Poseidon Claims a Pro 1

[ermghoti 88]

Lucky me. I was adding water to my fish tanks, and when I lifted the 5 gallon bucket of dechlorinated water, it caught my phone holster, dropping it directly inside. I swiped it onto the couch before it even sank, then ripped it out of the holster. Of course, this caused me to hit the wake button; I saw the screen flash. Gripping the phone by the corners at the charge port end, I snapped it like a whip until the droplets stopped. To no avail, it is unresponsive. I've put it in a baggie of rice, in my oven heated to about 110F. I have little hope to see it work again. It was good while it lasted, I hope F(x) Tec survives.

[netman 1,424]

Take it apart ASAP and disconnect the battery! First under the stickers on the back of screen there are screws (only under the 5 stickers that are accessible by screwdriver) then take off the screen but careful because you have to disconnect the big ribbon cable while doing that. Then there are 3 screws to take loose the hinge parts, then the whole screen side part of the phone should come off and reveal more stickers under which are screws (also two corners of the keyboard have stickers), after taking thouse out you should be able to remove the top of the keyboard part including the keyboard, then 3 screws and a metal bracket that hold a bunch of the connectors (be careful not to drop these screws on the board) and be able to disconnect the battery. It's also described in this PDF but do not remove the whole key mat like it shows, on production units only the corner stickers of the keyboard should be removed and no need to use heat gun at all with taking off the screen n all.

If you are willing take photos of the damage if visible and show us, also if you are within the EU and it isn't totally drowned I may be willing to buy it from you if price is fair.

edit: in my haste forgot to say, my sincere condolances 😞 I hope you can get it back alive or replaced

edit2: forgot to tell about metal bracket, edited instructions

Edited March 7, 2020 by netman

[ermghoti 88]

Thanks, I'll review the pdf, and if I feel confident I'll break out my little tools, if not, I'll show the pdf to the mall phone fixer.

[PC_ 61]

I've had experience in fixing laptops for years and even disassembled the odd tablet or two.  By far the scariest experience was replacing the battery in my Priv.  Personally I don't think I'd have the confidence to disassemble my Pro1 even with the service instructions.  I had hoped the battery would be easier to replace. Maybe I need to wait for the Pro2 for a user replaceable battery...

[SchattengestaIt 559]

I'd prefer a fully screw-assembled bottom phone but it's still quite easy to service compared to others. I don't think we will get back the plastic cover era that was fixed with some clips and let you replace your keyboard easier.

 

What I mostly wonder is if the keyboard sticks after heating up the glue once. You often need to replace the tapes and I just hate that.

If it will still glue together, that'a a matter of 10-20 minutes.

 

Also, if you follow @EskeRahns instructions only charging with 1A or less, your battery will live a long time.

[PC_ 61]

I am indeed following @EskeRahn's advice and using an old charger from my HTC Touch Pro2 or my laptop. So hopefully it will last for years 😁

[ermghoti 88]

My local phone guy wouldn't touch it because he had no idea what it was. Fair. I let it dry, been checking once a week or so, I've accepted it's not coming back to life.

I contacted f(x)tec, who responded very promptly given the current state of the world, and offered a very generous discount under their service replacement policy. I was not expecting that at all, as they really have no responsibility for this mishap beyond releasing a phone that they transparently stated had no waterproofing. I asked if trying to service it would void that offer, and they replied as long as I can put it back together the policy stands. 

Guess I'll give it a shot, since 1) I have literally nothing to lose, and 2) some photos of the innards may prove useful to somebody.

Unfortunately, I am an extremely essential employee, but I'm hoping to work fewer than 75 hours this week...

[EskeRahn 5,471]

1 hour ago, ermghoti said:

My local phone guy wouldn't touch it because he had no idea what it was. Fair. I let it dry, been checking once a week or so, I've accepted it's not coming back to life.

I contacted f(x)tec, who responded very promptly given the current state of the world, and offered a very generous discount under their service replacement policy. I was not expecting that at all, as they really have no responsibility for this mishap beyond releasing a phone that they transparently stated had no waterproofing. I asked if trying to service it would void that offer, and they replied as long as I can put it back together the policy stands. 

Guess I'll give it a shot, since 1) I have literally nothing to lose, and 2) some photos of the innards may prove useful to somebody.

Unfortunately, I am an extremely essential employee, but I'm hoping to work fewer than 75 hours this week...

That just show that these guys are really great. Thumbs up for the nice handling F(x)tec.

And thumbs up to you for wanting to provide us with some photos. There is a disassembly manual (see post by @netman above), that might be helpful, though it is made for the more complex version without the corner stickers, so less heat/gun should be needed for the real stuff.

It would be great if you could describe what has changed, that is where the manual do not match.

[netman 1,424]

47 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

And thumbs up to you for wanting to provide us with some photos. There is a disassembly manual (see post by @netman above), that might be helpful, though it is made for the more complex version without the corner stickers, so less heat/gun should be needed for the real stuff.

