[jkviz]

Well, its not quite as funny or amusing as some peoples stories but for some dumb reason I decided to take my BB with me on a canoe trip yesterday. As luck would have the dumb canoe capsized. I had my berry wrapped and (I thought sealed) in a zip lock baggie and placed inside a camera small camera bag. Once I got my wife up to shore I dove back in after my floating berry bag and drug it into shore. Assuming that it was still dry in its bag I figured it was best to not open it. Once we got back to the car though I found that water had gotten into my zip lock bag. I pulled the phone apart and dried it out. At first it looked as though I would just be SOL the keypad was not working right amongst other things. A few hours later things started to work again. As of right now the only thing that does not seem to be working is the camera.

I have the camera hot keyed with my right side button. When I push it, the application opens up to the camera screen but no image comes up. Instead, an info block pops up say that the camera could not open and that I should try closing other applications and try again. I have plenty of memory (25mb) and it was working prior to our swim. Does anyone have any ideas as to whether or not there is anything I can do to fix this. Thanks to ATT's past refusal to insure the curves, I am stuck with this phone or paying for a new one. I just want to try every option before going with one of those to get my baby working again. Any ideas on getting this camera working again?

[Go Blue]

Even if you had AT&T insurance it would not have covered water damage. Little square tab (~3mm by 3mm) stuck in battery compartment turns from white to pink and it says "I've been wet" and all coverage goes away.

Sorry for your loss, but ........

[cutdacheck2003]

Ok you can open the berry and shoot compressed air in there right near your soft key to get the H20 out.(the rest of the H20) The bad part is you may have turned your berry on 2 soon. Hopefully u didnt fry it.

[rpalumbo]

Oh man I feel sorry for you. Next time get the zip lock bag that shows the green lock to know it is closed. J/K So what is this that ATT wont offer insurance on the phone. That is crap. It is a pur money maker for some of these companies. I have had it on every phone from VZW and never used it. I could of probably bought a new one with the amount of insurance I have already paid into. Anyway i hope to hear the responses since I to have a curve and would like to know what the solution is. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[cutdacheck2003]

Even if you had AT&T insurance it would not have covered water damage. Little square tab (~3mm by 3mm) stuck in battery compartment turns from white to pink and it says "I've been wet" and all coverage goes away.

Sorry for your loss, but ........

Im almost positive thats what insurance is for, running over it with your car, drops in the toilet, kids using your berry as a frisbee, or a dog using it as a chew toy. Warranty covers manufacturer defects.

[jkviz]

Aye, that's what I was under the impression of as well. Insurance is for accidents. Now, manufacters warrenties... I would understand the red indicators as they just cover manufactoring defects. But, at this point it seems I am kicking a dead horse cause neither of trhem apply to me,lol. Everything seems to be working fine except the camera so far. Oh and the LCD is a little weird too but I know I cam replace that. I am just not sure what the problem with the camera is perhaps as posted earlier it just got fried. Thanks for your replies!

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[ns_red7]

When I take my pearl in my canoe I remove the battery and place it and the phone in separate ziplock bags, then put them both in a large dual zipper bag. Never tested it in the lake but passed the bathtub test!

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[shadygrady]

the hotter it gets the more water damage there is. i consider you lucky the rest of it works.

[jdmiles2]

Pelican storage makes a plastic dry bag that is slightly larger than the ziploc "bag of false security"that truely seals and is truely water proof they cost about 20 bucks but they work! Look at your local camping and outdoor store why trust $250+ in a $.05 piece of plastic meant for a sandwich.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[TgeekB]

Man, I can see the temptation of taking your Berry with you on your canoe trip but bad move! Electronics and water do not mix well. I hope you can get it replaced as I know you will go crazy without it (I would). You could try putting it in rice for several days. I have heard that pulls out all the moisture if you haven't already fried it. Best of luck.

[TheSultan]

I've heard of that little pink tab. Sorry about your phone man

[Crackburry]

Im almost positive thats what insurance is for, running over it with your car, drops in the toilet, kids using your berry as a frisbee, or a dog using it as a chew toy. Warranty covers manufacturer defects.

Exactly, I think that is what insurance covers. Otherwise, what's the point of having it? I think he was confusing it with warranty.

[dpmb]

Next time get the BB to shore befor the wife.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[macnkat]

Next time get the BB to shore befor the wife.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Yeah, unless the wife can't swim...or you're ready for a new wife.

[adambigge]

It is behaving like one of the integrated circuit (chips) have two or more pins shorting out. I have seen this before in electronics that have gotten wet.
It probably has some mineral residue (water spots) on the board. If you are feeling adventurous you can completely pull the phone apart and individually swab every component with alcohol and a Q-tip. Examine all the small chips and their "legs" (commonly called leads) for any matter or corrosion that is joining any other nearby parts that shouldn't be joined. After that just make sure you don't leave any cotton, dirt, or anything else on the board and put it back together. If you were lucky you might not have burned up any IC's, capacitors, or resistors on the board. But surface mount electronic components are very tiny and hard to troubleshoot. They are also not very forgiving and it doesn't take much in the way of an electrical "short" to trash a component. If you do it all perfectly the worst that can happen is you still won't have a camera. If you get lucky you will have a very clean operable phone.

PS...there are a number of insurance companies that sell "Smartphone" insurance exclusively.

[jkviz]

This is great guys! Thanks for all the replies I dont mind taking the phone all the way apart, thats how I made sure it was dried completly. I know that rubbing alcohol is supposed to be ok for cleaning electronics but is there a risk of swabbing stuff down with it that I may ruin something that is stilll working? The camera would be great to have back but not at the loss of somehting else.

