[Kawinma]

My BlackBerry fell into the toilet today..

I took it out, it started vibrating madly (wtf?) and then I took out the battery, dried off everything outside, and let it sit for most of the day standing straight up in hopes that the water would come out.

Any advice? I've probably got the worst luck ever, because it's brand new and not even out of the 30 day period. :/

[SprintGuyUGA]

I'm sorry to hear what happened to your new BB. I hope the toilet it fell into was pre-deposit.

Your best bet is to use the "Insurance" you should have added to your plan. The Warranty won't cover Liquid damage, as you pointed out.

The phone may dry out and work fine but it will never be the same.

I wish you luck in getting it replaced.

[brucejr]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Ditto. Do you have Assurion (or other insurance) through your provider? Unfortunalely water and BB's don't mix unless your pearl happened to be wearing a waterproof skin/case.

[John Clark]

It is definitely saveable. Leave the battery out for several days. If you can disassemble it to dry it out that's even better. Use this thread for disassembly:

8100 Disassembly - BlackBerryFAQ

If you are not into disassembly then plan on leaving the battery out for 4-5 days in a nice warm spot. A hair dryer might speed up the process but can get a little tiring. You must get ALL the water out of it.

Once it's dry then you can put the battery back in it'll probably be fine. The biggest error people make is to get in a hurry and put the battery back in too soon. Water doesn't hurt the BB, but water and electricity does.

If you have an old phone put your sim card in it and use that for a few days while it's drying. If you don't have insurance on the phone a few days will save you several hundred dollars.

I did this with a 7100t that went to the bottom of a hot tub. I disassembled it, dried it out, and put it back together. It had water marks on the screen and a white screen with some error. I used JL_CMDER to wipe the device and reload the OS. Worked great. Water marks I thought were there to stay so I threw it in a drawer. I pulled it out a week later and, low and behold, the water marks were gone and the device had a beautiful bright display again. It still works to this day.

Good luck. Post back if you need some more help.

[Kawinma]

I took apart my 7290 (I had one of the screwdrivers laying around from past troubles with a 7280) and I opened it up just quickly to make sure no water was stuck in there, then put it back together. For the time being I'm sticking it on top of my cable box and hoping it will dry up. It's mainly not sitting in ten different pieces due to the fact I've got cats around the house and they love to mess with everything. I also ended up finding an old Nokia 3200 to use for a while.

Also, Cingular over here doesn't provide insurance on data devices, so I'm certainly SOL.

If anyone has any other advice, it's appreciated!

[John Clark]

I suggest letting it sit there a week since you have another phone. Get it into as many pieces as you can...battery cover off, battery out (obviously), sim card out, media card out, etc. I think it'll be fine. The cable box is a good warm spot. My media cabinet gets pretty warm...I'll remember that for next time.

[Alxcab]

you can always leave it under a lamp to help keep it warm and stay out in the open so the water can evaporate. It saved my old ericsson that's for sure.

[Liv]

The only reason why disassembling it would not work is if the battery was in there for too long. If you submerge your BB, and don't take the battery out immediately it will send a shock throughout the device completely frying it.

But definitely look into your insurance options or wait it out.

I am really sorry this happened to you. I am the Queen of Klutz's this is something I tend to always do.

[vickirutt]

my daughters bb fell had the same bad luck yesterday we dried it out you can get and make calls but lost her mail plus address book

[vickirutt]

she lost her yahoo,address book.mail,internet browser..did anyone loss these and get them back?she tried to redown load wont work

[John Clark]

Did you get it COMPLETELY dried out? If you didn't take it apart then one day is not enough time to dry it out. If it is completely dried out, did she make backups? Should be able to restore the backup if she did. You may have to reload the operating system in order to get if fully functioning again. Try Options >Advanced Options >Host Routing Table >Register Now. That might bring back the browser. If that doesn't work and the apps are really gone, you'll probably need to wipe the device and reload the OS. Here is a link for that...

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...highlight=wipe

[Kawinma]

I turned it on right now after having a scorchingly hot bedroom last night and letting it sit on my cable box since it died..

IT WORKS!

Radio, Bluetooth, full GPRS, OS is perfect, Address Book is perfect, keyboard works, trackwheel works, screen and backlight..

I got a little freaked when it started vibrating from all the emails being pushed, but I can only hope it stays working for quite a while.

[John Clark]

Sweet....I had a good feeling about it as you did the right thing from the start. Get the battery out and let it dry and DON'T mess with it.

Good work!

[mjobe24]

I have to say I was also lucky when my BB fell into my sink full of dishes yesterday, directly into a bowel of water. Not knowing anything about this great website, I immediatly took the battery out. I don't think I have felt this scared in my entire life. My BB is about 3 months old and I don't go anywhere without it (plus the $$$$ kept going through my head b/c of not getting the insurence). After fantically googling "tips" of fixing my issue, I stubbled upon this website and few others. It was amazing to hear some of the success stories of how people have got there BB's to work after being emersed in water for an extended period of time, so I knew I had a shot but my luck is never really that good with electronics.

To make a long story short, I also used a hair-dryer on low heat for about 4 or 5 hours. It was 2AM and I did not have to tools to take it apart. After about 2 hours of "sleep" I woke up and was ready to see if my website "help" was going to pay off.....all I can say is AMAZING. So far no noticable damage, and no water marks at all. I have never loved my wife's hair dryer in my entire life!

[John Clark]

ahhh....a nice and clean BB. What could be better?!!

[Soapm]

You should keep a can of compressed air for the initial blowing of the big water. It'll dry nicely after a good blowing out.

I also give mines a good cleaning every 6 months or so rather it needs it or not. Nice to blow all the pocket lint out.

[Willie115]

How long would you say is safe time for you to take the battery out? 5 Seconds? 10 Seconds? 20 Secs?

[mjobe24]

I don't know if there is a time you have to wait, but I would get it out ASAP. I probably took mine out within the first 10 seconds. There was a story I read (cannot remember if it was this board) but a lady left hers in a purse that got water spilled on it but didn't know about it. Probably 30 minutes later she realized her phone also got wet and the results were not good.

Nice idea about the compressed air, I will need to keep one in the house and possibly the car for emergencies.

[SteveRoss]

Probaby too late but for future knowledge....
after opening the case and drying it the best you can pack it in a ziplock back with some uncooked rice and put it in a warm (not hot) dry place. The rice helps absorb the remaining moisture.

[negary]

Disassembling and drying really works. If you have Cingular (now AT&T) no more insurance for the BB 8700... one of the most expensive phones they sell and you can't get insurance. Try to get renters insurance for it.