No heat gun should be needed atall, unless you want to either delaminate the keyboard assembly or take the screen off the backing behind it.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

3 minutes ago, netman said:

No heat gun should be needed atall, unless you want to either delaminate the keyboard assembly or take the screen off the backing behind it.

That is interesting! In the guide a lot of cables needs heating to detach. Great if they have found other types of adhesive, not needing that.

[netman 1,424]

3 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

That is interesting! In the guide a lot of cables needs heating to detach. Great if they have found other types of adhesive, not needing that.

I could be wrong, in my experience the adhesive holding such cables etc into phones doesn't really require a heat gun although it may help. Batteries are another story, those don't always come out in one piece...

Edit: looking at the manual again that cable at the bottom does look like it has a big area adhered to the case inside but I don't see why anyone would remove it unless the cable itself is to be replaced.

Edited March 31, 2020 by netman

[david 929]

17 hours ago, ermghoti said:

Guess I'll give it a shot, since 1) I have literally nothing to lose, and 2) some photos of the innards may prove useful to somebody.

That's a great situation, where you can try it and still resort to them if needed.

Any and all pictures you can provide would be great. In particular, both sides of the battery (showing any numbers/letters/codes), a close up of the USB port, and close ups of both sides of the flat screen cable and connectors that both ends fit into on the screen side and non-screen half of the phone would be great!  These are all parts that may wear our more quickly than other parts in time, hence the focus on those.

Good luck with your patient revival process!

[ermghoti 88]

Well, managed to pull it apart somewhat. There was a bit of corrosion on the body under the screen, but it doesn't seem to be bothering any connections. One of the three screws holding together the hinges was an absolute nightmare to remove, it stopped dead with maybe a half turn to go. I stripped the head almost completely with a screwdriver, and just barely got it out by jamming a needle file into the wounded slots. The threaded portion felt jagged, I think the screw was defective to begin with.

Note: take out the damn card tray before you start, it interferes taking the keyboard support off of the back.

There's a grey cube over... the processor? Heat paste, maybe? I didn't see a warning in the .pdf, so I accidentally carved it up picking off some of the ribbon cables.

The instructions are getting heavy on talk of heat guns, and once I got past the underneath of the screen area, everything looks pristine. I wonder if I did physical damage trying to whip the water out of it.

Anyway, I tried to take photos of everything I managed to reveal. Take a look at the album, and if there's something you want to see, ask. I'm going to kludge it back together in a few hours and start the replacement process.

https://imgur.com/gallery/17bo7bI

[ermghoti 88]

Actually, it's late for me, so I've safely stored the thing in a cat inaccessible area, and I'll rebuild it tomorrow night.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

6 hours ago, ermghoti said:

Anyway, I tried to take photos of everything I managed to reveal. Take a look at the album, and if there's something you want to see, ask. I'm going to kludge it back together in a few hours and start the replacement process.

https://imgur.com/gallery/17bo7bI

For other users: Also see the discussion over here;

 

[ermghoti 88]

I sent the email out seeking a service replacement, and F(x)tec advised me to contact them again in a couple weeks, when they will have started to ramp up production of QWERTY phones. I was impressed that they didn't just want to accept payment then wait and see.

[david 929]

On 4/24/2020 at 8:31 PM, ermghoti said:

Actually, it's late for me, so I've safely stored the thing in a cat inaccessible area, and I'll rebuild it tomorrow night.

Thanks for taking the time to take the photos and post the pictures.  I haven't been active much otherwise I would have posted earlier when you had it apart, etc.  Hope putting it back together worked well and the cat didn't feast on the guts. :-)

I laughed about the gray spheroid. :-)

[ermghoti 88]

It went together fairly well, the hinges are the worst of it. The spheroid is still a bit of a mystery to me.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

7 hours ago, ermghoti said:

It went together fairly well, the hinges are the worst of it. The spheroid is still a bit of a mystery to me.

Glad to hear. Though we (now) know that you did not need to take the hinges apart in the first place. So will be easier for the next one that needs to open it. 😉

[ermghoti 88]

Welp, I bit the bullet, and now have a replacement device. So far it's working on Verizon. I'll probably go for one of the wallet cases until a made-to-order case is available. In the interim, I had gotten a Kyocera Duroforce Pro 2, which isn't much of a performer, but is nearly literally indestructible. I'll swap the sim card back and forth depending on the needs of the day.

[internationaltraitor 84]

well, that didn't take too long.. like 2-3 months from sending the old one, and getting the new replacement device?

[ermghoti 88]

11 hours ago, internationaltraitor said:

well, that didn't take too long.. like 2-3 months from sending the old one, and getting the new replacement device?

I gave up fixing it 25MAR. They notified me around 19MAY  that replacements would be likely available, I sent it the next day or so. I received the replacement about 03SEP, in retail packaging, with a bit of a finish irregularity under the IMEI sticker, which I couldn't say if it just slipped through QC, if a cosmetic second was selected as a replacement device, or if it was a return. either way, it works correctly. I was told there would be no retail packaging, and they offered a substantial discount for a service replacement that was no fault of theirs whatsoever, so I'm fine with it in any event.

Edited September 8, 2020 by ermghoti