UK Samsung Galaxy II, water damaged with 1BTC inside

[jago25_98]

 
 
 Took the phone in the sea in a "aquapac" but took the battery out. Got back on land, found moisture inside. Put the phone out to dry for ~3hours then tried to switch on. I expect it to be ok since there was no battery inside to short out. Nothing. No vibrate.

 I think it should be possible to rescue the data onboard. Unfortunately I hadn't backed up because I was going to copy the backup in an email and became worried on the security of the email... plus the BTC value was lower back then.

 I think it's rescueable. It's the photos I'm really after though - I think CM10 doesn't have the option to save to the external SD card otherwise I would have done that.

 Any tips on anything else to try? Any service you recommend to fix it? How much do you think it's worth? The screen is also scratched, the gorilla glass came off.

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[SardonicJester]

You could always try putting it in a bowl of uncooked rice for a few days.
(I dropped my phone in a puddle before, let it sit for 3 days in the uncooked rice, then it worked)

But seeing as you only let it dry for ~3hours and then tried to turn it on, there could have still been moisture inside and caused a short.

[jago25_98]

Thanks, I'll give the rice a go. I wonder if it could have been salt from the water; seemed pretty dry but come to think of it, there has been less sun today so I was probably too hasty

I wonder if jtag work can help in this situation... worth a shot later on I suppose

[nethead]

I will buy it from you for 2 btc, shipped inside EU

(w/ escrow)

[jago25_98]

I will buy it from you for 2 btc, shipped inside EU

(w/ escrow)

OK. Can anyone recommend an escrow provider and how to sell? Do you have some reputation or something like that?

Cheers

[nethead]

I will buy it from you for 2 btc, shipped inside EU

(w/ escrow)

OK. Can anyone recommend an escrow provider and how to sell? Do you have some reputation or something like that?

Cheers

Great. I have done some trades in here, if you look at my post history you will find out. As for escrow, i recommend mod "John", which i have done another successful trade with for 30 btc in the past.
If you agree on that pm me to notify John.

Thanks

EDIT: Btw, by the thread title you mean that in the device is a wallet.dat file with 1 btc, right? (thats why my price is 2 btc)
EDIT2: If i can retrieve any data from it i will send you the pics that are inside.


EDIT3: Sorry i thought it was Galaxy S II and not Galaxy II, if it is S II then my bid is still valid, else not (sorry)

[Rawted]

bag of rice = no can defend.

[jago25_98]

Yes it's a SGSII model i9100 with CM10 on it.

Bitcoins are stored in Bitcoinspinner on the phone - I will send you the withdraw pin with the phone. I don't know the internals of Bitcoinspinner but I think we should be able to get the coins out if we can access the filesystem - it's just too dead for me to get that far.

Bearing in mind the price swings I think what I will do is make a Bitmit listing which you can then use escrow with.

I think your original offer was a bit high in allowing 1BTC for the phone itself since the LCD is scratched and the lens has come off so I changed the Bitmit listing to 1.349BTC linked to GBP and 15GBP for postage from Spain where I am now (guessed) and also in recognition of being able to send me anything you can recover which I value

https://www.bitmit.net/en/item/26174-i9100-faulty

 -j

[jago25_98]

The Bitmit auction is linked to GBP and I've taken into account the big fall. Open to any feedback

[TiagoTiago]

I've heard bathing in pure alcohol (not the watered down stuff people use for cleaning and stuff) overnight can somtimes do miracles to water damaged electronics...do it at your own risk though, i got no personal experience with that technique.

[Littleshop]

I've heard bathing in pure alcohol (not the watered down stuff people use for cleaning and stuff) overnight can somtimes do miracles to water damaged electronics...do it at your own risk though, i got no personal experience with that technique.

The rice thing originally quoted is not a joke, it really does work often.  The most important part about water damage is NOT TO EVEN TRY to turn the item on if it is off.  Turn it off, open it up, take the battery out and put the phone in rice with the covers off.  If you have tools, open it up as much as you can without breaking it.  (phones are delicate so really don't open it if you do not know how).

[TiagoTiago]

I've heard bathing in pure alcohol (not the watered down stuff people use for cleaning and stuff) overnight can somtimes do miracles to water damaged electronics...do it at your own risk though, i got no personal experience with that technique.

The rice thing originally quoted is not a joke, it really does work often.  The most important part about water damage is NOT TO EVEN TRY to turn the item on if it is off.  Turn it off, open it up, take the battery out and put the phone in rice with the covers off.  If you have tools, open it up as much as you can without breaking it.  (phones are delicate so really don't open it if you do not know how).

What i said was not a joke either. Hell, if i it was a joke, and it was obvious it was a joke, why would i put warnings and stuff?

[jago25_98]

Thanks for the advice folks. If I was at home I would try these things out but unfortunately I am travelling and that's why I'm looking to sell. It could be rewarding to someone.

I guess if nobody wants to fix it, pocket 1BTC in addition to a getting a SGSII albeit with no screen all for £90 then I guess I'll just have to wait until I get home in 3 months to fix it.

[jago25_98]

Well I suppose if no one wants to try then I could try some more options to fix - but where can I get pure ethanol? (not cleaning grade)

[TiagoTiago]

I think you might be able to get 99% proof isopropyl alcohol on drug stores (perhaps not on smaller ones); make sure to keep it away from heat sources and stuff like that.

[TiagoTiago]

Distilled water is also somthing that might help. It doesn't conduct electricity anywhere nearly as much as regular water (all the little minerals and stuff on water are what make water conduct as much as we usually think water does). Though, that is for cleaning, it still needs drying afterwards.

For just drying, i've seen some people recomend you warm up the device (with an external source of heat, don't power it up just yet) to at most the temperature it gets while doing heavy processing and leaving it surrounded with silica gel thingies; though perhaps isopropyl might also do the trick (without extra heat, for safety reasons).

[jago25_98]

Finally had it open a couple of days ago. Various contacts corroded, much worse than I expected. I never thought it would be possible to get it working at that point.

Spent hours cleaning with isopropl alcohol spray cleaner. The spray itself wasn't actually removing the corrosion - it looked as if it was but after drying out it was much the same. In the end I'd cleaned a lot but gave up and tried powering on... still nothing.

Then gave it to a friend. He picked at it for a minute and tried switching on... well, magic hands because now we have power to the screen (mostly grey and white)!

...worked on it a bit more and got it working. Remember that next time you got water damage. Quite amazing really, whole areas were white with corrosion.


Q: This reminds me of heat damaged radeon repairs. How expensive do you think a piece of electronics has to be to make this sort of repair economically worthwhile?

[Welsh]

Finally had it open a couple of days ago. Various contacts corroded, much worse than I expected. I never thought it would be possible to get it working at that point.

Spent hours cleaning with isopropl alcohol spray cleaner. The spray itself wasn't actually removing the corrosion - it looked as if it was but after drying out it was much the same. In the end I'd cleaned a lot but gave up and tried powering on... still nothing.

Then gave it to a friend. He picked at it for a minute and tried switching on... well, magic hands because now we have power to the screen (mostly grey and white)!

...worked on it a bit more and got it working. Remember that next time you got water damage. Quite amazing really, whole areas were white with corrosion.


Q: This reminds me of heat damaged radeon repairs. How expensive do you think a piece of electronics has to be to make this sort of repair economically worthwhile?

I did something similar to my Ipod, I placed it in a bowl of rice over night, worked fine after that (still have water marks to this very day)

[TiagoTiago]

Are you sure those white parts weren't just dehydrated seawater? (in other words, salt)