Saturday, January 16, 2010

What happens if your iPhone gets wet?

Sure, we fix iPhones, but if your phone gets wet, there is only so much we can do! But all is not lost... I have revived phones that have been completely submerged in water! How?

There are three critical things you need to do to ensure your phone survives a drowning....

#1) TURN IT OFF!!!! Yes, it might actually turn back on, but DO NOT DO IT! The more it is on while there is ANY moisture in the phone, the more damage it will cause!

#2) Get a Bag of Rice. Any bag will do, just a bag of rice. Open it, and place your phone inside. The rice will absorb the majority of the moisture out of the phone while you do step #3

#3) Contact US ASAP through facebook, email, my website, or phone (if you have another phone).

Since Apple doesn't cover water damage, you will loose your warranty anyway, but we will open up your phone and clean the components, extract any residual fluids, and run some tests on the phone before we turn it back on to see if there are indeed shorts in the phone. If your phone recovers, it could take as much as a week to regain consciousness.

So remember, OFF, RICE, and CONTACT US when you get your phone wet.

Friday, January 1, 2010

I dropped my iPhone... what next?

o lets say you dropped your phone... how do you know what all is broken and needs repair?

Most screen damage is limited to the external glass, called the lens. Symptoms include damaged/shattered/cracked glass that does not seem to effect the touchscreen or the screen content (you can see everything on the screen, it's just cracked). This kind of damage would be lens/digitizer repair.

What's a digitizer? That's what reads the touch on your iphone. 85% of the time, it will continue to work after a break. However, functionality will diminish as time goes on. Why? The digitizer is like a waferboard of glass and wires, attached to the bottom of the lens (the front glass that you actually touch). Even when you only crack your lens and not the digitizer, the wiring inside the digitizer can get dislodged, like a light bulb. It will probably work for some time, but eventually the pressures on different parts of the screen will create larger gaps in the wires, make the phone do quirky things, such as make things drag around or not release after tapping them.

What can you do in the meantime? Get some clear packing tape and place it over the glass of the phone. This will prevent the glass edges from tearing into you skin (fingers, ear, etc). Make sure you cut out the hole for the speaker inside the glass otherwise it will be muffled.

How long do repairs take for this kind of repair, and how much does it cost?

10 minutes, and $75 for 3G & 3GS. We do most of the repairs between clients, where we peel all the broken glass off the midframe, replace any damaged sensors/buttons, and apply our super-seal method to a fresh lens/digitizer to the frame. Once the sealant has cured, we can install it in your phone my transferring your LCD to the new frame/lens/digitizer.


What if your external glass (Lens) is fine, but the screen is splotchy or looks like there is cracks internally and ink blots? Well that would be a LCD repair. Those repairs take about 10 minutes to do and also cost anywhere from $75 to $125 depending on the phone.