I had a small lunch time adventure today: I accidentally dropped my Nokia E71 into a raging torrent (the watery kind, not the bit kind). Aside from a chance for some quick sympathy or laughter, depending on your disposition, I thought it might be a good opportunity to refresh some of the actions you can take if this happens to you. I would also be pleased to hear your stories and recommendations for follow up action!

Read on in the full article (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/8466_What_to_do_if_you_drop_your_E7.php).

Handy guide Rafe, the rice is an interesting off-beat suggestion.

If it doesn't work, maybe you could do a follow-up on using spare parts from ebay? :-)

uh-oh, you have my full sympathy there, Rafe!

unfortunately i can't give you or other readers with similar problems any tips, except maybe the obvious, that is to backup reguarly. For sometimes losing ones data can be even worse than losing the hardware itself. But I'm sure you already did that ;)

Yes all my data sits in the cloud and on my desktop PC so no worries there.

I'm annoyed about the hardware as the E71 has been my main phone since June (a long period for me). I've onviously had other phones in for review, but the E71 has been a loyal messaging companion (I tend to carry an Nseries around too for camera / multimedia etc.)

Shame :(. This little adventure of yours reminds of a small event in my life. My cousin poured water on my 2h old Nokia 5110. It just came out on the shelves, I bought it and it was...ruined :(. I used fans, even a compressor to dry the thing out. It died on me :(.

i dropped my e51 in the ocean while jet skiing. and i really liked that phone...

yikes - i dont think ive suffered water damage but my wife has had the kids put her N70 and N95 in glasses of water/orange juice.

The N70 died almost imediately - it was only in 1 cm of juice so not even soaked.
the N95 battled on for a few days but then the screen went - it otherwise worked

both were replaced on insurance. there was a £25 excess.

i dropped my e51 in the ocean while jet skiing. and i really liked that phone...

You took your E51 jet-skiing - wow - lucky phone :)

Well my N91 has never been wet but my wife's 5700 got totally immersed in about a litre of a bottled mineral water during June of this year. Was soaking for a good 10mins before the wife noticed. I think the only reason it still works today (well apart from the camera) is that it happened on one of the hottest days of the year here in Finland and we were off to watch some athletics, so it was taken apart as much as possible and left to sit on the baking hot concrete steps of the stadium we were at for about 30mins and then reassembled. It works fine to this day. Some quirks beside the camera, the text message inbox can sometime reorder the messages in which ever way it wants, and needs some coaxing to get it back to normal. And the phone call volume is will not go up that last bar to full volume.

I did do a complete re-install of the firmware and all apps and things the next day, so I would add that that is something that should always be done if the phone shows any sign of live after being dried out.

I hope that the E71 shows some sign of continuing it's life soon. And with the winter weather coming in fast I am sure that I shall unfortunately need to share this article around at some point in the next few months.

Ha dropped my 9300 in the drink years ago. This is what I did...
1-remove battery
2- saturate electronics & connectors with WD-40 (The WD in WD-40 stands for water displacement)
3- wipe off
4- let dry for min 6 hours
5- Suggest getting a new battery...if battery had a leak and water got into it it can explode while charging (or give it a good soaking in WD-40)

Worked perfectly after that

Hope it turns out o.k.
-EJ

I accidentally dropped my iPod classic in the bathtub. From the the sounds of despair emanating from it, I was sure it was dying, but as a desperate emasure, I put it on low ehat in the oven for a few hours. Lo and behold, after taking it out and cooling it down, it worked, and four months on, it is still running perfectly.

You need some silica gel. But remember, DO NOT EAT it!

I admire your determination. I'm afraid I would have let the phone go. Did you jump in in your trousers

I put an SD card through the wash once. Turns out they're pretty much indestructable!!

Good luck with your E71. Let us know if it survives!!

Well I'm quite attached to my E71 (I actually wanted the SIM card back more than anything).

I did think before jumping in - went and got a swimming costume. But it was cold so it was definetely above and beyond the call of duty.

Good idea on the Silica Gel. I'm sure I have some of those tucked away.

I've tried to destroy few of the S60 phones with water. I dropped 660 into toilet, it worked fine after few sessions with hairdryer. Second incident was with E70 when I accidentally dropped it to glass of water... Again few sessions with hairdryer and it worked again. I also waited day or so before turning them on.

My E90 and my Sony HDD video camera both got soaked in June, after a water bottle leaked in my bag. After allowing them to dry thoroughly (minimum of 6 days, according to Nokia Nederland) both devices recovered completely. I would not recommend using WD-40 on sensitive electronics, and allowing 6 hours drying time is certainly not long enough before re-applying the power to a water-damaged device...

