The resurrection of (my) BlackBerry.
About three weeks ago I did the unthinkable. I ran my BlackBerry Curve through the wash. I was house-sitting for a friend and using an unfamiliar machine. The disruption in my routine led to a break-down in my usually careful pre-wash check. To add insult to injury, about halfway through the wash cycle, I noticed that the washer water level was set to low. So I set it to high, and added a rinse cycle as well!
By the end of the wash, I began to have that icky feeling that something was wrong. As the washer spun down from its final spin cycle I noticed that my cell phone was nowhere to be found. I realized what I had done.
A frantic Google search for tips to recover from disaster provided discouraging information. Most situations that resulted in complete, extended submersion destroyed the device.
I immediately pulled the battery, and used a blow dryer set to cool to try to dry the phone. Without the tool needed to open the phone, I was unable to completely dry the interior. The next day, a friend suggested that I put the phone in a bag of rice. It seems that rice acts as a desiccant.
After a few days in the rice bag, I installed the battery and turned the phone on. The red power light came on, but nothing else. I decided to try a couple more days in the rice bag, just to be safe. After some more grain assisted drying, I plugged in the charger and powered up the phone. Again, the red LED was the only sign of life.
A couple more days of this and finally success! The backlighting on the screen lit up and the hourglass began to spin. I was elated. Was the phone really coming back to life?!
The answer, no. After a few minutes of spinning, the hourglass faded and the phone turned off. It would not re-start. I figured that by this time the phone was truly toasted. I cancelled the account and put the phone on my dresser.
A couple of weeks went by and I found that I just couldn’t give up on my BlackBerry. The other night, I tried once again to attach the charger and start the phone. The red LED came on, the screen lit up and the little hourglass began to spin. I didn’t get my hopes up as I had been through this before.
My heart leapt when the AT&T logo appeared!
I was sure that the screen would soon fade out as it had before, but after a couple of minutes the AT&T logo gave way to the desktop… or whatever you call the main screen. I tried several functions, audio, contacts, chess app, everything was working except for the camera. The camera app would start, but the view screen would remain black and usually after a few seconds I would get a message saying:
Could not start the camera. Close other applications and try opening the camera again.
I had closed the AT&T account so there is no way to test transmission and reception but everything else seems to be working well. After leaving the phone on all night, the alarm worked and the battery level seems stable.
Will the phone work reliably? I’ll have to wait till next payday before I can re-activate it… I can’t wait to find out.
July 22, 2011 at 5:57 pm
At least it is sort of working.
July 23, 2011 at 12:20 pm
On my next day off I’m gonna trot down to the local AT&T store and activate the account. I won’t really know if the transmitter/receiver is working properly until then. I notice that the audio can be a little crackly but I think I might have some stray rice inside the unit. Thinking that it would help the drying process, I left the back off the phone when I put it in the bag of rice. Of course, rice worked its way inside. So if you ever find yourself needing to try that method, leave the back on. (You probably already figured that out).
July 25, 2011 at 9:25 am
I used to be IT at US Foodservice (food wholesaler to restaurants, hotels, etc.). There was always a salesman bringing in a laptop that got dropped in a sink, left in a freezer, left on a stove and so on. We’d do the same… put it in a room with some fans, turn off the AC to that room, and let the warm air dry it out.
The rice trick was for when a device got really soaked… same room and fans but put the rice & laptop in a vegetable bag (the kind with the little micro holes all over)… so the rice draws the moisture (like you did), but the moisture can escape the bag through the micro holes (this is how vegetable bags keep veggies from spoiling too quick in the fridge).
The tough ones were the laptops that would melt on the stoves.
July 26, 2011 at 2:39 pm
If laptop melted on the stove, couldn’t you just cover it in baking soda and set it in a tub of ice? I ran outta cash before making it to the phone store this week so it’ll be next payday before I can find out for sure if the BB is really back from the dead. The alarm goes off every day, but it’s got an little crackle to it. I think there is some rice still inside. Hopefully the store will loan me the little tool that I can use to open it up and shake the last rice bits out of it.
July 27, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Well we had thousands of laptops, so ones left on a stove we would pull the hard drive… if it worked, we would put it in another laptop. If it didn’t work, then recover what we could, pull an image profile off the server, rebuild a new image for another laptop, and then re-issue the new laptop to the salesperson.
Might not be whole kernels in your phone, but bits and powder. If they can get in, they can come out… try using a vacuum around the opening and ports. Could also be the phone lived, but components… like the speaker, etc. are damaged but not dead.
July 28, 2011 at 1:10 am
Thanks for the vacuuming tip. I’ll give that a shot. I do notice a high frequency whine/squeal sometimes when the alarm goes off so possible damage to the audio circuits. I’m suprised it works at all. I didn’t think you could partially damage circuits like that. Part of me says to just get a new phone, and part of me is curious to see if it still works. Of course, if I do keep it and it works I’d have a heck of a story to tell the “kids.”