Smartphone screen darkens and freezes, turns off, turns on again after water damage
Quick Overview:
Device: Xiami Redmi Note 3
Cause of damage: Water, possibly blunt force trauma
Problem: Screen darkens after a few seconds to a few minutes after turning it on. Dark stripe in the upper third, screen unresponsive. Darkens until nothing to be seen, then returns abruptly to the normal view with full functionality (https://vimeo.com/172601800)
Long story:
I went to a music festival in Germany last weekend. On Friday evening the weather worsened and the whole camp was evacuated due to lightning strikes on the area, heavy rain and hail (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDEptIkevC8). While running to our cars to escape the rain and hailstorm, my device got pretty wet despite me having it under my rain jacket. It might also be that it hit something on my escape (memory's kinda hazy due to alcohol and fear for my life).
After reaching the car, I tried to use my phone to call my friends. At that time, the only result was a constant bootloop (curiously showing this fastboot logo instead of the usual boot animation). I turned it off and then tried to dry it with the car fans. In the morning it turned on again and I was pretty happy. Front camera was stilly pretty fogged but I was ready to accept that. The power button was pretty glitchy since then and only worked about 50% of the time but is now back to full functionality.
The only issue I now have is the aforementioned. Interesting is that it didn't occur until after I got home.
Now my situation is that I can sometimes use my phone for several minutes without any glitches, but then again there are phases where I have a maximum of 3 seconds to get shit done with it until it glitches.
Does anyone know / have an idea what could be the problem and if there is the chance to fix it somehow (or to prevent it from happening? Like maybe turning the screen off after a few seconds and turning it on immediately again via Tasker or something similar (just a silly thought))
I'm really thankful for any input you may have
Posted Jun 28, 2016, 4:32 PM UTC
im not a tech expert but when my phone got wet (an HTC sensation), the water kept spreading across the screen under it and the phone eventually blacked out. it was my mom's phone and i was really scared:p. well anyway i took it apart (not each n every bit of it, just the cover battery, sim card, sd card etc.) and let it dry for a day or two, and when i put it back together it was fine. so i guess you could try doing that, also putting everything in rice would work way better since rice absorb water pretty quickly.
Ok thanks for your reply.
I am a little hesitant to take it apart because my mechanical prowess is lacking (and my arsenal of tools as well)
But if there is no other possibility I will give it a try.
A little spa time in a rice bath is definitely a good idea, thanks