[adambigge]

As long as you make sure the battery is out and that you don't leave any foreign material in/on any of the connections you should be ok. But it is all contingent on your technical ability and how comfortable you are with dismantling your baby...
I had to do the same thing to my iPod docking station/stereo once when it got left out in the rain. After I removed the corrosion and ckecked all the leads it worked fine. But I do acknowledge that a blackberry will be much more difficult simply because of its size.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[spoocobravenom]

First thing to do when you get something wet like that is put in a bowl of uncooked rice for a couple of hours longer the better that will absorb all the moisture in there.

[tx_dbs_tx]

First thing to do when you get something wet like that is put in a bowl of uncooked rice for a couple of hours longer the better that will absorb all the moisture in there.

LOL that one sounded silly! But try leaving you phone on the dashboard of your vehicle on a hot sunny day with the windows up. I mean for several hours not just an hour! This will get pretty hot up there as you know and will evaporate any moisture that you can't get to or see. I have personally done this to dry one of my phones before that had been dropped in a bathtub while bathing my dog. But as mentioned above if there is already corrosion and or water residue bridging any connections then it's harder to find and fix. If the intense dashboard method doesn't get your phone dried and working correctly again then give up. Call your insurance co. and report it lost. Don't report it as wet or damaged!!! I'm not sure about your insurance co. but verizon's insurance co. will replace it no matter what. Some other insurance co.'s may not so play it safe. Good luck!

[patrick.waugh]

Basically, first completely dis-assemble your Berry.

DO NOT touch or try to dry the circuit board by hand, as you will just generate static electricity and burn out sensitive electronics.

DO shake off as much if any water as possible. You can use air pressure but note that some of these will cause condensation to form, so never do this when a Berry is on.

Allow to air dry 2-3 days, and reassemble.

Pray.

Turn on power and hope for the best.

As far as insurance goes, basically the cost of it is such that frankly you are better off just paying for a new phone, provided you only brick one berry in a two year period.

If you are going to take your Berry into high risk situations, then I'd insure it.

I wish they'd just make them water proof, which is entirely possible, but perhaps the technology to do it (currently used on US submarines) is still classified. It would increase the weight only slightly, and the keyboard would be a little different (ie sealed), but I think it would be awesome. Then you could take them boating, or text while on splash mountain with no worries.

[jkviz]

There's tons of great stuff here from insurance info, to cleaning procedures and wonderful do's and don'ts. I'm going to try one last attempt to get my camera working. having researched the error message I am getting when ativating the camera, I am convinced that it is just a generic for "oops, your camera is fubar'd" Since the program is working it has to be hardware issues. I'm going to take it apart one more time. I tried the cotton swap and alcohal technique but the circuitry was so tiny it was like operating on a mouse with a railroad nail. This time, I am going to have my wife to bring home a syringe from work (she's a nurse, not a junkie) and fill it up with some alcohol and flush out around the camera with that. I think that it is mineral deposits somewhere grounding it out. Once its flushed I am going to try to use dry compressed air to blow it out. Then I'll be taking pictures again!! (I am trying to be optimistic here lol)

Again some really great ideas here!! Thanks to everyone.

[rbrais]

Pelican storage makes a plastic dry bag that is slightly larger than the ziploc "bag of false security"that truely seals and is truely water proof they cost about 20 bucks but they work! Look at your local camping and outdoor store why trust $250+ in a $.05 piece of plastic meant for a sandwich.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

+1 on the pelican bag. Use it for my phone and reg. papers on my Jet-Ski. As long as you seal a little air in it too, it should float a BB.

[adambigge]

There's tons of great stuff here from insurance info, to cleaning procedures and wonderful do's and don'ts. I'm going to try one last attempt to get my camera working. having researched the error message I am getting when ativating the camera, I am convinced that it is just a generic for "oops, your camera is fubar'd" Since the program is working it has to be hardware issues. I'm going to take it apart one more time. I tried the cotton swap and alcohal technique but the circuitry was so tiny it was like operating on a mouse with a railroad nail. This time, I am going to have my wife to bring home a syringe from work (she's a nurse, not a junkie) and fill it up with some alcohol and flush out around the camera with that. I think that it is mineral deposits somewhere grounding it out. Once its flushed I am going to try to use dry compressed air to blow it out. Then I'll be taking pictures again!! (I am trying to be optimistic here lol)

Again some really great ideas here!! Thanks to everyone.

Good idea with the syringe. One more thing to consider would be to use DISTILLED water. Not tap or filtered but water that has been processed through a reverse osmosis system. Since your wife has access to syringes at work she probably has access to this as well. Or you could get some from a local carwash that uses a "Spot Free" rinse. ( I used to manage a carwash) Just ask the attendant if you can get a gallon of RO water from them. Use it and a syringe to flush the nooks and crannies. The purified water will draw out any mineral/corrosion deposits that you can't see or get to. It is also non-conductive since it has no mineral content. Then you can use alcohol to flush out the water and dry it out.

BTW... the rice is also a great idea for removing water since it draws all the moisture out of whatever is near it. That is why people put a small amount of rice into salt shakers. It keeps the salt from clumping by absorbing the water.

[avt123]

Even if you had AT&T insurance it would not have covered water damage. Little square tab (~3mm by 3mm) stuck in battery compartment turns from white to pink and it says "I've been wet" and all coverage goes away.

Sorry for your loss, but ........

Water damage is covered with insurance, at least it is with Sprint.

[tx_dbs_tx]

INSURANCE....don't go canoing without it!!!!!!! You did the right thing by saving your wife first. Hopefully she will remember your heroism and hook you up with a suprise new phone if she's anything like my better half.