Urgent iPhone Help!

[jfontestad]

I recently bought and iPhone 3GS and after 11 or 12 days of having it, i dropped it down the toilet. I dried it out as much as possible and tried turning it on (Not knowing it was the worst thing to do). I then checked to water sensor in the headphone slot and there was a pink stripe. Warranty gone. I later did some research on what to do and found that putting it in rice was a popular and successful thing to do. So i gave it a go.

3 days of drying out in the rice I checked to see if it would boot, each time it failed. It just got stuck on the Apple logo screen and never reached the home screen. I attempted a restore, all went well. iTunes stated the phone was restarting; the screen went black then went black and then to the Apple logo, normal for an iPhone or iPod touch to do when restarting. But it never reached the home screen, it would just stay on the Apple logo screen and sometimes would be joined by the Loading circle. After that it resets and starts up with the Apple logo, then the loading circle, then resets.

Strangely iTunes was able to detect the phone, back it up and sync it. I could access and view all the files on my phone but the phone it self was stuck on the Apple logo screen.

I restored to 4.1 and even restored to 4.0.1 . For some reason it loads fine, but just can't get me to the home screen.

So I thought i should leave the phone in rice for a further 6 days to dry out more and see whether it would change. Nothing did. I repeated everything i had tried and nothing would changed .


Can anyone help me?

[i.Annie]

Might have some water and mineral residue causing issues. Try getting as close to 100% isopropyl alcohol (I got 99% off Amazon for $10) and submersible your phone into it. The alcohol won't cause damage to the phone and it will wash out all the residue. Let it sit in rice over night after and try again. It worked for me. Got a ton of water in my other phone and put it into the alcohol for 10-15 min then let it sit in silica gel for three days. Rice is fine too but silica gel is faster as it is made to suck moisture. Theyll both draw the moisture (alcohol+residue) out of the phone. It took mine an entire week to dry completely but just over night to see improvement. So try that out. Maybe leave it in rice/silica gel for 2-3 days just to be safe.

Edit: DO NOT settle for the iso alcohol you can get at the pharmacy. The highest they usually carry is 70% and that means 30% is water. Too much water in my opinion. Probably would damage your phone more. Be sure to get as close to 100% as possible. 97%+ is a good number but nothing lower.

[jfontestad]

@Annie423: I hope that you're right... LoL... I had some 95% Isopropyl Alcohol in my cabinet, so I used it. It's been sitting in there for about 5 min. now. I must admit I am kind of skeptical about throwing my phone into a liquid (again), but what other choice do I have?

Well I'm hoping for the best! Any other suggestions feel free to let them be known.

Thank You.

[i.Annie]

Well 95% isn't bad I've just always used 99% to be safe. The alcohol won't damage your phone any more so it won't hurt to try again. Leave it in for 15 minutes at least to make sure it's completely submerged into the phone. If that doesn't work you might consider bleaching the indicator (that's what I did just to make myself feel better about the pink lol). Try taking it to the Apple store then and hope they don't open it up to look for more signs if water damage :P

[MikeThomson]

there are 4 water damage strips one in the headphone jack one in the bottom connection and two inside the phone

also if you want something that will absorb water 10x better then rice, calcium chloride is what they use in products like D A M P R I D - The Original Non-Electric Moisture Absorber.. ive also seen one called humidity magnet, basically the same thing. you can get them at most hardware stores, just ask where the dehumidifiers are