Samsung Galaxy S i9000 Water Damage: Sleep On It!


My Galaxy S got wet when I was trying to put XtremeGuard screen protector on it. I left Galaxy S off for 8 hours but it seems that that was not enough for it to dry. The power button shorted, resulting in continuous rebooting. The Home button was also unresponsive.

So, I disassembled the phone completely and blew it with the hair dryer. Everything seems dry but the phone still rebooted repeatedly. Upon closer look, it seems that the power switch was still soggy. I pressed hard on the power switch flex until a minuscule drop of water came out. That repaired it.

However, the home button was still unresponsive. I tried in vain but I could not find a way to disassemble the flex cable to reach the home switch without removing the screen. I tried blow drying it but that did not work. I tried so hard until I gave up and planned to take it to the service center later.

For the time being, I installed ButtonRemapper so I can use the power button as the home button. But then, I realized I can’t find a proper power off apps. ButtonRemapper would have been good if the Galaxy S has a dedicated search button, but it didn’t. So, I installed Button Savior to use virtual buttons for the home button. These are not perfect solutions.

Fortunately, when I woke up the next morning, the home button was functioning.

The solution? Sleep on it, literally.

Yeah… I accidentally slept on my phone the whole night. That did it. Wow. Who would have guessed.

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UniCynic, I Sleep on it, when I woke up the next morning my phone start zooming. Almost all mobile phone now are on Android, they are having a very similar functions, I don’t know which one to choose from.

UniCynic, are you expecting Nokia will be back with their Symbian OS.

Glad that mine was ok after sleeping on it. Maybe you can turn it off and sleep on it another night? Just make sure to not pressure it to much and don’t sweat. It’s the body heat that helps to dry it.

I don’t think Nokia can bounce back with Symbian. I think Symbian is a good platform but Nokia is not handling their products well. It seems the Windows Mobile Nokia devices are good but as long as Nokia do not improve their marketing and product strategy, they will keep losing to Android and iOS.

And the most ironic thing is that SGS has gorilla glass, which doesn’t need any kind of screen protectors…

syafril.. thanks! – aku pun most of the time always rush for resolution, padahal some of the thing boleh settle sendiri.

Guest, it is a fallacy that the SGS Gorilla glass does not need protection at all. I removed my older screen protector thinking it won’t scratch. Sure, if you try hard like with using keys, knives, etc, you won’t scratch it.

My SGS fell from my hand on the hard uneven concrete from a height of just about 3 feet. The strong Gorilla glass didn’t break. But as it fell, the face hit some hard cement leftover on the surface. It’s scratched. And to think that I had just removed my earlier XtremeGuard screen protector just a week before!

I’m not going to take chances anymore. Besides, with the screen protector on, the scratch is less visible.

And another thing that needs protection: the glass lens of the camera at the back. The camera bezel is the same height as the glass. You place it on a rough surface (like cement), it scratches. In my case, it cracked… and not from the fall. It cracked later while I was reading on the phone and the phone was on rough cement. Cost me RM200 to replace. So, now I use battery cover protector just so that the camera glass does not touch the surface. I don’t need it to protect the battery cover because I use cheap replacement battery covers just for the color and design.

I coild not refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!



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