What can I do with a water damaged iPhone that won’t register screen input?

chris carr May 4, 2013

I have an iPhone 4S that has been water damaged. All the buttons work but the screen isn’t reading finger swipes. Home, power and volume buttons all work but without being able to unlock with a swipe it’s useless.

Can you offer any help? It’s been a few weeks, I have lightly tried a hair drier and there is no visible water under the screen. Any ideas? Beside paying $150 for the Apple store to fix it (that’s not even a guaranteed fix)

Thanks in advance from one mad iPhone owner!

  1. Mike D
    May 29, 2013 at 11:10 pm

    Rice would get the moist out of iPhone if you take it apart and keep it in there for 2 - 3 days it worked fine for my Samsung.

  2. DalSan M
    May 12, 2013 at 8:39 am

    Sounds like the digitizer (this registers the touch input) is damaged abd needs to be replaced. If the rice trick doesn't help, you may have to go to an Apple store or other device repair place to get the digitizer replaced. $150 for them to fix it (if they replace the digitizer, which may also involve replacing the lcd display as well) is fairly cheap. Replacing the lcd display and digitizer on the Galaxy Note 2 at a nearby repair place costs almost $400.

  3. Rajaa Chowdhury
    May 7, 2013 at 3:27 am

    A few more articles on the subject.

    http://iphone.appstorm.net/how-to/phone/how-to-save-a-wet-iphone-or-ipod-touch/

    http://www.ehow.com/how_8245803_repair-waterdamaged-iphone.html

  4. Rajaa Chowdhury
    May 7, 2013 at 3:24 am

    one mad iPhone owner! , LOL, LMAO. I soehow thought most iPhone owners are mad. :P Jokes apart, coming to serious matters. The suggestion given by RubisSong is an effective one and worth a try. Also you can go thru' this article : http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/how-to-survive-an-iphone-liquid-submersion-hint-its-not-rice/10669

  5. RubisSong
    May 6, 2013 at 8:33 am

    Have you tried to plunge into a bowl of uncooked rice? it would suck all the moisture that has formed in your screen and solve your problem. I already had a similar case with my ipad mini. After a whole day in the rice it has started to function as before.

  6. ha14
    May 4, 2013 at 8:17 am

    try to stick the vacuum cleaner to it
    if the motherboard is corrupted you cant do much.

  7. Nick Sharma
    May 4, 2013 at 7:26 am

    You should definitely try the Rice Magic thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2CxnlmCdtE

    This detailed guide on how to fix a water damaged iPhone also worth a look:
    http://www.ifixyouri.com/blog/?p=172

    All the best!

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