated the phone without "busting" the LCD.
Anyone?
Last edited by Mdyar on 15 Aug 2011, 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.