Water damage to phone

[elhota]

My Huawei smartphone was damaged by some soup spilling on the dining room table.  I tried placing the phone in a container filled with rice for several days but that didn't help.  The screen display is now very grainy and faded.  The rest of the phone still works.  I can still use it but surfing the net can cause a bit of eye strain!  Is there any way to fix this?  I accidentally left an old Huawei non smart phone in the washer before and placed it in rice as well.  Originally the screen was faded but after a few days it was back to normal.  A wash cycle is a heck of a lot more water than a little bit of soup.

[Korth]

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@Luddite wrote:

Are you all implying this phone is no longer souped but toasted?

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lol

The hardware damage is done, and it's likely irreversible. It could actually self-correct a little over time. It will probably get gradually worse after some time. If it's still useable then keep using it (and I advise regular data backups), if it's not really useable or it's getting worse then repair or replace the device before it fails completely. The screen might have taken the brunt of the soup but it's a safe bet that other internals were also exposed to thermal/liquid/electrical damage.

iFixit has tons of helpful takeapart guides which can help people save their sloshed, cooked, and toasted devices.

[Rosguru]

3 lines on screen - perhaps your lcd has been damaged.  If this continues you probably need a full screen replacement.

[Luddite]

Are you all implying this phone is no longer souped but toasted?

[Korth]

If the screen uses an OLED-based technology - P-LED, AMOLED, etc - as most iPhone, Galaxy, and LG devices do - then it contains "organic" molecules which can be damaged/destroyed by cold, heat, UV exposure, oxidization, corrosion, etc.

You cooked your soup to break complex organic molecules into simplex organic molecules (intended for digestion). Your screen was manufactured with similarly complex/delicate organic molecules then (briefly) immersed in your soup temperature, the chemistry is somewhat different but the effects of the chemistry are about the same.

And if it was electrically powered at the time then the logic circuitry, display circuitry, or interface/contact points might have also been derated by voltage surges or (ongoing) galvanic corrosion.

[srlawren]

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@funpig wrote:

Salt in the soup could be contributing factor.

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@funpig indeed, as salt can expedite corrosion in metals.

[funpig]

Salt in the soup could be contributing factor.

[computergeek541]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@Kinnear99 wrote:

Does anyone know if the temperature of the soup can damage the screen?

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No soup for you--one year!!

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I'd prefer a calzone.

[srlawren]

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@Kinnear99 wrote:

Does anyone know if the temperature of the soup can damage the screen?

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No soup for you--one year!!

[computergeek541]

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@Kinnear99 wrote:

Does anyone know if the temperature of the soup can damage the screen?

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If it's hot enough it code, but I would be more worried about corrossion and the contents of the liquid. Assuming that any liquid spilling on a phone is room temperature (and not scalding hot), I would say that the actual spill and liquid isn't what damages the phone.

If you were to spill or submerge a phone is most types of liquid while the phone is powered off, I would say that itself would not cause damage. I'm not talking about chemical or anything like that, but rather water or common drinks.  If someone were to immediately dismantle the device and professionally clean it it off using prooper techniques, and then properly reassembel the device, it would usualy be as good as new.

If the device was on while this happened, or if a device was turned back on before being properly cleaned out, that's when problems are likely.

[Kinnear99]

Does anyone know if the temperature of the soup can damage the screen?

[elhota]

When the phone is first turned on it is grainy and there are 3 strips running vertically across the screen from top to bottom. After a few minutes it becomes uniformly faded.

[gblackma]

Crystal cat litter seems to be better than rice at absorbing moisture . You could wait and see if it clears like before.  Is the screen uniformly grainy and faded? It could be dried soup on/ in the display. You may have to replace it.