After dropping my N95 onto concrete so many times that the battery came loose and had to be wedged with a sliver of card. I now use a lanyard and carry my phone round my neck. I have also moved on to an N82.

A water sensor inside the phone would be great!. Imagine that, you drop the phone and it shut down itself. Wait, can be done with the accelerometer?? like the Lenovo´s mechanism that turn of the Hrd Drive if the laptop is droped.

Ha dropped my 9300 in the drink years ago. This is what I did...
1-remove battery
2- saturate electronics & connectors with WD-40 (The WD in WD-40 stands for water displacement)
3- wipe off
4- let dry for min 6 hours
5- Suggest getting a new battery...if battery had a leak and water got into it it can explode while charging (or give it a good soaking in WD-40)

Worked perfectly after that

Hope it turns out o.k.
-EJ

That's because Series 80 phones are still the DBs when it come to reliability ;)

Best of luck Rafe. Your patience is admirable.

My beloved E90 went into the swimming pool with me this summer. Our two dogs were rampaging around the decking and caught me off balance. As I live in Arizona, it was around 105F so I did not really mind the ducking, until the thought streaked across my mind that my phone was still in my pocket! I dug into my pocket and retrieved the E90 in time to see the front display go dark.

I managed to get out of the water and remove the battery cover and battery fairly quickly. The moisture monitor was already turning light-red (it remains so to this day), and water continued to drip from various openings in the case. I removed the SD and SIM cards and opened the cover then gave everything a good shake. I blew canned air into every port and opening over the next ten minutes or so. I then placed it half-opened on the connector-end on a cupboard shelf atop several thicknesses of paper towels and left it to dry. That seemed the best bet, as our relative humidity runs about 15-20% in summer.

The SD card was fine, and the SIM brought up my trusty 9300 as a backup, but I was near frantic to find out the status of my E90. I managed to wait a total of 25 hours. I had read on the web that it might be a good idea to rinse any electrical device that has gone into saline or chlorinated water, but I could not bring myself to immerse the phone again, so I merely popped-in a backup battery, and fired the phone up.

Everything worked! The displays were funky for another 48 hours, but both of them cleared up as well. The only lasting damage appeared to be the camera, which only worked intermittently for several months. I had concluded that the camera was a small price to pay for getting the rest of the phone back, when I applied the latest firmware update (v300) and now it is just as reliable as before going for a swim. Love that phone.

The moisture monitor was already turning light-red (it remains so to this day)

Just out of interest, what are you referring to?

Just out of interest, what are you referring to?

Little round white sticker, usually under battery
When it gets wet it turns red

100% Ethanol (absolute alcohol) has dehydrating properties.

People I know who have had repeated good luck with recovering electronics swear by soaking in water. Pure distilled. Not tapwater at all. Unfortunately, soaking is days or weeks. Then days to dry. A little long to be without your mobile phone.

Even then, it's about 80-90% reliability. Any other method I have seen or tried is totally hit and miss. Success is anecdotal.

And I have seen so much evil from WD-40 that I will not use it for anything. Yipes.

I was heading out to a friends house, so i quickly grabbed a couple of bottles of wine and plonked them into my bag.... along with my Nokia N810 and my ipod.

The two bottles of wine clunked together breaking one of them and completely imersing both devices in red wine. I took the N810's battery relatively quickly, but i cant say the same for the ipod. I couldnt even turn the bloody thing off! I think if i could have it might have had a chance.

I cleaned my N810 first with fresh water then soaked it in isopropyl alcohol. With the exception of the camera it still works to this day... but i did end up replacing the LCD because it had an annoying amount of red wine stuck in it.

Little round white sticker, usually under battery
When it gets wet it turns red

This is a bit embarassing, but I have never ever heard of these moisture monitor stickers. :-)

Are they things you add to a phone yourself, or do they come as standard with some devices? I couldn't find one on any of the phones I currently have.

My first week with my e71, I knocked it off the sofa, stood up to look for it and heard the most dreadful sound in the world: crunch. I shattered the screen. Thankfully, it was a corporate phone and they re-issued me another e71. They threatened a Nokia 1100 if it ever happened again! :-)

As for water, my Blackberry Curve had an unfortunate accident in my dog's water bowl when I bent down to feed him. I took it out immediately and wrapped it in paper towels. It still works to this day.

[Quote:
Little round white sticker, usually under battery
When it gets wet it turns red
This is a bit embarassing, but I have never ever heard of these moisture monitor stickers. :-)
Are they things you add to a phone yourself, or do they come as standard with some devices? I couldn't find one on any of the phones I currently have.]

Where I live, if you take a phone for repair under warranty, this is one of the things they look for (since water damage is not covered). In fact, a friend of mine had his P1i rejected for warranty for this reason about a month ago - he was wearing it around his waist and didn't remember that when he got caught in the rain. I can see that the E90 has one of these too - to be honest, I never checked that till now.
=
I once dropped a 6600 into a water stream on the roadside during the rainy season . It must have been completely submerged for about 10 seconds while I groped around to find it. Switched it off, took the battery and sim card out, brought it home and dried it - it never gave any problems and went on as if nothing had happened for another year , until someone picked my pocket on the train. Extremely rugged and resilient phone , the 6600.

I'm at a work conference, and I the woman sitting next to me in this lecture has an E71. I commented, nice phone, and she said it was her second one. She had dropped her first one, and then she showed me it's "leash". She then said "it lessens it's sexiness, but it keeps her sane!". It's amazing how these phones want to just commit suicide. Good luck and I hope it dries out and is functional again!

Happened on a sunday Morning. My just a month old E61 was made to drink some hot coffee by my wife when she was placing the cup next to my bed. The phone was never the same again. It wouldnt go off at all. A few of the softwares wouldnt run. Tried Drying/de Hydrating, including keeping the phone dismantled in the baking Bombay Heat on my terrace for a good whole afternoon and me sitting with a towel plonked on my head.
Took the phone to Nokia Service centre who promptly refused to handle the warranty due to liquid damage.
Fortunately for me, E61 was a fanciful device in 2006 in India and still found takers. Sold it for 10k and took a w950 (my first UIQ device).
btw...since there is no more development to take place on the UIQ front, would it be prudent to buy a P1i for cheap? Will Sony Ericsson cover the product under warranty? Are there softwares still written for UIQ devices?
Mahesh/Chembur, Bombay, India.

You have my sympathy there rafe.

I had a similar occurance but my e71 had a vodka and coke bath at a party.

I see that the e71 seems to be taking a lot of bashing lately... ;)

I've managed to fall into the water with my 6630 in the pocket few years ago. Took few minutes before gyus from the boat pulled me back. I took away battery and let it dry (that was evening). Next day I removed covers and keyboard and let it on the sun. In the evening it was working 100%, but for few next days I had strange shadows on the LCD, but then it was over.

My wife managed to leave her S40 (one of the older types) small nokia in her jeans, which she throw into washing maschine. For full cycle ;-) And you know what? After two days on the sun (all what possible was dissasembled), the phone took off smoothly! Works perfect until today.

On the other hand, bit eralier, she answered the call in the tub (nokia 7110) with completely wet hair. Phone got dead. After recovery procedure started, but 0 key never worked again.

P

"This is a bit embarassing, but I have never ever heard of these moisture monitor stickers. :-)

Are they things you add to a phone yourself, or do they come as standard with some devices? I couldn't find one on any of the phones I currently have."

these stickers are put on the phones different parts by the manufacturer (not always visible parts to the final user). the main reason is to identify if the phone was in an environment with too much humidity, which damages the phone and the warranty does not apply to such circumstances. unfortunately the stickers are also identified by service points in cases, when the phone's defect has nothing to do with humidity and in the majority of cases the claims are rejected.

A colleague managed to drop her phone into the toilet for some reason. :rolleyes:

I guess the best thing is prevention. Don't walk around with your phone in your hand. The phone can multitask. YOU CAN NOT! I know this is against popular belief.

You could try washing the phone with demineralized water, but like acolhol it might trigger some chemical reactions and incur more damage.

1) Unscrew as much is possible.
2) Rice is nice, or better yet those nice sillica gel packages you find with your new camera and computer.
3) Stay away from any salt based hygroscopic materials. They could cause shortcircuits.

Good luck.

It's more than likely that the battery will be kaput, but the phone will survive. If it doesn't work, try replacing the battery first!

I am sorry to hear that. When is the funeral for your E71?

I've fixed a number of water damaged Nokia phones so far, all of them mostly 100%.

What I did was disassemble the phone. Normally all you need is a small Torx screwdriver or screwdriver bit, which is not that hard to find at a hardware store.

I normally disassemble the phone up to the point where I have just the PC board with all loose components removed (camera, switches, vibrator, display, etc). I then use 90% rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush to thoroughly clean the board, using lots of rubbing alcohol. The alcohol will displace the water and also evaporate quickly. This may also remove some mineral deposits that may have built up. I also carefully clean the contacts on the display, without submersing it.

