So I accidentally put an open water bottle in my bag while my tablet was in there, LCD was unfortunately flooded, but I ordered a replacement screen and it arrived today. Though opening up the tablet I found water droplets throughout, so I removed every part meticulously to put in rice or something and noted any current corrosion I had to remove with a q tip.
My question is this. As soon as I opened it up I noticed the water very quickly evaporating. I actually can’t see any more now. Anyone who does mobile device repairs, what do you think? Could I skip the deep-dry? I looked at all the components and none of them have any parts that could have trapped water that I missed and I don’t really look forward to cleaning the entire thing of starch ( though I do just have silica beads but let’s stay on topic)
Am I right to feel confident about the dryness of the components? Let me know!
The motherboard can be cleaned with a generous amount of isopropyl alcohol. It cleans slightly corroded areas, displaces water, is not a good conductor of electricity and evaporates easily.
You ordered a replacement screen and wait for it to arrive before even opening the device? Why?
Removing corrosion means it will be harder to see where the damage is.
Next time:
- Open as soon as ASAP possible!
- Disconnect battery.
- Let it dry. No rice or dog shit or whatever. Proper desiccant or nothing.
- Reconnect battery and test.
- Win or start debugging.
- Fix it
- Remove corrosion when everything works only now - unless you expect it to cause the issue, then at least document it before cleaning.
Making a few assumptions here,
-
I hadn’t thought about it, but the device worked and the screen clearly had liquid trapped between the layers. So once I saw that I turned it off, and ordered a new screen, because believe it or not, desiccant doesn’t do jack for a waterlogged LCD.
-
I said “noted” corrosion, not that I went ahead and removed it
-
Don’t put any rice near it. Use the silica bags.
Alright, and what about the not seeing any moisture?
You can’t see under the chips, my guy. Put it in a warm place or with silica bags as suggested and let it dry for safety.
Alright I won’t take the risk then, I’ll take a look at it with the video microscope to look for corrosion then toss the components in a silica bag
Rice is bad because it doesnt actually absorb much moisture and can cause mold growth
Better to put it in front of a fan to add air circulation and maybe warm it a bit (i.e. near ish to a heater but not on it)
I didn’t know this, thank you for the info