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Water Immersion
Water Immersion - Dodging a Bullet??
"After putting it through the washer, I've kind of got my iPod working again!"
This is an actual message from a client:
"I stumbled upon your site after googling up how I could possibly fix my Ipod Nano. It was dropped into a pool of water for a very short time. For a few days I left it alone, because it wouldn't work at all, and I left it under a lamp to try and dry it out. Now its working to a certain extent. The wheel feels a little stiff (sand might of traveled its way in there) and the backlight doesn't work anymore. Is there anyway this can be fixed? What are your prices for fixing something like this? Please let me know, thank you!"
This really exemplifies a frequent set of circumstances. The iPod/iPhone/iPad gets dropped in water or put through the washer and the owner puts it in an oven or in the sun or (god help me) uses a blow dryer to "dry it out".
When people start to get marginal utility back in their iPod/iPhone/iPad post water immersion they frequently think they've dodged a bullet, the problem is there is no way to evacuate moisture from the device effectively except taking it apart. When the temperature of the device is raised to "dry it out" what actually happens is the water turns into a vapor but remains inside the device. When the temperature is lowered again the vapor re-condenses to a liquid state. Since the device is almost always lying on it's back, the re-condensed water rolls off the top of the devices on the logic board and down the leads. It collects at the bottom of the solder leads of the parts. At that point oxygen from the water and air begin to combine with the lead in the lead/tin solder alloy and start to establish lead oxide corrosion. Once the lead oxide corrosion begins it doesn't end until the device stops working permanently or someone like me opens it and cleans out and burnishes all the contacts. The lead oxide occupies far more space than the solder does so as the corrosion builds it actually lifts the parts right off the logic board rendering the logic board useless. Concurrent with this the leads (really called traces) on the ribbon connectors used to make the LCD screen, headphone, scroll wheel, and battery work begin to corrode away. In the case of Christine's above, the backlight trace on the LCD ribbon had been eaten away with her requiring a new LCD.
If you don't the iPod up and clean it even though it seems to work afterward unless it is a superhuman iPod, it will merely stop working at some point in the future and you may not even the water event with its eventual death. You will think you dropped it once to many times, or plugged it into a bad outlet.
The $40 I charge for a "classic" (4th, 5th Gen video, 6th Gen video) or $60 for an iPod Touch or iPhone model. I charge $165 to go through an iPad for liquid exposure which is really small insurance to have me go through and correct things as against it's eventual death by leaving it to time and chance.
I dropped it in water can you fix it?
In still another case, Lily had a full water bottle in her Gym bag which basically exploded. She had two Ipods in the bag... her original 1st generation iPod (which tells you how long I've been at this.... the original iPod was released for sale in October of 2001) and her new Nano. Both were unable to work by the time she made the discovery. She sent those two along with her Uncle's Mini iPod which needed the battery changed.
As always, when I get an iPod functioning, I backup the music on it and Lily and I spoke specifically about this. She had none of the music on the 1st generation iPod and didn't if it really came to life again provided I found a way through trick or guile to extract the data from it so she could add the songs and audiobooks to her iTunes Library again. The plan was to hand them to her on CD's
I was able to get the data extracted the iPod *AND* get it permanently working. Also
I got her Nano working again, and it retained all her files. Here are the
3 ipods she sent and the data disks I returned to her.
Lynette Y's son's Nano 2nd Gen also went through the wash. and sent it
with cash and a prayer. I got it going perfectly and it was back on it's
way to Illinois later the same day it arrived.
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Call 707-544-4400
or
email me at repair0121@isickbay.com
with questions or to set up a repair.
HOURS:
Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm, and Saturday & Sunday noon to 6pm.
I'm in Sonoma County... Northern California wine country,
Frank Walburg
Service Court
Santa Rosa, Ca 95403-3139
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