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Hi! So, I have an iphone 5. I took it with me to kayaking in the lake and wanted to take pictures with it. Unfortunately the sealed bag I put the phone in was not perfectly sealed so water went it and the phone got water damaged. I dried it immediately when I took the phone out and then put in rice. After 24 hours, I bought some tools and opened the phone, brushed the logic board and all connections with 91% alcohol. The logic board does not look corroded at all. It looks pretty. After that, the phone worked perfectly! I also had an incoming phone call right after that and it worked just perfect. All apps seemed working fine as well. However, then I was too excited and was stupid enough to plug the phone into the charger… After 2 minutes est, the phone shut down and I immediately unplugged the phone. After all that, the phone won’t turn on and whenever connected to charger, it starts flashing screen with apple logo. When I connect it to my Mac, the screen starts to flash and iTunes will recognize my phone whenever the phone is in restoration mode. Now I am getting a new battery for this phone and hope it’s the battery that is fried. I really hope the logic board still works. Any suggestions? What exactly happened? I will appreciate any help!!!!
Doris Peng, start off with a new battery as planned. Sounds like your attempt to charge it may have shorted something out. Battery first, then Lightning Connector, re-evaluate after each step. Make sure that you cleaned your phones logic board properly and do not forget to remove the EMI shields. You will get water under those which will cause corrosion damage later on. Hope this helps, good luck
Hi Doris, water damaged batteries are useless and dangerous. While you wait, you can take the battery out of your phone completely, and see if it has the same behavior—my guess is that it will. iPhones aren’t that great at deriving enough power from the usb cable alone to start and function normally—but they sure like to try—this is your explanation for the flashing logo and other behavior you are seeing. i would follow the advice already given here—new battery, if not solved then new dock connector, if not solved send out for board-level repair. You won’t be able to desolder the shields–that is not DIY work, very very very easy to damage component along the edge of the board. Whenever the board has visible corrosion at all, I would say desoldering the shields is a must. In your case, you got the board cleaned with alcohol fairly quickly—the 24hr in rice is an unfortunate delay….do spread the word to help us debunk this myth. You may be okay if you pop the board in alcohol while you wait for that new battery—or not. no way to know. Water damage has a tendency to be very hit or miss—the phone i took apart last night had a pristine looking surface, very light water damage, but no display. I desoldered a shield and the backlight coil underneath was as green as kermit the frog. If you end up needing help with your board-level stuff, feel free to give me a shout. jessa
Hi Doris the emi shields can’t be removed in the iPhone 5 unless they are cut or soldered off
