Employee clumsiness causes some damage
- The situation: A Nevada man wrote in to us because his smartphone is not booting up following a little incident at work.
- What caused it: Water and the workplace can be a dangerous combination, as this prospective customer learned when his coworker accidentally spilled water on his device, thereby rendering it apparently unusable.
- The solution: The smartphone will need to undergo a thorough diagnostic to ascertain the extent of the damage and determine the course of repair. Unfortunately, situations like office water spillage are exceedingly common, and result in an untold number of visits to the cell phone repair shop for smartphone users across the country. But Samsung is making an effort to ensure it doesn't have to be that way forever. The company's new Galaxy S5 has been waterproofed, as illustrated by a series of user videos like this one posted to YouTube that show that the device is, in fact, eminently water-resistant.
A repair-savvy customer attempts a DIY with mixed results
- The situation: A Florida woman reached out to us because her smartphone unfortunately sustained some water damage and was rendered nonfunctional.
- What caused it: A trip through the washing machine is what did this woman's phone in. A smartphone going through the washer does not usually bode well for its continued functionality. But for users who take proactive do-it-yourself measures, the prognosis can be better.
- The solution: Fortunately, this woman is one such DIY person, and she immediately went about submerging the phone in rice for 96 hours, in the hope of extracting any excess water that may be getting in the way of the phone working properly. As a result of her efforts, she was able to mitigate some of the potential damages, but a repair will still be necessary. For all those who wish to attempt the rice water extraction method, follow these steps, as outlined by Gazelle:
- Be sure to turn your phone off before placing it in the bag of rice. Failure to do so may result in short-circuiting caused by water interacting with the phone's electric currents, and a rice bath won't prevent this from happening if you make the mistake of leaving the device on.
- Dry down the phone prior to placing it in the rice.
- Make sure the rice you're submerging the phone in is uncooked. The whole point of the process is that dry rice has natural absorbing properties. That ability is gone once it's cooked, so leave your prepared rice for the dinner table.
iPod kept in purse, with unfortunate results
- The situation: A woman got in contact with us because her iPod's screen stopped working. Without a functional screen, one can't very well use the device, and so she found herself in a bit of a conundrum.
- What caused it: Unlike lipstick, dog treats or that afternoon's snack, an iPod is not something that can simply be stowed away in a purse without potential repercussions that may put you in need of an iPod repair. Such was the case with this woman, who said she suspects the real culprit is her dog, who's known to romp around on her purse when he gets slap-happy.
- The solution: For the woman, unfortunately, the answer is going to be an iPod repair. Luckily for her, we keep costs low, and even offer a free 24-hour iPod diagnostic. Safe to say she's in good hands. But the rest of you purse-wielding people can prevent such a repair trip from ever happening through the purchase of a robust iPod case. One example is the Pelican i1015, a protective shield equipped with the rock-hard exterior to keep your iPod safe in any situation, whether it's inside a purse or halfway up a mountain.
Headphone jack is, well, jacked up
- The situation: A man let us know that his iPod's headphone jack has been rendered useless and he now can't listen to music.
- What caused it: As is often the case, this repair need arose from dropping the device on the ground. But it is important to point out that there are other ways the jack can end up ruined. Deterioration over time, for instance, can be caused by habitually ripping your headphone's out of the jack, which will wear down the jack's ability to process the headphones at all.
- The solution: We'll go ahead and swap out the jack and have the device returned to our Texas customer in no time. If you want to save yourself a similar repair, we suggest being more vigilant about maintaining the integrity of your iPod's jack. That means always coiling your headphones around the device when not using it. This will help prevent a situation where the iPod gets torn from the headphones, which is exactly the kind of thing that contributes to long-term damage.
We're always getting repair requests, so check in soon for another update of The Daily Roundup. Until then, here's hoping your device remains safe.