Help with repair after water damage

[Aaronaceae]

Greetings

My droid razr m got wet. I put it in rice for a week and a half and then replaced the battery. When I plug it into the wall and attempt to turn it on it merely shows a white battery icon with a questions mark in it (this is what happened before I replaced the battery as well). When I plug it in to my computer through USB it turns on but it doesn't charge. It shows a red question mark in the battery icon. Also, the red led to the top left of the screen flashes red when plugged into the computer.

What gives? Is something else broken? Do I need to do a "recovery" or "SBF"? I read that the battery needs to be fully charged before doing a SBF, so if I need an SBF this would be problematic.

Thanks for your help! I'm a newbie, so please explain any acronyms (SBF for expample!)

AA

 

[Sajo]

I didn't think the batteries were replaceable on any of the Razr phones. How did you replace it?

 

[bweN diorD]

I didn't think the batteries were replaceable on any of the Razr phones. How did you replace it?

most of the non removable batteries can be replaced, just depends on how comfortable you are with cracking open your phone and changing it.

 

[bweN diorD]

Greetings

My droid razr m got wet. I put it in rice for a week and a half and then replaced the battery. When I plug it into the wall and attempt to turn it on it merely shows a white battery icon with a questions mark in it (this is what happened before I replaced the battery as well). When I plug it in to my computer through USB it turns on but it doesn't charge. It shows a red question mark in the battery icon. Also, the red led to the top left of the screen flashes red when plugged into the computer.

What gives? Is something else broken? Do I need to do a "recovery" or "SBF"? I read that the battery needs to be fully charged before doing a SBF, so if I need an SBF this would be problematic.

Thanks for your help! I'm a newbie, so please explain any acronyms (SBF for expample!)

AA

i answered some of this in your other post,

to add, as you now have a new battery,
if it still "merely shows a white battery icon with a questions mark in it" and will not charge, you fried the charging circuit when it took a swim.
nothing short of new hardware will fix that.
sorry

 

[Sajo]

Makes sense. Could the battery replacement cause the issues described? My first thought was corrosion from the water. The rice dried the phone but these modern electronics corrode easily.

 

[bweN diorD]

Makes sense. Could the battery replacement cause the issues described? My first thought was corrosion from the water. The rice dried the phone but these modern electronics corrode easily.

almost impossible, his other post described this condition before the new battery.

also, the best way to save your phone after a dunk, if not fried immediately, is to open the case and thoroughly blow the water out with compressed air. then gently clean whatever you can with alcohol to remove the corrosion causing minerals from the water, after that you can put it in rice (phone still open) for a couple of days to dry any trace liquid.
imo, you cant do much better than that to save your phone.

 

[Sajo]

Didn't know there was an earlier post. Thanks for the advice...might come in handy one day.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

[bweN diorD]

Didn't know there was an earlier post. Thanks for the advice...might come in handy one day.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/ne...tance/249438-newby-wet-phone.html#post2452952

no problem

 

[Aaronaceae]

i answered some of this in your other post,

to add, as you now have a new battery,
if it still "merely shows a white battery icon with a questions mark in it" and will not charge, you fried the charging circuit when it took a swim.
nothing short of new hardware will fix that.
sorry

Droid Ninja, thanks for your help! When you say that new hardware could replace the charging circuit, which new hardware would I need?

Also, is it possible the battery I bought is a "fake" immitation that isn't being read correctly by the phone? I bought the cheapest battery on Amazon I could find and then found out later that fakes exist. Do you know how to tell the difference? I've found sites that show the difference for some phone models, but not for a droid razr m.

 

[bweN diorD]

Droid Ninja, thanks for your help! When you say that new hardware could replace the charging circuit, which new hardware would I need?

Also, is it possible the battery I bought is a "fake" immitation that isn't being read correctly by the phone? I bought the cheapest battery on Amazon I could find and then found out later that fakes exist. Do you know how to tell the difference? I've found sites that show the difference for some phone models, but not for a droid razr m.

im sure its possible you got a fake battery, and also possible thats why it wont charge. no, i dont know how to tell.

i would, send the new battery back, throw the phone in the trash, and move on. if you change the board, it still may not work right, its up to you.

 

[Sajo]

One thing to consider is: how much time & money do you want to spend replacing all of the internal parts, and the phone still might not work correctly. You might end up spending more money trying to repair the phone than it would cost to buy a nice condition used one on-line. Corrosion of the small circuits is always going to be an issue after a phone is submerged. Whatever you decide, hope you end up with a functional phone.

 

[Aaronaceae]

One thing to consider is: how much time & money do you want to spend replacing all of the internal parts, and the phone still might not work correctly. You might end up spending more money trying to repair the phone than it would cost to buy a nice condition used one on-line. Corrosion of the small circuits is always going to be an issue after a phone is submerged. Whatever you decide, hope you end up with a functional phone.

Thanks for your thoughts. Once I realized how cheap some decent used phones are on ebay I stopped fretting about my broken phone. Is there some place that broken phones can be sent for a final resting place? Like a company that salvages the functioning parts? I'd hate for anything useful in there to just get tossed in the trash needlessly.

 

[Sajo]

Thanks for your thoughts. Once I realized how cheap some decent used phones are on ebay I stopped fretting about my broken phone. Is there some place that broken phones can be sent for a final resting place? Like a company that salvages the functioning parts? I'd hate for anything useful in there to just get tossed in the trash needlessly.

There are some good deals all over the web and local yard sale sites. If you do decide to donate your old phone, there are hundreds of places to donate if you do a web search. Two that I have used, are fairly simple & offer free shipping are: Cell Phones For Soldiers and NCADV (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence). Both accept used phones, have easy instructions on their websites. They recycle all of the precious metals / materials in the phone and use the money from that for good causes. There are many others, but I have used both of those before.