[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket SGH-I727] Blairware:
It ain't over till it's over.

I had the proverbial "Bad Day" yesterday, or rather, my poor Skyrocket did. It went from being perfect, not so much as a scuff on it to: a) Dropped onto my CEMENT driveway from a height of almost 6 feet. How is this possible, you may ask? I was leaning over the porch rail to open the recycling bin, instead of going around and down the stairs... PURE LAZINESS is what it was! Anyway, it slipped out of my top pocket, in spite of the fact that I was trying to hold it with my fore arm. Why of WHY did the Skyrocket have to be so slim and sleek! The phone hit the cement, bounced once or twice, and then slid, ON IT'S FACE about 3-4 feet, with me making that scream you do while breathing in; kind of a "Uuuoooaaarrrrggghhhh" is the best I can describe it. I followed this by grabbing the phone, taking it inside and throwing an ever loving **** fit. I proceeded to throw the phone on the couch (Even during a full blown hissy, I try to protect the damn thing!) and as I examined it, it was one of those "It could have been much worse" things, that we try to comfort ourselves with, and amazingly they do help, even if it's BS. The damage was 100% to the front black chrome bezel (around the front edge of screen) - A part that in fact CAN be replaced, but requires COMPLETE disassembly, including separating the Screen from the digitizer, which I have no clue how to do. It may NOT be possible, in fact without breaking a layer of adhesive. EVERY other part of the phone is replaceable, in modular sections, I know, and will explain in a moment.

So... bad day right... well that would had been enough since I love my phone as many folks on XDA understand, but nooooooo. I had to then drop it in 8 inches of standing water. Yep.

Was in the bottom of my above ground pool trying to restart a siphon for draining it, when, "SLIP" I %&*&#@ DID IT *@#&$% AGAIN!! *#$%&!!

Phone drops STRAIGHT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE HALF FOOT OR SO WATER IN THE POOL!!!!!!!!

Ok, so I almost NEVER keep my phone on me when doing physical work of any type. When I work on my cars engine compartment, or crawling around under it, I put my phone in the car. Even when I dry my car after pulling out of the car was the phone gets taken OUT of my top pocket and put somewhere safe. I guess I got complacent, since I hadn't had "an incident" in several years. Even with my 5" Dell Streak, beast that it was, I never let it slip from my standard place of Top shirt pocket. Every time I lean forward, my hand or forearm holds the phone from slipping. It is a motion as natural to me as shifting while driving, without even thinking about it. But even I know that "**** happens" so, lesson learned: I am going to bite the bullet and get a nice

slim

cover for the Skyrocket. NOW THAT IT WORKS AGAIN....

So after I pulled it out of the water I was in full panic mode: I quickly patted it in my shirt, but even while it was still wet and dripping, I RIPPED the back cover and battery out. In hindsight, I wish I had worked to dry the exterior quickly, and THEN opened it. The battery liquid detector wen bright read... CRAP! The PHONE liquid detector stayed WHITE… Ahh, finally caught a break. So after a basic dry everything I can reach (and the Sim came out wet, and the microSD came out wet, not good signs) I tried a quick power up.... The SkyICE animation began, then suddenly changed colors and turned pink/red.. WHOA.. STOP THE BOOT! So I yanked the battery.

After quite a bit of further drying, warm gentle air across the back for a venturi effect (sure!) another try and the screen behind the Samsung logo was bright, blood red, instead of black...

THIS convinced me to take the sucker apart, and for the most part I did really well. I did break ONE tab on the "body" of the phone - that holds the back section over the PCB on, but fortunately there are 7 screws, and it fit tightly when reassembling. I DID frin s coupe drops of water, though they did not seem to be in spots that would short anything, like on the stainless cover over the Qualcomm Processor, but those were just what I could see, without magnification. I dried those, blew warm gentle air over the PCB, and then gently warmed the parts over a low wattage bulb in a lamp.

I am SO impressed with the construction of this baby! I WOULD prefer more alloy, and less plastic for frame, shell & body parts, but what AMAZED me were the connections for all the ribbon cables, between modular PCB's (Like the one on the bottom with a antenna, USB port, Speaker, Mic and capacitive touch buttons, and others... The ribbon just comes around from behind, and attaches via a snap in connection to a receptacle soldered onto the corresponding PCB. In the video of the guy taking it apart, he just goes around and pops up 5 or 6 of these in about 10 seconds total time elapsing. Anyway, check out the middle section of the video I post here, right after he pulls the rear frame off... you'll see...

Bottom line? It's maybe NOT too late for the OP... Granted the more he runs it with a short or worse, the more potential damage. But in my experience it is REALLY difficult to get ALL the water out of a current design phone. It just travels from section to section, His best option (besides either trashing it or paying for repairs is doing what I did. Parts are readily available from Hong Kong, and short of the Screen/Digitizer, most are reasonably priced. Good luck with it. Get a jewelers screwdriver, and a plastic "separator" before starting. My only warning: When separating the main frames, after removing the 7 screws holding the two main frames together, use a CURVED separator, and try to bend the frame that’s the back of the phone OUTWARD a little bit. In other words, pull it OUT as well as spreading the two halves. I did not have a curved plastic tool, just a straight one, and as I pulled the two halves apart, I did not bend it out (away from an inner opening, that tabs go into from the back frame, and I snapped one of the inner openings edges. Think of it as tiny tabs that you want to pull up out of a depression before pulling the parts directly away from each other.

Aww, hell, just watch the video closely, I repeated some sections a few times before trying the procedures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf6jqYejWNU

Sorry for the lengthy post, but if I can save ONE person the pain of losing a good friend, then I think my life van finally have true meaning. Or something like that. :rolleyes: