Mobile phone gone for a swim? Here is how to fix.

Not recommended

Thanks to our  guest contributer Mr. Dudley Reese for his continued investigations into the merits of  isopropyl alcohol.

Our intrepid engineer, Dudley  has been putting more of his electronic equipment through hell lately. You may remember his previous antics with coffee over his laptop.

The latest troubles involve a couple of mobile phones and his houses water feature – a 0.5 M deep pond

Dudley writes:

You might want to keep the isopropyl in mind for one other quick fix.

I managed to drop both my cell phones in the ~0.5 meter deep fish pond. The one came back to life after drying for one day but the second was being quite recalcitrant.  After 2 weeks it was almost working in that it would start and function but would then turn itself off after 10 seconds to 10 minutes. No means of drying it including removing the cover it and placing it in the hot sun would improve that time period. Out of desperation and the thought that there might be some salts dried in the wrong place and shorting it out, I filled a glass with isopropyl and gave the dismantled cell phone an alcohol bath for 30 seconds swishing vigorously.

After one hour I put the cover back on and hit the on button. The phone immediately came to life and has run continuously for two days straight. OK, the display LCD initially had this strange translucent appearance followed by a mottled look as it completed drying but it worked and now it looks quite normal.

I am almost tempted to give the first phone the bath also in case there is still some dirt inside that will cause future issues.  I am a glutton for punishment.

Keep up the good work dudley and do keep us informed!