PlayBook is Backlit, Screen is Blank, Can't Turn it Off!

Well, the thread title kinda summarizes it but here's the background:

Sunday afternoon, my PB was charging on the kitchen counter when I spilled a cup of water. The back of the PB got wet and immediately I noticed the screen was flickering like it was shorting out. Not long after that, it simply stopped working (although it was too sunny to tell if the screen was backlit or not). So at my wife's suggestion, I put it in a bag of uncooked rice to dry it out. By Monday evening, I was able to turn it on and use it. I plugged it in to finish charging.

Later Monday night, I went to use it and everything seemed fine. It was showing fully charged, although when I tapped the charge icon, it showed only 34%. Seemed odd. So I tried to use it to browse the internet and it froze up. I shut it down with the power button but then whenever I tried to turn it on, the screen would back-light but nothing else happened.

I left it to dry overnight and took it to work with me this morning to tinker with it. I followed the advice on the forums here about charge stacking and doing the hard reset (power/vol up/vol down). Eventually, while at work, I left it to charge and found it finally took a charge. And then it slowly kept charging, the thing would boot up and I could use it normally. Great, I thought!

I took it home and plugged it in to charge some more. Eventually, it was reading 80% and I was using it while it was charging. I set it down, for a couple minutes and when I came back and touched the screen, it just back-lit and nothing else happened. I tried powering it down, doing the hard reset (not the charge stacking, since it was almost fully charged). Simply put, I can't turn it OFF! It's still backlit, I've got the red light flashing telling me I've got unread email (I'm using my laptop so I can see that). And when I tried to connect it to my laptop to see if it needed an update or anything, the laptop didn't even register a device plugged in.

So, anyone got any suggestions to try? Please help, I'm not a gadget junkie or even a techie. This was a Christmas present from my wife and I'm very fond of it! :D Thanks!

It could be permanently messed up (when's your birthday!). You might have tried using it before it really dried out.

Some other guy just had a similar result (left out in rain) where he could view the pb on his tv using the hdmi cable but the screen did not show anything.

The hard reset is not working to reset it? Hold the POWER button alone, IN for 20-30 seconds. See if that turns it off or reboots it.

Best of luck. Nice wife and maybe she'll get you the birthday present if necessary.

And, unfortunately, you don't have to be geeky to know electronics and water do not mix. Too bad we can't pull the batteries out when such a thing happens.

Another thing too, sometimes the damage just can't be prevented.

The reason the rice works, amongst other reasons, is it absorbs the liquid "reducing" the rusting effect on the internal components. It also reduces the chances of arcing.

But it doesnt work all the time. Sometimes water just breaks a device

Sometimes it can take a week for the damage to take place and kill the tablet

Originally Posted by F2

It could be permanently messed up (when's your birthday!). You might have tried using it before it really dried out.

Yep. That was me. Checking to see if it was working or not yet. More than likely made things worse.

Some other guy just had a similar result (left out in rain) where he could view the pb on his tv using the hdmi cable but the screen did not show anything.

I'd try it but sadly I don't have an HDMI cable in the house (and only one TV in the house would work with it, anyway).

The hard reset is not working to reset it? Hold the POWER button alone, IN for 20-30 seconds. See if that turns it off or reboots it.

Just tried it. No luck. Still stares at me with the blank, backlit screen. On the flip side, it's like it's going into standby mode, although I still can't see anything when it comes back. And there's still no hard shut down possible. I fear it's well and truly cacked.

Best of luck. Nice wife and maybe she'll get you the birthday present if necessary.

Ah, my birthday's come and gone (June). Maybe I'll see if I can pick one up on sale in the next little while.

And, unfortunately, you don't have to be geeky to know electronics and water do not mix. Too bad we can't pull the batteries out when such a thing happens.

Oh, I knew they didn't mix. :) I was just hopeful there might be a magic trick to make things better. No such luck. And my wife suggested pulling the battery but I didn't feel comfortable opening it up. Thanks for the advice and the well-wishes!

