Accidentally turned iPhone 5c on during repair - GSM-Forum

Jackcrawf3 · 01-03-2015, 02:42

Hey, this is my first time performing a (sort of) iPhone repair, after my mother recently somehow accidentally lost her 5c in the bottom of a bucket of water for a week. It was a long story.

Anyway, I wanted to open the case to help drain the remaining water out and clear away a little bit of the rust and residue from the water (it wasn't clean.)

I didn't/don't expect the phone to actually work after all it's been through but just wanted to try it incase.

I gave the phone time to dry, did what I wanted to do, and right before I reattached the old screen, I accidentally hit the power button.
I wasn't exactly sure what to do at this point, and figured the phone wouldn't have even turned on anyway, so I attempted to connect the screen back into the body with the three connector plugs, but as the first plug makes contact with the connector I can hear a faint "tick" sort of sound (which sounds electrical, it's not just the sound of the metals touching.)

I am the world's biggest idiot, what do I do?
Is there anything I can do besides for waiting for the battery to run out? (It was fully charged when she lost it, but that was 6 days ago, yet I'm not sure if much battery would have been consumed while the phone was assumedly turned off at the bottom of a bucket of water.)

please help, and thankyou.

I searched all over before I decided to make this post and the most I could see was somebody saying that they managed to break their phone trying to operate on it after accidentally turning it on. Which isn't encouraging.

PappaBaer2002 · 01-06-2015, 11:53

Hi,

do I understand right that the phone was laying in water over a couple of days?

If yes, I would say, the battery is dead anyway.
What you have to do is to disassemble the phone and in first step clean the whole logic board with isopropylalcohol. If you've got a ultrasonic cleaner use it. Also use a smooth brush to carefully clean the board. Don't forget to unsolder the EMI-shields first so you can clean every area.
The second step is to observe the logic board under a microscope and look for corrosion. Then you have to resolder every corroded solder point.
What you can't see at this point is corrosion under the ic's but when you finished this step you can use a multimeter in diode mode to test if there is a short at the battery connector. If not you can try to power on the phone with a fresh new battery. Don't even think about reusing the old battery! If you observe a short at the battery connector you have a lot of diagnostic work to do and I doubt you have the experience in doing that. Am I right?

Good luck.

Regards,
Torsten

Jackcrawf3 · 01-06-2015, 12:14

Hey Torsten, thanks for your response!

Yeah, the phone was in a bucket of water for about 6 days
I ended up giving up after about 2 days and just trying the phone out and to a lack of surprise, absolutely nothing happened. Cheers for your detailed explanation, but that sort of process sounds way too precise, skilled (and time-consuming) for me to execute so I'm just going to try locate a place I can sell what's left of the thing for scrap (I think the screen is still perfectly fine, and some other components probably are too.)

I'll call that the resolution to this thread, thanks again

Jack

01-03-2015, 02:42	#1 (permalink)
Jackcrawf3 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 2 Member: 2321511 Status: Offline Thanks Meter: 0	Accidentally turned iPhone 5c on during repair Hey, this is my first time performing a (sort of) iPhone repair, after my mother recently somehow accidentally lost her 5c in the bottom of a bucket of water for a week. It was a long story. Anyway, I wanted to open the case to help drain the remaining water out and clear away a little bit of the rust and residue from the water (it wasn't clean.) I didn't/don't expect the phone to actually work after all it's been through but just wanted to try it incase. I gave the phone time to dry, did what I wanted to do, and right before I reattached the old screen, I accidentally hit the power button. I wasn't exactly sure what to do at this point, and figured the phone wouldn't have even turned on anyway, so I attempted to connect the screen back into the body with the three connector plugs, but as the first plug makes contact with the connector I can hear a faint "tick" sort of sound (which sounds electrical, it's not just the sound of the metals touching.) I am the world's biggest idiot, what do I do? Is there anything I can do besides for waiting for the battery to run out? (It was fully charged when she lost it, but that was 6 days ago, yet I'm not sure if much battery would have been consumed while the phone was assumedly turned off at the bottom of a bucket of water.) please help, and thankyou. I searched all over before I decided to make this post and the most I could see was somebody saying that they managed to break their phone trying to operate on it after accidentally turning it on. Which isn't encouraging.

01-06-2015, 11:53	#2 (permalink)
PappaBaer2002 Crazy Poster Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 51 Member: 2110377 Status: Offline Thanks Meter: 5	Hi, do I understand right that the phone was laying in water over a couple of days? If yes, I would say, the battery is dead anyway. What you have to do is to disassemble the phone and in first step clean the whole logic board with isopropylalcohol. If you've got a ultrasonic cleaner use it. Also use a smooth brush to carefully clean the board. Don't forget to unsolder the EMI-shields first so you can clean every area. The second step is to observe the logic board under a microscope and look for corrosion. Then you have to resolder every corroded solder point. What you can't see at this point is corrosion under the ic's but when you finished this step you can use a multimeter in diode mode to test if there is a short at the battery connector. If not you can try to power on the phone with a fresh new battery. Don't even think about reusing the old battery! If you observe a short at the battery connector you have a lot of diagnostic work to do and I doubt you have the experience in doing that. Am I right? Good luck. Regards, Torsten

01-06-2015, 12:14	#3 (permalink)
Jackcrawf3 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 2 Member: 2321511 Status: Offline Thanks Meter: 0	Hey Torsten, thanks for your response! Yeah, the phone was in a bucket of water for about 6 days I ended up giving up after about 2 days and just trying the phone out and to a lack of surprise, absolutely nothing happened. Cheers for your detailed explanation, but that sort of process sounds way too precise, skilled (and time-consuming) for me to execute so I'm just going to try locate a place I can sell what's left of the thing for scrap (I think the screen is still perfectly fine, and some other components probably are too.) I'll call that the resolution to this thread, thanks again Jack