[frostyrice]

As in introduction, I recently dropped my phone in the toilet, and like many others, the blackberry began to fail.
SYMPTOMS: As i pulled the bb out of the toilet, the screen was flickering so i quickly yanked out the battery out, and patted it down with a towel. I left the blackberry in a sealed container of rice for about 3 days. When i finally plugged it in, the dreaded red light began went on and blinked. Nothing else worked. I've played with the battery and the charger and must've plugged it in over 100 times, with the same result- the red light. If many of the posts i've read were true, my blackberry should've been blown out by now. The next day, i slipped the battery in, and VOILA, the blackberry powered on. But within the next hour, the screen started flickering until it flickered to nothing. The back light was dead. The blackberry was still functioning at 100 percent, except for the backlight, thus i couldn't see where i was navigating unless i had a flashlight or external light source. Many posts I've read said that the lcd screen's backlight must've blown. I know a thing or two about electronics and I wasn't convinced.
So i disassembled the blackberry down to its bones. I took 70% isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) with qtips and swabbed the whole circuit board down, including all connections. I removed the lcd screen the plug and swabbed the insides of both connections. Plugged the battery in and tested the blackberry, and the backlight flickered on for half a millisecond. Thats when i knew for sure nothing was 'blown out' I repeated this process about 5 times, scrubbing and swabbing with the qtip anything gold (copper connections?) each time, the flickering got better, until eventually, the light stayed on constant. BLACKBERRY REVIVED.

To sum up this long post, if you dropped your blackberry in water and you really want to save it- pull out the batter as soon as you can. Disassemble the blackberry fully, and let it sit in the rice for a couple of days. Then swab everything down with rubbing alcohol. (use common sense) even if your screen is black, don't lose hope and keep swabbing all electrical connections.

I'm sure there are a handful of people with 'dead' blackberry's lying around that can still be revived with this method.

Much love,
Frostyrice, contributing back to the community.
Feel free to ask any questions.

[Kepeli]

Great post! It never ceases to amaze me the lengths we Crackberryheads go through for our Blackberries. It's no mere device, it's family!

[sedalia066]

Great story. Amazing how tolerant BB's are.

I hope never to have your experience but it is good to know there is always hope.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[xdr0x]

I love my BB, aren't they great? Congratulations on bringing her back to life...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[eschielke]

Almost like blackberry ER! Glad to hear your got your BB back up and running!

[robit79]

This post is giving me hope for my wife's BB. We found it outside this morning. She dropped it as we ran from the car to the house. It was raining and it rained all night. My da tried to call her phone to see if it still worked. I yelled not to and pulled the battery out. It was functioning at the time and said there was a missed call. It has been in a ziplock bag with rice for a few hours now. I am going to keep it there for atleast another day.