Can Apple Genii easily tell water damage?

meady100 · 10 Sep 2009 at 11:02

Hi all! As above really, my poor old 1st gen iPhone had a brush with a heavy storm, and it's dead as a doornail. I'm going to the genius bar soon with it. Do you think it's worth coming clean about what happened or just act dumb? I know there is the water sensor inside, I just wasn't sure how easily accessible that was by a genius. Anyone had experience of what they might do - repair/swap for a fee etc?

Thanks!!

S.

HEADRAT · 10 Sep 2009 at 11:04

They will know if it's been water damaged, friend went in recently with one he's accidentally dropped in a river!

PardonTheWait · 10 Sep 2009 at 11:05

There's three, two of which are easily visible. They'll spot it, there's no point lying to them.

meady100 · 10 Sep 2009 at 11:23

Ah thanks guys - good to know, I'll just come clean then!

geekyEd · 10 Sep 2009 at 11:36

This thread prompted me to take a look at the sensors you can se on my 3g, Now the dock sensor is white, but I dont seem to have a headphone sensor it all seems silver :s

Irish_Tom · 10 Sep 2009 at 14:35

Yeah it's easy to tell - get a torch and shine it down there.

Panzer

PardonTheWait · 10 Sep 2009 at 18:02

BluZiff said:
This thread prompted me to take a look at the sensors you can se on my 3g, Now the dock sensor is white, but I dont seem to have a headphone sensor it all seems silver :s

They go pink when they're set off

Vonhelmet · 10 Sep 2009 at 18:22

Even without sensors, it would get picked up on. When I was at uni 7 years ago my friend dropped her 8210 in the loo. Nokia sent it back with a blown up photo of the circuit board showing where the circuits had shorted and scorched the board.

pingwing · 11 Sep 2009 at 00:39

vonhelmet said:
Even without sensors, it would get picked up on. When I was at uni 7 years ago my friend dropped her 8210 in the loo. Nokia sent it back with a blown up photo of the circuit board showing where the circuits had shorted and scorched the board.

WOW! Sounds like a really cool set of photos to get in the post!

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 11 Sep 2009 at 14:55

pingwing said:
WOW! Sounds like a really cool set of photos to get in the post!

They did the same for my EOS 20D when that was corroded from water damage on the main PCB

xrs · 12 Sep 2009 at 02:18

My dog licked mine and set the sensor off. What a bitch.

Irish_Tom · 12 Sep 2009 at 09:27

A screen-cleaning wipe set something off on my MBP screen.

I got the dreaded 'dirt-behing-the-glass' problem. Took it in for a replacement and they phoned me asking about water damage.

Panzer

Vertigo · 12 Sep 2009 at 12:37

Sounds to me like these sensors are a bit too sensitive! If reports I've read of phones being rejected for repair on the grounds of water damage when they've not been in contact with water are true, then presumably simple moisture could trigger the sensors.

Bringing the phone from a cold environment to a warm, humid one would cause a lot of moisture to condense on it and possibly trigger the sensors.

BYTEr · 12 Sep 2009 at 18:38

My 34 day old iPhone 3GS recently died, apparently down to water damage, I can 100% & conclusively say that's impossible, I've never looked after something so attentively, fuming tbh.

Catching the train and going down myself to the Apple store in Bristol to see what they say, I'm defently not paying £140 to get it repaired.

"andy" · 12 Sep 2009 at 18:47

you might be in luck with a 1st gen one ! a mate dropped his in a pitcher. after some calls to apple claiming he didnt now why his iphone didnt turn on they sent a courier to collect it. few days later he just got a call saying they cant fix it and that they would send him a refurb. dont know what happened but a 3g model came through his door !

oh and to make it all seem even more unbelievable it was 2nd hand from ebay too!

my uncle however took his 3g one into the apple shop and they pretty much laughed at him and snt him away with a silly priced estimation for a fix

scruffeh · 16 Sep 2009 at 15:33

I can't believe that they'll take the time to put water sensors on the iPhone, but neglect to fix the problem with iPods pausing themself after a year or so. Bunch of greedy ****s.

LiE · 16 Sep 2009 at 16:48

scruffeh said:
I can't believe that they'll take the time to put water sensors on the iPhone, but neglect to fix the problem with iPods pausing themself after a year or so. Bunch of greedy ****s.

It's a pretty standard thing in electronic devices.

Fillado · 16 Sep 2009 at 16:56

It is! ALL mobile phones have them - somewhere under where you put the battery is the norm.

It's just to make support claims easier for them. All they do (well, with phones where you can actually remove the battery...) is flip the phone over as soon as they get it and see if it has been water damaged. If so they can just send it back without having to go any further.

PardonTheWait · 16 Sep 2009 at 18:37

scruffeh said:
I can't believe that they'll take the time to put water sensors on the iPhone, but neglect to fix the problem with iPods pausing themself after a year or so. Bunch of greedy ****s.

Yeah! They should replace your iPod when you drop it down the toilet instead!

That makes perfect sense!

scruffeh · 17 Sep 2009 at 10:47

msm722 said:
It's a pretty standard thing in electronic devices.

Interesting. I didn't know that.

PardonTheWait said:
Yeah! They should replace your iPod when you drop it down the toilet instead!

That makes perfect sense!

"See, here's the pulse. And this is your finger, far away from the pulse, jammed straight up your ass. Say, would you like a chocolate covered pretzel?"

In other words, you really have missed the point.