So, on LCD backlight survival and water.
Not so much.
My wife had hers drop into a bucket of water and it sat there for who knows how long. I found it sitting there triggering the camer flash on and off.
I took it out, pulled the battery and cards. (Since I had noted that from other posts here).
The phone was someone elses discard (ie: they handed it down to her for free) so I was free to 'play'. I had taken it apart before to clean it so I was comfortable doing it again, especially since I knew it was either totally toast or it didnt matter anyways if I ham fisted it some how.
I got it apart and found some major corrosion around a few spots on the main board, and signs of arcing on the card connectors. (note: I put but cards in another phone (razr actually) and they worked just fine - and are in service right now in that phone). I did my best with alcohol to clean up the corrosion (messy grey debris) and polish off the arc scoring (black discoloration on the coppor connectors).
After a few days of letting it dry (almost a week) I put the whole thing back together and put in the battery. The screen would not light up, but by reflection I could see the hour glass, then the carrier logo come up.
Having a 8100 myself, I took mine apart and put my screen on her motherboard. That came up just fine and the backlight worked. Put her screen in my phone and no backlight. But with my screen, my cards, her phone, all items worked still (mike, earpiece/speaker, all OS function, track ball (after some serious clean up). It does look like it has stuck in caps lock mode. I'll have to see if I can fix that issue. Otherwise the keypad also looks fine.
So I have a replacement screen on order from cnn.cn - the price was better then a lot of places on the web at the cost of shipping time (I cant see paying two day shipping that costs the same as the part).
So, yeah. It looks like the LCD backlight can't take a lot of abuse. The phone will still work without it, but it is pretty much uselss that way. If your contract is no where near up, and your almost giving up on the phone, then try a new screen. (or you can just throw it away in my direction - I can always use the parts
)
If the screen doesnt work, and you have the option to try a known working one (that you have seen work, not that you just bought), give that a spin. It is highly possible that something on the main board is fried. If it is, then there really isnt a lot of hope outside of having someone rework the mainboard. (do fiddly surgery) At that point the cost is going to probably be close to getting a replacement phone.