This way I have fixed a 6310i, E61 and 6680. Of those, the 6680 was by far the most difficult, as it has a lot of pieces to remove, being a flip phone. Googling for service manuals helped a lot. The candy bar phones are very easy to disassemble. All of the phones were fully submerged (swimming pool, etc). I got to them months afterward and they're all still working fine more than a year after fixing.

Bottom line is - if it's already broken, there's not much to lose to try this :).

I work in flood and fire clean up. The biggest killers of electronics are shorting out when a device that is on comes in contact with water and corrosion caused by what is left on the circuitry after the water has dried (ie minerals). We always dismantle the item, wash with deionised water and dry completely in ovens ( with controlled temp and humidity dependant on the specific item).
Sometimes you can get lucky using other methods, but if you have troubles months later then it is usually due to corrosion from minerals or cleaning chemicals left behind.

As a rule we don't worry about trying to recover phones unless there is something that people really need from them.

I was advised to wash the electronic device with distilled water to minimise corrosion and remove impurities, then allow the device to throughly dry such as in an airing cupboard for a minimum of a week.

I had the misfortune of having the same thing happen to my Nokia N82.
I made the mistake of trying to start my phone immediately after, because I was in such a panic. The display flickered and then went completely blank. After that, I used a hair dryer and attempted to dry it as best as I could, but to no avail.
I then took it in to my friendly neighbourhood phone service guy. (whom I trust more than any official service center btw - Nokia service centers in India inspire ZERO confidence!)
He was the guy who pointed out the moisture monitor sticker (litmus paper) under the battery that does turn a bright red when exposed to water, and also told me that Nokia will refuse to service any phone once the litmus paper has turned red.
Amazingly, he got my phone working and I was able to sell it off the very next day (to someone who had thankfully not heard of bright red moisture monitor stickers!) - Noel

One catch with the E71 is that it is so slim you can forget it is in your pocket, as I did when I took my son into the swimming pool. Two laps later I had the horrifying realisation of where my week-old E71 was. Did the full drill of pulling all the parts out and let it dry in the sun, but no luck. Now I just use it as a spare parts carcass for my wife's E71 ... best of luck for yours.

How did you get on Rafe? Did you manage to get your E71 back to life?

Ahhhhhhhhhh..... nightmare ...... I too have just dropped my BRAND NEW e71 down the loo......

Original guy that posted this thread..... is your phone now working??? I fished it out right away, but my screen is a mess- even after it sitting on the radiator, and my camera flash is just constantly swiched on :( ...... Im gutted ... only got the phone 3 days ago and dont have insurance......

My phone is working fine, though its a bit dented and the camera seems to have suffered a bit.

yesterday i accidentally subjected my e71 to a hot water bath !! - i was zapped - immeadetely took it out, opened it up and instinctively just did all the right things ---- after five hr infront of a blower - i put back the battery - and thank god - it works !!!


i thought i would just see on the net - what could / should have been done - n i m surprised to find a whole club of such people !!!

hows your e71 now?

i dropped mine down the toilet :-(

It still turned on OK, but the voice activation and camera automatically turns on.. it's so annoying as every now and then, the interactive voice says 'no match found'.

i blew dried it n it got pretty hot n smelt funny like as if the circuit blew.

I've taken the battery and sim out now and it's just sitting there, i hope it works OK..

Feeling totally bummed out.

I dropped mine in a disgusting public toilet two days ago, was submerged for about 5 seconds before i freaked out and ripped the battery out haha. didn't even try to turn it on and just let it dry, left it in the sun for an hour this morning. then i tried turning it on, it worked! the screen and everything! i am so so amazed. i reckon it'll be fine, you just gotta let it dry out and put it in rice/silica gel sachets to absorb all the moisture out of the inner mechanisms and you'll be sweet :)

similar situation happened to me. If the phone was off you may have a chance. Take the phone apart as much as you can. Soak the phone in Distilled water. Replace the water a few times. Take th phone out and shake it. Put it in a warm dry place for a few days. Try it. Maybe.

yeah some thing simmilar happen to me. on last saturday it was raining havily and i dont know why i put my E71 under my seat of the Car.. suddenly water level raised on the road and i got stuck in it.. after a few minnuts i found my E71 floating in the water ... :-(.. i quickly remove it from the water and remove the batery and SIM and Memory Card.. and today after 4 days i tried to turn it on .. but it did not turned on.. i think its damaged .. and i dont know wat to do..