How to fix an iPhone... With water damage!

[palmertech]

I hope this is an ok forum for this.

I just got a free iphone 4gb, 1g(2g) from someone who got it from someone who thought it could not be fixed! Yayz!

Apparently, the phone was in a shallow puddle for a few seconds, then never worked again. The water sensor in the headphone jack shows white, so in theory, it could not have been all that bad.

I have dis-assembled the unit, and found the connectors on the logic board (Freaky little 2 sided buggers, I believe they are much like the wii DVD drive connector cable. May be wrong here, I can find pics if needed) have quite a bit of corrosion on them.

How should I go about cleaning them? I do not want to bend the wee little pins out of shape, but need to get the crusty stuff off. Any ideas for a solvent that would work well?

[Bibin]

Trade it for my Zire 71

In reality, take an old plastic thing like a credit card and gently but firmly scrape away the corrosion.

[grahf]

You need acetone (nail polish remover), and a soft fine tip tooth brush. Be careful not to get the acetone on plastic, as it will melt the softer stuff. Also, be sure you buy pure acetone. If you buy nail polish remover, some of the expensive ones include crap to keep your nails shiny, which you don't want.

[Mohulis]

How should I go about cleaning them? I do not want to bend the wee little pins out of shape, but need to get the crusty stuff off. Any ideas for a solvent that would work well?

In my experience thermal paste remover/purifier also works well to clean corrosion. On PCB I just put a drop or two of remover and use a toothbrush, then the purifier with PCB wipes or a lint free cloth. For the ribbon I would not use a toothbrush but maybe just the remover and PCB wipe/lint free cloth and be gentle.

Might be able to find it cheaper, but I just grabbed a quick link to show what I was talking about:

http://www.amazon.com/ArctiClean-kit-60 ... 228&sr=8-1

EDIT: Would be interested to hear whether or not you get this working. =D

[Rekarp]

The best way?

Soak the phone (remove battery) in +90% rubbing alcohol for 12 hours. Scrub the corrosion with a tooth brush rinsing with rubbing alcohol. Let it dry for +24 hours preferably in a warm, dry area.

This is the typical way to revive electronics after water damage. Hopefully your will come back to life.

[palmertech]

Thanks for the tip on thermal paste remover!

I have done all the things you said, Rekarp, as soon as I got the phone. I pinpointed the problem: A few pins on the screen connector were simply corroded away. I tried soldering to the ribbon, but some of the traces are on an inner layer, so that was a no-go.

Bibin wants to trade a decent laptop for it, so I will probably end up doing that (I told him it is probably unfixable, so my obligation is filled. )

Thanks for the help!