Android Hardware

Samsung Galaxy Note 3: water damage

(Or rather beer damage!)

A while back, I knocked a beer over while playing with the cat and unfortunately, some beer landed in the vicinity of the Home button. I dried it off immediately, and the phone seemed to be happy enough as everything looked as though it was working. That is until I tried charging it that night. It charged, but woke itself up randomly throughout the night.

Over the course of the next three days, these random wakes while charging got progressively longer, and what I noticed was that when the phone was awake, it did not charge. Finally, on the fourth night, the phone would not charge at all.

I tried different chargers and cables, but no luck. A solution to the problem for many found on the web, was to clean the charging port with a toothbrush. But alas, this did not work for me. My phone needed a repair shop.

Last year, I dropped my Note 10.1 (N8000) and had to have the screen replaced. I took it to 3G Cell and Multimedia as they are reasonably close to me. I was very impressed with the turn-around time as I was able to get the tablet back within 24 hours (their original time frame was four hours, but I wanted the SIM holder replaced as well and they did not have this in stock). So I decided to take the phone around to them.

After explaining the problem to them, they said the charging board on the phone needs to be replaced and it should be ready within 30 minutes.

I went home to fetch a power bank, the S-View cover and my N8000, so I could test whether everything was Ok. I was back at the repair shop in slightly more than half an hour and sure enough, the phone was ready and they had it on charge (already up to 25%, so they must have finished in a lot less than 30 minutes!).

I connected the power bank and popped across to the Dros to have a quick beer, just to see that everything was working properly.

Checking that the phone was charging while having a beer!

While I was at the Dros, the charge went up to 58%, so I could switch on the phone and test that it was still working Ok after having been taken apart and reassembled for the repair work.

I was given the old charging board which clearly shows a white residue where the beer had come to rest.

The white residue from the beer on the charging board. Note the USB port

A view of the Home button on the phone. This is where the beer leaked through onto the circuitry below.

The position of the Home button and its proximity to the USB port

Thumbs-up to the people at 3G Cell and Multimedia! I could have bought the board on eBay and fitted it myself, but that would have taken about six weeks to get to me.