Question My phone screen is black after water damage. Repairable? Data recoverable?

[testerh]

I was boating and my Samsung Galaxy Sky Pro (Straight Talk) got wet. There was a small tear in the waterproof case.

After a day of drying it seemed to work ok. A day after that the screen flickered and then went black.

I can still feel it power on (vibration) but the screen is black.

As a minimum I would really like to be able to see the windows/tabs that I have open in the Samsung and Chrome browsers. It would be great if I could use the phone again but I would settle for just being able to see the browser tabs just long enough to write them down and open them on a different device.

Is there anything I can do to accomplish this? thanks

 

[Sagar_20]

The phone can be repaired but you can't do it yourself.

Normal phones doesn't have any protection to prevent water from going inside the motherboard. If it went through just a splash of water, then drying might get it working but in most cases, it doesn't help.

Look up online and hand it over to a shop that deals in water damage and hopefully it will be fixed.

- Check if your phone is able to connect with your PC? If yes, then you can backup you data (if you have usb debugging enabled in advance), and using a tool called Vysor you can get your phone display on your PC.

Normally service centers and local shops will tell you to replace the whole display or motherboard, because they just want profit and even if you get the motherboard replaced, your data will be gone anyway.

 

[britechguy]

I would also suggest, before going the repair route, that you remove the battery (if this model has a removable one) and dry the thing out in your car for several days.

The amount of heat in an enclosed car will generally purge any and all water that might be lingering anywhere in the device. After that time, take it out, let it cool (if you're not fetching it after sundown or when it's already cool), pop the battery back in and see what happens.

Over the years I have brought back any number of PDAs (when they were still the rage) and other electronic devices from the waterlogged dead by allowing a long drying time in very warm/hot conditions. You often have small amounts of water trapped that will creep around for days and stay inside unless you subject the device to extreme drying conditions.

It's not going to hurt a smartphone to dry it in a car. You just don't want to attempt to fire it up again while it's still literally hot.

 

[testerh]

I did put the phone in a hot car to dry it out but I think there must be some corrosion on the connectors. The phone still powers up (I can feel and hear the powering on vibration) and every now and then I hear notifications of incoming messages. I think that the screen not working is the issue.

I will definitely look into the Vysor tool.

 

[delaro]

I was boating and my Samsung Galaxy Sky Pro (Straight Talk) got wet. There was a small tear in the waterproof case.

After a day of drying it seemed to work ok. A day after that the screen flickered and then went black.

I can still feel it power on (vibration) but the screen is black.

As a minimum I would really like to be able to see the windows/tabs that I have open in the Samsung and Chrome browsers. It would be great if I could use the phone again but I would settle for just being able to see the browser tabs just long enough to write them down and open them on a different device.

Is there anything I can do to accomplish this? thanks

3 things can be wrong.

1. The LCD is damaged.
2. The Connector powering the LCD is shorted "Minerals from the Liquid might be able to clean it out"
3. Components on the motherboard that power the LCD could have blown.

This is a $78 phone

Paying to get it fixed.
Labor to pop it open is going to run $25-$40.
A decent screen replacement is going to run $30

$55-$70 which is pretty much a new phone.

Fixing option 3 is at least $90 and requires someone with micro-soldering experience, not worth it on phones less than $300.

If the USB port is fully working you can do a backup via a PC so no worries on losing anything.

DIY
All of the J7's come apart the same way and you can find that in this video.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIONMLkpyuw


It doesn't take much to do it and it isn't all that hard to test the cable/connector yourself..

Common items you can do it with.

A Hair Dryer "Yeah it gets hot enough to melt the adhesive around the Assembly"
A Thin Guitar Pick
Some playing cards
Small Screwdriver set "These come with a replacement screen" or you can buy them at Wal Mart for $10.
Lots of patience

 

[Sagar_20]

Most likely the display connector inside has shorted or some component may have corroded. If you think your data is important, get it recovered it from professionals.

Usually this kind of problem requires expertise and even authorized service centers will refuse to fix it.

On the back of the phone there is a white paper and as soon as it comes in contact with water, it turns red.

That's how they check for water damage.

 

[britechguy]

And, as an aside, and not attempting to rub salt in an open wound, this is another teachable moment with regard to backups.

Smartphones are nothing but true microcomputers (or mini, given how small some single board machines are these days) and having a single copy of precious data only on the phone itself is just as much a setup for heartache as having only a single copy of data on a PC.

There are many backup utilities for smartphones that allow you to back up to external media. You can also back up to the microSD card, but unless you're religious about copying the backup files off to an external source, you're still in the same position if the phone is lost or stolen.

Back up, back up, back up!