Electrical contact cleaners.

[Robin GrahamParticipant @robingraham42208]

[Robin GrahamParticipant @robingraham42208]

My wife has managed to dunk her iPhone in the lavatory – a 'back pocket incident' I believe it's called.

I took it apart, dried it out and replaced the battery – it's an old phone (SE) and wanted a new battery anyway. It now boots up OK, but the touch screen is completely unresponsive. I noticed that pins on one of the connectors between the screen and the motherboard looked dirty (on the female motherboard side). That might (or might not) be the problem. I tried cleaning with a cotton bud and isopropanol, but it didn't make any difference – the contacts didn't come up shiny.

I'm wondering about about contact cleaner sprays, some of which claim to deal with corrosion, but I have never used these preparations – can anyone advise?

Obviously I realise that it might be a lost cause, but I'm not giving up without a fight. Certainly not going to pay Apple 276.44 to fix it.

Robin.

[RobinParticipant @robin]

I am a great believer in Servisol Super 10 switch cleaning lubricant but it would need dry time because it is absorbed by silicon rubber key-pads which develop trout pout if you close too soon.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

I doubt the problem is dirt or corrosion due to a quick dunk and rapid dry. A more unpleasant possibility is water formed a conductive bridge between normally isolated components and blew some transistors.

Or the touch screen may still be wet inside. 48 hours inside a bag of rice might do the job.

Dave

[Author]

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