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Sorry to drag up an old post, but....
My wife's Curve 8330 was not responding to key presses. The only thing that did work was the track ball. The problem started when a waitress accidentally dumped some brine water from a plate of what were delicious raw oysters on her phone. We immediately pulled the battery, tapped the phone, and blew on it to remove as much moisture as possible. Despite this the phone started locking up more frequently over the last couple of weeks. We were mislead as to what the real problem was because my wife, whom is addicted to themes, seemed to make the phone lock up every time a theme with an animated "hourglass" was activated. A battery pull usually fixed the problem. Tonight it stopped responding to anything except the movement of the trackball. On one restart the phone did give me a whole screen of 4 and 1's though. That got me to thinking about a solution. So I figured I would try fixing the phone myself before spending the money for replacement. We had nothing to lose: I had a non-working phone and the phone was purchased from an individual on craigslist.com about a year ago. Therefore it had no warranty or chance of repair/replacement from Sprint.
Ok, now that the long background is done here's what I did to fix her phone......
I tore down the phone until I had nothing but the main board of the phone left. Then I carefully peeled back the white membrane for the keyboard. I was surprised to see how much "nastiness" there was under that piece of plastic that is supposedly sealed. I could see an especially large area where the "oyster juice" had gotten under the membrane and caused some corrosion around the 4 and 1 button contacts. This lead me to believe that I may actually be able to correct the problem.
I thoroughly cleaned the contact areas and the back of the keyboard membrane with a cotton swab soaked in isopropyl alcohol. When I was sure all of the corrosion and dirt were removed I gave the phone a few minutes of drying time. Last, I put everything back together and tested the phone. So far everything appears to work fine.
Some things I learned:
- There is an additional moisture indicator on the keyboard membrane just below the trackball. It was pink and had obviously seem moisture. (Those sure were some good oysters, the beer was good too
If you are ever in Virginia Beach you must check out Regal Beagle at 17th and Mediterranean.)
- A clean dust free environment is a MAJOR help when it comes to keeping the screen dust and scratch free when re-assembling the phone.
- Be very careful when pulling the membrane from the keyboard because it does stretch easily and may not go back in place.
After doing what was hopefully a successful repair on my wife's phone I am left with some concerns. How soon before something like this happens again? We love oysters and beer so that could potentially open us up for some risk, but in all seriousness....
If someone exercising or doing any type of labor was to sweat excessively then put the phone in a pocket they could have the same type of problem because there is not a good seal between the main housing and the internals. Sweat could easily get in to the phone and cause the same type of corrosion that brine from the oysters caused for us.
The disclaimer:
I am not a phone repair person. I dont have any certifications. I dont work at any major cell phone manufacturer or retailer. So please don't take this post as a qualified recommendation or instruction on phone repair. Now, if you want to send me a phone to "play with" along with a few dollars and not expect anything in return I might be able to help out. Who knows you might actually get a working phone back in the mail a day, or two, or a year later.Last edited by stormyva; 09-25-09 at 10:27 PM.
09-25-09 09:59 PM - Sorry to drag up an old post, but....
My wife's Curve 8330 was not responding to key presses. The only thing that did work was the track ball. The problem started when a waitress accidentally dumped some brine water from a plate of what were delicious raw oysters on her phone. We immediately pulled the battery, tapped the phone, and blew on it to remove as much moisture as possible. Despite this the phone started locking up more frequently over the last couple of weeks. We were mislead as to what the real problem was because my wife, whom is addicted to themes, seemed to make the phone lock up every time a theme with an animated "hourglass" was activated. A battery pull usually fixed the problem. Tonight it stopped responding to anything except the movement of the trackball. On one restart the phone did give me a whole screen of 4 and 1's though. That got me to thinking about a solution. So I figured I would try fixing the phone myself before spending the money for replacement. We had nothing to lose: I had a non-working phone and the phone was purchased from an individual on craigslist.com about a year ago. Therefore it had no warranty or chance of repair/replacement from Sprint.
Ok, now that the long background is done here's what I did to fix her phone......
I tore down the phone until I had nothing but the main board of the phone left. Then I carefully peeled back the white membrane for the keyboard. I was surprised to see how much "nastiness" there was under that piece of plastic that is supposedly sealed. I could see an especially large area where the "oyster juice" had gotten under the membrane and caused some corrosion around the 4 and 1 button contacts. This lead me to believe that I may actually be able to correct the problem.
I thoroughly cleaned the contact areas and the back of the keyboard membrane with a cotton swab soaked in isopropyl alcohol. When I was sure all of the corrosion and dirt were removed I gave the phone a few minutes of drying time. Last, I put everything back together and tested the phone. So far everything appears to work fine.
Some things I learned:
- There is an additional moisture indicator on the keyboard membrane just below the trackball. It was pink and had obviously seem moisture. (Those sure were some good oysters, the beer was good too If you are ever in Virginia Beach you must check out Regal Beagle at 17th and Mediterranean.)
- A clean dust free environment is a MAJOR help when it comes to keeping the screen dust and scratch free when re-assembling the phone.
- Be very careful when pulling the membrane from the keyboard because it does stretch easily and may not go back in place.
After doing what was hopefully a successful repair on my wife's phone I am left with some concerns. How soon before something like this happens again? We love oysters and beer so that could potentially open us up for some risk, but in all seriousness....
If someone exercising or doing any type of labor was to sweat excessively then put the phone in a pocket they could have the same type of problem because there is not a good seal between the main housing and the internals. Sweat could easily get in to the phone and cause the same type of corrosion that brine from the oysters caused for us.
The disclaimer:
I am not a phone repair person. I dont have any certifications. I dont work at any major cell phone manufacturer or retailer. So please don't take this post as a qualified recommendation or instruction on phone repair. Now, if you want to send me a phone to "play with" along with a few dollars and not expect anything in return I might be able to help out. Who knows you might actually get a working phone back in the mail a day, or two, or a year later.
Just wanted to say that I have a BlackBerry Curve 8310 that was having the same non responding keys issue. Mine did not have liquid damage but was doing the same thing! As you stated, when out of warranty and will NOT work you basically have a brick or a paperweight...so, with that being said...we followed your directions on the taking completely apart and using a cotton swab with alcohol to thoroughly clean everything. THIS REALLY DOES WORK!!! Thank you SO much for this post!! After trying everything else like removing battery and sim card several times, upgrading the software...you name it...THIS WORKED WHEN ALL THE OTHER DID NOT and the phone is still working! THANKS AGAIN!!10-31-09 06:41 AM - I did the same thing before I read this post. The membrane is improperly and insufficiently adhered to the pcb AS MANUFACTURED (READ: POORLY DESIGNED.) the 6 keyboard backlit leds that protrude through the white membrane are the reason for water actually causing damage. The circuit is basically a bunch of contact dots, concentric rings, and finally perimeters. when water breaches the membrane it bridges a combination of these three distinct leads.
You must determine the source of the breach. This should be tarnished looking corrosion. IF cleaning does not work, this is because the lead has been completely severed. If you discover such a discontinuity (use a magnifying glass) you may be able to use a conductive paste (not unlike rear defroster repair kits have) or some other method. my membrane actually melted ever so slightly and had a burr where the first instance of corrosion took place. The second location was more obvious.
Good luck, but cleaning did the trick for me. If you dunked I wish you the best...
12-23-09 03:59 PM
