[kellmike626]

My friend recently gave me his Blackberry Bold 9900 for parts. He dropped it in a bucket of water.

He did try rice to get the water out of the internals. He left it in the rice for 3 days, took it out, put the battery in, and nothing. No LED, no activity at all.

He didn't want to be bothered with it, so he gave it to me after he got another phone. I haven't touched it yet, but my plan is to purchase 99% alcohol, open the phone up, and clean up the internals, connections, and contacts. Then, put the components and rice for a couple days (disassembled), afterwards put it back together, and hope for the best.

Do I have any chance with that method? I did look at a few threads where people have successfully revived their blackberry devices from water damage, but their devices show some kind of activity before attempting those steps, and this one is completely dead. So could that mean the motherboard is gone on this one?

Any input would be great. Worst case, I got a bold for parts

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[Schufly]

good luck, keep us posted. It's a crap shoot really. He may have borkedit for good.

[sirk25]

As already said, good luck. If it was me, (from experience) I'd take the phone apart to dry the internals. (Its amazing how much water can get inside and stay there) you can use the alcohol to clean the inside but in my mind, not a good idea to put the components in rice on their own and exposed. A few reasons..... If you've taken the phone apart and dissassembled it to dry the internals, rice will not make it any dryer. #2, rice can leave residue or dust on the bare components and it that doesn't play well with delicate circuitry. You want the inside to be as clean as possible. Try a silica pack if you want to.
With that said, sounds like you have nothing to lose to try. At least you will get to play around with the device. So good luck. Although it does sound that it may have been tried to be powered up already while it was still wet and that's how you know nothing works, damage could be irreversible at that point with a major component failure.
Like I said, to be sure to get all the moisture out of the device, it needs to be taken apart and dried. After dropping mine in the toilet, I did this, re assembled and it worked flawlessly with in hours. Only thing I didn't do was try to power it up until I knew it was completely dry.
Keep us posted. I'm curious how you make out.

[kellmike626]

Thanks for the responses.

I will follow the advice you gave. Like you said, I have nothing to lose. In a way, I'm thinking its a lost cause since it is completely dead already, but you never know I guess. I already have a bold 9900 so it would be handy to keep some of the parts like the housing in case I bang mine up.

I'm pretty handy with electronics, however I wasn't too familiar with the whole rice thing (ive never attempted to revive a water damaged phone before) and wasnt sure if it would be best to put the components in individually, or when the phone is completely assembled.

In that case, disassemble the phone, clean with alcohol (I'm not dunking it in, ill be using q-tips), let everything air dry for 24-48 hours (maybe longer), reassemble, then hope for the best.

I will keep you guys posted. I'm just waiting on the alcohol and waiting for my other friend to bring me back my torx screwdriver set

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