Droid Turbo 2 - Red LED bottom left corner

[cardinal82]

So I accidentally dropped my Droid Turbo 2 into the toilet, and didn't notice for some length of time. After fishing it out there is a red led light next to the bottom left speaker port that is on that I have never noticed before. The phone will not power on, and after checking the water damage indicator in the SIM card slot, it does not indicate water damage. 10 minutes ago the phone started sounding the alarm clock from my alarm. Since then it has started making random alert notifications. Is there any chance my phone will dry out and be right as rain, or am I screwed?

 

[FoxKat]

OK, first...do NOT plug the phone into the charger yet under any circumstances. Although the phone is not responsive and yet is giving notifications, do NOT attempt to power it up or wake it.

Next, remove the SIM drawer and card and place it in a safe place that you will remember where it is. Now what I would do is find a tube sock from your drawer, one that is new and without holes in the toe. Drop the phone into the sock so that the phone is standing on its bottom end.

Next, find an open area in the home (or better yet outside), which is free of obstacles above you and in a large circle around you. Then wrap a short section of the top of the sock around your ring finger and grip the end tightly in your remaining fingers like a leash, allowing the phone to dangle in the sock.

Now, slowly begin swinging the sock in a circle around you and above your head like helicopter propellers. Once you get it moving in a circle begin increasing the speed of the swing while holding onto the sock tightly. Continue the circular swing going faster till you can't go faster and for as long as you can.

Then stop, flip the phone so it's now upside down and it's top is now in the toe area, and repeat the swinging as before. The centrifugal force will cause any water still inside to seek an exit through the top or bottom of the phone.

Next, grab a new bag of white rice, cut a small opening at the top and insert the phone into the bag completely such that it is directly in the middle of the rice and surrounded on all sides. Seal the bag shut with tape to prevent air from entering or leaving the bag, and allow the phone to sit in that bag for at least 24 hours, if not 48. The rice should draw out any remaining moisture.

After the rice treatment, you can attempt to power the phone up. If it's unresponsive, try charging it and powering it up while on charge. If it is still unresponsive allow it to remain on charge overnight and try powering it up again tomorrow.

The red light you are seeing is one of three infrared emitters used in conjunction with the proximity detector to sense your hand as it approaches to reach for the phone and causes it to wake up the display. There is one in each of the two bottom corners and one immediately to the right of the earpiece in the top. They remain lit when the phone is off constantly, but go off once the phone detects your hand and while the screen is on. If the one light remains on brightly but the others are very dim, that's a possible symptom of the water. The alarms, notifications and other random actions are likely water related. Let's hope the water hasn't done any permanent damage and it recovers.

Good luck.


Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Sajo]

^^^ +1. Definitely follow @FokKat 's advice! I hope you can get it 100% dry and it continues to work. Good luck!

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[cardinal82]

OK, first...do NOT plug the phone into the charger yet under any circumstances. Although the phone is not responsive and yet is giving notifications, do NOT attempt to power it up or wake it.

Next, remove the SIM drawer and card and place it in a safe place that you will remember where it is. Now what I would do is find a tube sock from your drawer, one that is new and without holes in the toe. Drop the phone into the sock so that the phone is standing on its bottom end.

Next, find an open area in the home (or better yet outside), which is free of obstacles above you and in a large circle around you. Then wrap a short section of the top of the sock around your ring finger and grip the end tightly in your remaining fingers like a leash, allowing the phone to dangle in the sock.

Now, slowly begin swinging the sock in a circle around you and above your head like helicopter propellers. Once you get it moving in a circle begin increasing the speed of the swing while holding onto the sock tightly. Continue the circular swing going faster till you can't go faster and for as long as you can.

Then stop, flip the phone so it's now upside down and it's top is now in the toe area, and repeat the swinging as before. The centrifugal force will cause any water still inside to seek an exit through the top or bottom of the phone.

Next, grab a new bag of white rice, cut a small opening at the top and insert the phone into the bag completely such that it is directly in the middle of the rice and surrounded on all sides. Seal the bag shut with tape to prevent air from entering or leaving the bag, and allow the phone to sit in that bag for at least 24 hours, if not 48. The rice should draw out any remaining moisture.

@FoxKat : I followed your advice and the phone is now in the bag of rice, completely surrounded by rice. Swinging the phone around above my head wasn't as easy as it sounded ;-P, lucky I didn't beat up my back too bad, lol. A few observations: when the phone was in the sock bottom end of the phone at the toe, there were damp spots in the toe when done swinging, when the top end of the phone was in the toe there were no damp spots in the toe after swinging. Also the water damage strip in the SIM card slot is perfect, as if no water damage. So is that, combined with it sounding the alarm clock and various other notification sounds a cause to be optimistic, or way too early to tell? Also, are there other water damage indicator strips in the phone? I ask because I'm wondering if I'd be able to warranty/insurance the device, or use my Moto Maker refresh if it doesn't ever power back up, or in that case am I gonna be out of luck and stuck eating the price of a new phone all the while not yet having paid off this one?

