JP
What is a cell phone’s worst enemy? No, not another newer phone, water. Just a little sprinkle of water is sometimes all it takes to render your phone completely useless. What if there was a simple fix that the manufacturer doesn’t want you to know about? Nothing like that could possibly exist, right?
If you have an LG phone with a battery similar to the one pictured above, you might just be in luck. Do you see those two round contacts in the middle? Those are generally covered by a small piece of material. If that material becomes wet it changes color, and your battery will stop working, thus rendering your phone useless.
How do you fix something like this? Don’t bother taking it back to the store, they’ll take one look and tell you that it’s toast. All you need to do is carefully remove the piece of material and replace it with a blank piece of paper. Pop that baby back into your phone and you’re in business. Apparently when the original material becomes wet it completes the circuit and your battery knows to stop working.
The manufacturer would argue that this is a safety feature that prevents your battery from exploding. While this may be true, it’s also a simple reason for the store to sell you a new phone.
Cellphone Battery Designed To Fail At First Drop Of Water? [via consumerist]
5 Responses to “Hack – Fix that wet LG phone”
anonymous October 19, 2007
wow, thanks! Worked like a charm. didnt even put in blank paper, just removed their red sticker thing.
I can’t believe they do this. It should be illegal. I bet they would have tried to sell me a whole new phone, not just a new battery.
+2Linnea July 8, 2008
Thanks so much! I spilled soda all over my phone so I went to the store and they told me to just get a new one because the chances of it ever working again were 1 in a 100. Of course being a broke university student that I am I went home instead and shoved the phone into dry rice and then did this and it’s working! The phone companies are getting absolutely ridiculous, they didn’t even offer me a new battery, just told me to get a new phone!
+1Melaney August 24, 2008
Had a blast golfing with my dad yesterday, but we did have to deal with a thunderstorm. Phone got wet, would only work on a charger, saying “charge complete” and then was still shutting off at random. I googled for a solution, finding this site, and have the exact same battery shown above. Just removed the red sticker, like the first commenter did, and voila!!! It’s charging back up now. Thanks a bunch!
+1Wally December 11, 2008
This info worked brilliantly. I managed to salvage all of my numbers and pictures off of my phone just by removing the little paper slip like other commenters did. This page was especially helpful for me since I had some pictures of my fiancee and of a deceased pet that I loved and I abhorred the idea of losing those irreplaceable photos. Thank you very much for posting this.
+1techburnedout September 14, 2009
lifesavor.. this is a great. thanks a million
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