Try the 3-finger hard reset again. I've had mine lock up where I could turn it on and off (gray screen like you have) but not get any further.

The three methods:

To fix an issue, try these in order:

Restart using the Battery Icon and press Restart

Press and hold the Power button for 10-15 seconds. Then leave it for 20-30 seconds and see if it restarts.

To REBOOT:
Press and HOLD all three keys for about 10 - 20 seconds: PowerOn, VolUp and VolDown. Start with the PowerButton. Keep holding past the 3-choice options screen. If you hear a shutter type sound, you've taken a Screen Shot and probably missed the PowerButton.

Yeah, nothing's working. :( I broke down and called tech support who pretty much said that with water damage they won't even bother trying to fix it. So I'm out one PlayBook. Time to go shopping for a replacement! (Yes, I'll be getting another PlayBook, no doubt about it)

Originally Posted by UVTiO2

Yeah, nothing's working. :( I broke down and called tech support who pretty much said that with water damage they won't even bother trying to fix it. So I'm out one PlayBook. Time to go shopping for a replacement! (Yes, I'll be getting another PlayBook, no doubt about it)

I'd place it in a rather warm window location and leave it alone for a week. Stranger things have happened. I recall someone getting the HP Palmtop wet. They tried drying it. After a week, they sent it to hp. They said it was dead but took about a week to diagnose. Sent it back to the guy. When he opened it, it started working. Sufficient drying time???

But hopefully you can find one on sale at a good price. It also proves to your wife that she did get you the perfect present.

Used Playbooks are posted daily on ebay for around $100 shipped as Buy It Now auctions. They usually sell within a half hour or so of posting. I set up a saved search for Buy It Now Playbook auctions, and check nearly every hour. Within the last two weeks, I have purchased eleven Playbooks for friends and family...many in like new condition, many with cases, rapid chargers, etc. Included.

Posted from Crackberry.com App for Android.

Originally Posted by UVTiO2

and it froze up. I shut it down with the power button but then whenever I tried to turn it on, the screen would back-light but nothing else happened.

Simply put, I can't turn it OFF! It's still backlit, I've got the red light flashing telling me I've got unread email (I'm using my laptop so I can see that). And when I tried to connect it to my laptop to see if it needed an update or anything, the laptop didn't even register a device plugged in.

So, anyone got any suggestions to try? Please help, I'm not a gadget junkie or even a techie. This was a Christmas present from my wife and I'm very fond of it! :D Thanks!

Hi

This has happened to me a couple of times (and I don't think I've ever got mine wet)

Holding the power button down for 30 seconds seems to fix it for me (mine is very difficult to do a 3-finger-salute on)

After the power button down for 30 seconds, let if fully boot up, then do a Restart from the Battery Icon

Has happened to me twice since the 2.0 upgrade

Hope this helps

Good luck!

Yeah it's officially kaput. Luckily, I found it on sale here in town this weekend only. So what the heck, right? I picked up a 32 GB instead of the 16 GB (and still paid less than my wife did for the 16 GB at Christmas!).

Now I'm trying to start it up, and, well, more problems! It downloads the latest updates (OS 2.0.1.688), takes a while but it starts installing. It hits about 56% completion on the install and then says it can't install, please restart. Been through this three times now. Now what?!

EDIT: Nevermind. I think I know what the problem is. :) When I started the initial download, it was only at 18% power, then I remember reading that the OS update won't finish if there is insufficient power remaining. It's been plugged in this whole time, but drawing power and using it at the same time, so probably hasn't charged to a high enough level. I'll see if there's enough gas in the tank (so to speak) to finish this, otherwise I'll just leave it to charge 'til later. Thanks, folks!

Well, mystery solved (sort of). I fully charged the playbook and tried again--a few times. Nothing. The installation failed around 68-72% each time. I called RIM and they said that because they only released this updated OS less than 72 hours ago, there's a lot of traffic on their download servers. This means people aren't getting all the data they need for a successful update and bits are missing. The tech I spoke to suggested I wait a few hours (I'm in the Eastern Time Zone in Canada) when traffic should drop off. I'll see how that works!