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Hi,
Water got into my S20 ultra.
After drying it out and removing the back cover, I tried to turn it on and was getting no screen boot up but the vibration on start up.
I then disassembled and dropped the motherboard about 9 inches onto a wood surface.
I have replaced the ribbon cables and battery and now nothing, not even the vibrate. I'd like to recover some data from it. Any thoughts?
Thanks
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Hi @mattb38390
With a water damaged phone do not try to charge or to turn it on and then remove the battery as soon as possible to minimize any further damage.
The impurities in the water causes corrosion and provides circuit paths for the electricity which were not in the phone's operating design and could damage the components. The corrosion starts immediately and is ongoing until it is completely cleaned away
You need to dis-assemble the rest of the phone and clean all the affected parts using Isopropyl Alcohol 99%+ (available at electronics parts stores) to remove all traces of corrosion and water. If possible do not use "rubbing alcohol" as in some cases this is only 70% IPA or less, can contain additives which may leave conductive residues and is not as effective. If you do have to use it check the label to verify the amount of IPA. The higher the percentage of IPA the better
Here is a links that describes what happens.Electronics Water Damage
As always with electronics, especially surface mounted pcb be gentle when handling and especially when brushing away the corrosion. You do not want to remove any components from the board. Remove the shields that may be covering some components as the water may have got in under there. The ends of any flex cables and their connectors need to be cleaned as well
Hopefully after you have done all this the phone might possibly work correctly again but given that the systemboard has been dropped then most probably not.
Here is the Sm G988 Troubleshooting|troubleshooting guide] that may help.
Start on p.14 (of 53 pdf) Sect. 8-4-1. Power on and follow the flowchart and see how far you get. Given that it did vibrate before without a display it seems that you may have to replace the screen first and then continue further. Search online for GH96-13053A to find LCD suppliers that suit you best.
Use the search function of your browser (Ctrl + f ?) to find the location of the components mentioned in the flowchart on the board layout diagrams in the guide. You will have to zoom in a lot 400% - 500% to see them
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Many thanks for taking the time to reply. I have cleaned it with IPA, fully dried it and like I said did accidentally drop the MB from about 9 inches. Prior to that it was vibrating on power on. I should have done hard power on with volume down at that point.
I have inspected the pcb under magnification but am no expert. There's no obvious damage I can see.
Probably an insurance job now. Just lost a years worth of photos via Google Photos for some reason.
I may have another clean session but probably damaged a component when I dropped the MB.
Thanks
No photos backed up to the cloud?
Hi.
Yes, 8 years worth on the Google cloud but the last 1 year isn't there and all my sms threads. Everything else was saved via logging into my Google account.
I'm in touch with Google One CS now. Hopefully they can help.
Thanks
Hi,
There was a ribbon connectir disconnected from the rear of the camera assembly. It is now vibrating on power on, but screen is dead.
I guess I'll need a replacement digitizer, but will do some more research.
Thanks
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