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Egalus
08-10-2004, 01:03 PM
This is a small story about my clie adventures ;)

Yesterday I went into the bathroom to take a bath and, as I normally do, I took my NX-73 with me (I have NX-70 / 73 for about 1,5 years and read ebooks on them all the time while bathing, it's really relaxing).
The book entertained me for almost an hour until I noticed that I would be late for my date if I would not leave the bath soon.
So I switched off the Clie, removed the wrist wrap (is this the right english word for this?) from my wrist (I always have this attached and around my wrist if I use the clie in the bath as I don't want to accidentally slip it into the water) and wanted to put the clie onto the toilet (which is directly next to the bathtub) when something went wrong:
The clie jumped out of my fingers and took a deep dive into the still full bathtub and submerged faster than any stone could have done.
"clong", it hit the bottom of the bathtub cause it was really clever and evaded my legs.
Abruptly my former relaxing bath changed into a stressy - rapid movement - no time to dry myself - hectic.
I grabbed the clie, which was quite difficult, cause the casing is really slippery when wet and hastily took it out of the water.
To my amazement (at that moment, lateron, after a bit of thinking, it was clear that something like this would happen) the clie switched itself on while water was still dripping from every opening of the casing.
First the screen showed the normal "I have shortly been resetted" contents but soon the screen switched to bright white and it stayed that way.

At that moment I thought I had lost my so loved clie and thoughts about switching to Palm or even to PPC ran through my mind, but other thoughts took over and I sprinted - still totally wet - to get a screwdriver to unscrew the batterycompartment and remove the battery.
After that I swirled the clie around to get the water out of it, but soon I recognized that this alone would not work out.

Next thought: Take it apart and drie it as fast as possible.
Next thought: ****, who invented these 5-ended-star screws
Next thought: Lets try every screwdriver you have, maybe one can open the screws
Great 4 of the 5 screws went easily, but the damn 5th screw seems like glued to it's place.
I am almost at the point of throwing the whole thing through the window when finally the fifth screw gets loose.
Next thought: f... again, I need to remove 2 more screws on this f...ing, never loved retractable CF-Slot
Next thought: jippie, both screws dont loosen at all

So I had to remove the bottom of the device without removing the CF-Slot, which means to bend the plastic (I waited for the crack sound of braking plastic casing, but it did not come).
Now the casing was open (and for those now asking for pictures of it - I DID NOT MAKE ANY, I WAS IN PANIK AND WITHOUT ANY TIME ;) ) and it seemed like it was made to carry water ;(
So I took half the components out of the device and left the to dry over the night - nice whish.

Today I reassambled everything - after checking if anything looked still wet - and put the battery in again.

Yes, the familiar bi-pip-di-pip sony turn on sound which directly braught back hope again .... until I looked at the screen ;(

The contents where right, but the backlight was totally uneven with no clear pattern about where it is brighter and where subnormal.

F... looks like I still need a new device as it looks like somehow water entered the lcd part of the screen ;(
To check that I opened up the screen part (again those annoying 5-star-screws) and tried to disasemble the parts, but soon I gave up, I found no way to disconnect the wirings and with them on I had no free movement to take the screen apart.

So I started looking for a new or used clie NX on ebay when one last thought came up. Maybe it's just water between the backlight and the glass that distrubs the backlight?
But no, why would there be 2 different disturbance layers than?
It was clearly visible that there were 2 disturbance layers when I slightly rotated the clie.
But still, before I throw the clie away or look for a replacement screen I thought I could try to heat up the display a bit to maybe get the water out (if it was water).
But how do I do that without doing harm to the display?
I decided to try the "warm me up with a lamp" and positioned a lamp directly above the display (which was still opened and not in it's frame).
After 2 hours I checked again, the display was handwarm but nothing had changed ;(
So I chose to be hard and moved the lamp nearer to the display, after 5 minutes the display was really warm (I estimate around 50-60°C) but still nothing changed.
After 3 more hours I checked again ....
and couldn't believe my eyes, the screen looked as good as new, no distrubances whatsoever anymore (except some fingerprints ;) ).

While being totally optimistic and happy I screwed everything in place again and powerd the device up.
- Stylus Input works
- keyboardinput works
- speaker works
- headphonejack works
- ms port works (at least with the bathed 512mb mspro ;) )
- CF-Port works (at least with the WL-100 )
- movieplayer works flawless too
- flashenable gave me back flashaccess and all seems to still be there
- msbackup braught me back most of my data
- camera still works
- no idea about bt, as I dont have any bt devices
- scrollwheel works
- back button works
- mic still works
- didnt test IR yet

And now I am not sure what to do next time when I need a bath as I am quite sure my clie won't entertain me in there again ;(

khad_o
08-10-2004, 01:21 PM
nice . good to know your clie was able to be revived :D. next time if that happened to me (hope not), i know exactly what to do :D

Egalus
08-10-2004, 01:40 PM
Just be fast with the battery ;)

Grey
08-10-2004, 09:06 PM
Great story! Entertaining _and_ educational! Bravo! :)

boogers
08-10-2004, 09:46 PM
lucky you!!!

magicwv
08-10-2004, 11:13 PM
Good story... hope i would never have to rescue my own NX-73v like that :o Though this info is helpful if I do have to rescue it someday ;)

Egalus
08-11-2004, 05:35 PM
Let me assure you that this story might be entertaining to read, but it was not really entertaining to go through it, I can live without such thrills perfectly well ;)

PBM808
08-11-2004, 08:23 PM
learn to love the ziplock bag = )

Edlin
08-11-2004, 09:50 PM
congrats on saving it !!!!
I`ve been temtped to take mine into bath at times, as love to read in tub, but never been game enough - and I think now I`m double certain not to try.

magicwv
08-12-2004, 12:31 AM
The ziplock bag might be a pretty good idea, or Sony can make a waterproof case for the Clie?... just like for the Cybershot cameras.

