i9505 failed digitizer - seeking help, pls - GSM-Forum

Dan623 · 01-12-2015, 12:26

Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum so please go easy on me

Background:
I have an i9505 that went for a swim in sea water a week or so ago. I was extremely fortunate that it happened at night, off the back of the boat and whilst we were crabbing. Fortunate? Yes ...

The phone was powered-up when it took it's gold-medal winning dive. The message indicator LED kept flashing (making it visible under water) - almost flashing Morse code for 'help me!!'. After about 2M of depth, the screen lit up. It appeared a light blue but impossible to tell exactly due to hue of the sea water. The fortunate part was that as it was so lit up, I was able to catch it in a crab net!

I immediately removed the battery, SD card and SIM and tried to dry it out as best as possible with the limited resources I had on the boat.

Once I returned home, I benched the phone and stripped it down as much as possible. The sea water had certainly taken it's toll with light corrosion littered throughout. I thoroughly cleaned all connections, components etc, reconnected and the little beauty powered-up like nothing had happened! The message LED even winked at me as if to say "thanks!"
Bluetooth is fine, WiFi is fine, I can call the phone and PC connection works fine (though limited as the phone has a passcode that I can not get past due to a dodgy digitizer). All good except ...

Issue:
The digitizer is now non-responsive. Assuming, and hoping, that the screen/digitizer assembly was at fault, I tested it using my Wife's i9505. Unfortunately, the digitizer and screen from the deep-sea diving phone was fine and the digitizer from my Wife's phone is non-functional on the deep-sea diving motherboard.

It would appear that the issue lies somewhere on the motherboard.

I have since successfully installed CWM Recovery and have a complete backup of the phone, ready to upload on my un-suspecting Wife's phone. I'm already rehearsing the "Sorry, honey. Your phone is toast. Better get your old one out" speech

Questions:
Has anyone experienced a similar issue with the digitizer and/or does anyone have any suggestions as to where to investigate? Schematics?

Thanks for reading my post and I look forward to any responses.
Thanks also to Samsung for a great product. I had zero expectations of being able to get the phone anywhere near to the state it is in now!

Cheers!
Dan.

01-12-2015, 12:26	#1 (permalink)
Dan623 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 1 Member: 2325974 Status: Offline Thanks Meter: 0	i9505 failed digitizer - seeking help, pls Hi all, This is my first post on this forum so please go easy on me Background: I have an i9505 that went for a swim in sea water a week or so ago. I was extremely fortunate that it happened at night, off the back of the boat and whilst we were crabbing. Fortunate? Yes ... The phone was powered-up when it took it's gold-medal winning dive. The message indicator LED kept flashing (making it visible under water) - almost flashing Morse code for 'help me!!'. After about 2M of depth, the screen lit up. It appeared a light blue but impossible to tell exactly due to hue of the sea water. The fortunate part was that as it was so lit up, I was able to catch it in a crab net! I immediately removed the battery, SD card and SIM and tried to dry it out as best as possible with the limited resources I had on the boat. Once I returned home, I benched the phone and stripped it down as much as possible. The sea water had certainly taken it's toll with light corrosion littered throughout. I thoroughly cleaned all connections, components etc, reconnected and the little beauty powered-up like nothing had happened! The message LED even winked at me as if to say "thanks!" Bluetooth is fine, WiFi is fine, I can call the phone and PC connection works fine (though limited as the phone has a passcode that I can not get past due to a dodgy digitizer). All good except ... Issue: The digitizer is now non-responsive. Assuming, and hoping, that the screen/digitizer assembly was at fault, I tested it using my Wife's i9505. Unfortunately, the digitizer and screen from the deep-sea diving phone was fine and the digitizer from my Wife's phone is non-functional on the deep-sea diving motherboard. It would appear that the issue lies somewhere on the motherboard. I have since successfully installed CWM Recovery and have a complete backup of the phone, ready to upload on my un-suspecting Wife's phone. I'm already rehearsing the "Sorry, honey. Your phone is toast. Better get your old one out" speech Questions: Has anyone experienced a similar issue with the digitizer and/or does anyone have any suggestions as to where to investigate? Schematics? Thanks for reading my post and I look forward to any responses. Thanks also to Samsung for a great product. I had zero expectations of being able to get the phone anywhere near to the state it is in now! Cheers! Dan.