 

[FoxKat]

@FoxKat : I followed your advice and the phone is now in the bag of rice, completely surrounded by rice. Swinging the phone around above my head wasn't as easy as it sounded ;-P, lucky I didn't beat up my back too bad, lol. A few observations: when the phone was in the sock bottom end of the phone at the toe, there were damp spots in the toe when done swinging, when the top end of the phone was in the toe there were no damp spots in the toe after swinging. Also the water damage strip in the SIM card slot is perfect, as if no water damage. So is that, combined with it sounding the alarm clock and various other notification sounds a cause to be optimistic, or way too early to tell? Also, are there other water damage indicator strips in the phone? I ask because I'm wondering if I'd be able to warranty/insurance the device, or use my Moto Maker refresh if it doesn't ever power back up, or in that case am I gonna be out of luck and stuck eating the price of a new phone all the while not yet having paid off this one?

All this is great news but nothing is a guarantee.

The fact that the sock was wet is evidence and proof that there was still water in phone, and that the centrifugal force using the sock was an effective way of getting it out. So to all you naysayers out there, read and believe. By the way, this was a technique that I developed myself and did not read or find on a Google search anywhere on the web. Maybe I should trademark it! I could call it "FoxKatting"!

I'm not surprised that there wasn't water coming from the top of the phone. Especially if you did the spinning with the bottom toward the sock toe first, most, if not all the water would have gotten out through the bottom openings. Then flipping the phone over to the top there may have been no water left to exit the phone. That's actually good news, because again it verifies that all the water was removed. Still, there will be moisture inside which is the reason for the rice.

Yes, there are other water identification strips inside the phone, and since the SIM card slot is at the top of the phone it also makes sense that it's not wet considering no water came from the top of the phone when you spun it upside down. Unfortunately it is possible that some of the lower water identification strips may have gotten wet.

The fact that it's making noises and notifications is evidence that it is functioning to some extent. Hopefully whatever parts of the circuit board may have been shorting by water weren't permanently damaged and once the phone comes out of the bag of rice it may in fact power up and operate normally.

The real problem, is that now with these phones they put Integrated Circuits on top of other Integrated Circuits, and there's also therefore very very tight areas that water can remain under the top IC and short the connections on the IC below it. This is why it's imperative that you get all of the water out as soon as possible.

It's a shame that these phones don't have removable batteries because in fact the damage is done as a result of the power still running through the board and short-circuiting components, feeding voltages at higher levels than the components can handle and in some cases therefore ultimately burning those components out. This is why I told you not to plug it in or try to power the screen up.

Believe me, we are all pulling for you. Best of luck and keep us informed.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[cardinal82]

So thanks to @FoxKat the phone has a heartbeat. After driving the water out and putting it in rice for 48 hours it will now power up, I can hear the boot cycle and it arrives at the screen where it is prompting me to insert a SIM card, plus the bluetooth is even connecting to my portable bluetooth speaker. Unfortunately the screen is not coming on. Anyone have any ideas on how to save my data (pics, videos, text messages, call history and so forth) from the device so I can transfer them to an insurance device?

 

[cardinal82]

So I found a repair shop that was willing to open up the phone, check things out and see if it could be saved with some water extraction and cleaning, if it wasn't that simple of a fix the diagnostic was free, but if that got it running they would only charge $45. Turns out the LCD for the screen is fried, and the replacement part for this phone runs $279. So free diagnostic, but I won't be pursuing that option. Can anyone help with how I can get my data off the phone with a dead screen, the phone does power up though and load into Android.

 

[Sajo]

Can you connect it to a computer / laptop? If so, you can copy all of the pics, music, files from the various folders in internal memory to your PC. and then copy them to the replacement phone. Did you have an S D Card? Was it set to store all pics and music? That was one of the options with the Marshmallow update, a pop-up asking if you wanted to move all pics and music to the SD Card. Either way, if you can see the internal storage when connected to a PC you should be able to copy pics, music and files. App data will be lost however, but you will have to setup the apps on the new phone regardless.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[cardinal82]

Can you connect it to a computer / laptop? If so, you can copy all of the pics, music, files from the various folders in internal memory to your PC. and then copy them to the replacement phone. Did you have an S D Card? Was it set to store all pics and music? That was one of the options with the Marshmallow update, a pop-up asking if you wanted to move all pics and music to the SD Card. Either way, if you can see the internal storage when connected to a PC you should be able to copy pics, music and files. App data will be lost however, but you will have to setup the apps on the new phone regardless.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

All it is detecting it as when connected via USB is a Media Device, and it shows nothing inside it. The only stuff on the SD card was from an old phone from years ago.

 

[FoxKat]

Do you know if you have USB Debugging enabled?

 

[cardinal82]

Do you know if you have USB Debugging enabled?

I thought I did, but I'm not sure and unfortunately can't check at the moment.

 

[FoxKat]

Well if you do, there is a way to gain access via a computer and it will allow you to basically control all functions of the phone as if you're actually on it. You can copy files and run apps. See [Tool][Windows] Control a device with a broken screen. Now with touchscreen support!!. There are other options but they all require having an app on the phone and run via the web or WIFI. This one runs completely on the computer, but needs a cable connected.

I have a thinkpad tablet and with touchscreen this app lets you "touch" the phone's screen (touching the picture of the phone's screen on the computer tablet screen), to open apps and control things.

 

[cardinal82]

Would there be a way to force that access via the computer with the screen not working?

 

[FoxKat]

Would there be a way to force that access via the computer with the screen not working?

Yes, that's the entire purpose. But it can only be done one of two ways. Either you already had USB debugging enabled, or you have a custom kernel with USB debugging pre-enabled created and flashed onto your phone via side-loading.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[cardinal82]

As an alternative to trying to side load and gain control via the computer, is there anyway to connect it to a TV with a micro usb to HDMI converter?