Twinkle
08-12-2004, 03:36 PM
I liked your story ... but I will never want to be in your shoes :p

Good thinking ,,,

By the way how did your date go ??!!!

webb3201
08-12-2004, 03:51 PM
somewhere in the Brighthand archives is my story about my iPaq belt case flying off into the toilet during a flush. The dunking stories bring back horrible memories.


Another I remember was someone dropping an iPaq in a snowbank, and finding it several days later.

k

Sunnbuzz
08-13-2004, 02:37 AM
WOW - Naked repairs, maybe this could be a new business !! :)

Egalus
08-14-2004, 04:42 AM
@Sunnbuzz:
Lol, nice business idea ;)

theone3
08-20-2004, 02:08 AM
learn to love the ziplock bag = )I'll second that.

Can't use the jog dial very well though :(

phoenix3200
08-20-2004, 10:58 AM
Outright amazing.

My dad got a Clie (used) and immediately decided to wash the screen. He sprayed something on the screen and let the liquid fall into the unit, much to my disappointment (I wanted it as a backup). Needless to say, liquid got in between the digitizer layers, and because it was oil-based (I think), it never came out.

You are perhaps the luckiest person alive.

vw_bugg
08-21-2004, 02:52 AM
Remember for next time. If your electronics get wet DO NOT turn them on until thwey are completly dry, it could have been fried.

Water proof case for the poor. (http://ziploc.com/index.asp)

Sensei
08-21-2004, 05:20 AM
Remember for next time. If your electronics get wet DO NOT turn them on until thwey are completly dry, it could have been fried.

Water proof case for the poor. (http://ziploc.com/index.asp)


I was about to say that too. Let it dry and take its time. Now... it is safe to know you can bring your Clie swimming next time.

Egalus
08-22-2004, 04:06 AM
Remember for next time. If your electronics get wet DO NOT turn them on until thwey are completly dry, it could have been fried.

Water proof case for the poor. (http://ziploc.com/index.asp)

Guess what happens if you put an electronic device in water with bathing ingredients?
Yes, it can turn on itself cause the on/off switch get's short circuited and gets stuck on "always on".

I never turned my device on, it turned itself back on, that's why I hurried for te screwdriver to open the battery compartment to unplug the battery as the power switch did no longer do anything.

Spiral
08-22-2004, 04:53 AM
But no, why would there be 2 different disturbance layers than?
It was clearly visible that there were 2 disturbance layers when I slightly rotated the clie.
How it works is on top there's the plastic digitizer, beneath that is the LCD. Under the LCD is a transreflective layer, it's silver, and the finally under that there's the backlight, so there's plenty of layers to accumulate water.

I've taken apart a clie screen pretty fully :p My SJ30 uses a backlight ripped from an SJ20 because its original one didn't work.

Egalus
08-22-2004, 02:18 PM
Ah, so the two disburbance layers are quite clear now ;)

khakiman
08-22-2004, 09:15 PM
Just think, if you had only taken the time to do a search first before taking you clie into the bathroom you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble :D

Glad it all worked out okay :)

xyeta
08-22-2004, 09:39 PM
Lucky you!!

I won't even take mine to the pool, where I can 'safely' keep it in hand while I lounge on a deck chair! I always fear one drip that causes the supreme malfunction.... of course, I also have a two-and-a-half year old, so I can't risk her getting ahold of it so close to a large body of water.

She thinks it's only purpose is to see pics/vids of herself, and Dora the Explorer .swf's from NickJr! She brings it to me all the time!

mackrack5
08-23-2004, 01:16 PM
Egalus U r Lucky one!
i always prefer a warm bathroom to change my Screen protector.
:)

vw_bugg
08-23-2004, 02:58 PM
Guess what happens if you put an electronic device in water with bathing ingredients?
Yes, it can turn on itself cause the on/off switch get's short circuited and gets stuck on "always on".

I never turned my device on, it turned itself back on, that's why I hurried for te screwdriver to open the battery compartment to unplug the battery as the power switch did no longer do anything.
sorry i cant read, ill go hide under my rock in my corner now.
hukd on foniks wurked 4 me.

Grey
08-23-2004, 04:32 PM
Just think, if you had only taken the time to do a search first before taking you clie into the bathroom you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble :D
Damn you! Now everyone here at work will think I'm crazy because I started laughing aloud after reading that :D

spidey
08-23-2004, 04:50 PM
www.drypakcase.com