Blackjack bites the dust
I really like my new Blackjack phone. But yesterday, in a flurry of getting a few chores done, I got back from the store, rushed into the house to take a piss, and dropped the phone in the toilet while flipping up the seat.
It died a slow death. At first, the Windows Mobile logo appeared but it wouldn’t finish booting. Then it started making that annoying G3 whooshing sound every few minutes, but the screen stayed blank. Then a long night of silence while on the charger, and now the moisture inside appears to be well-distributed and nothing’s happening at all.
Time to go to the store and plead my case. “I swear, the screen just fogged up and it suddenly stopped working!”
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 11:41 am. You can subscribe to comments on this post through its RSS feed.
on August 19, 2007 at 1:45 pm Tom wrote:
Ouch. Lizzie laundered my Treo once, sparking a long conceptual argument about what is dirty laundry and what is still “on deck.” This argument has spread to our friends now, with the majority of people coming down on my side (you can’t put once-worn pants back in the drawer, so you put them somewhere in the bedroom to await their next wearing — Lizzie puts stuff back in the drawer and washes anything that’s out in the bedroom).
Never dropped mine in the toilet. I’ve dropped my glasses and a toothbrush in the toilet (I kept the former, replaced the latter), though, and my keys in a newspaper box. For the keys, I actually had to go home for two more quarters to buy them back.
on August 19, 2007 at 5:13 pm Doug wrote:
Man, buying your own keys back. That’s cool.
I once dropped my keys through the narrow gap at the bottom of an elevator door, at those sleazy apartments at Pratt & Sheridan. Had to get a maintenance guy to take me down into a scary dark smelly little pit in the basement, where God-knows-what had been accumulating for years, where he dug them out of the much for me. I tend to really be careful around elevators now.
on August 19, 2007 at 9:24 pm Tom wrote:
Actually, that was on my 21st birthday after coming home from a work day at Second City Software with a nicely refurbished Kaypro PC XT that you had built out for me. My mother was making a birthday dinner for me and asked me to go buy a paper for her, and in doing so I held my keys in my teeth while taking the paper out of the box. Somehow I opened my mouth a bit as I let the door slam shut, and the rest was history. It was unfortunately a Friday night and was in front of a very popular Evanston video store (Video Adventure), so there were plenty of people who watched me do it. They took the time to applaud, bless their hearts.
Not actually being a voodoo (voudou?) priest I have no idea if my homemade hex took hold on any of them, but one can hope. There were certainly no immediate frog-barfing deaths that I could see.
on August 20, 2007 at 1:51 pm Tom wrote:
So how did it go? Did they give you a new one?
And it couldn’t have been my 21st birthday when you gave me that computer — I had it long before that. Must have been my eighteenth or something. Like anyone cares but me, but I’d hate to knowingly leave an inaccurate fact on your blog.
on August 21, 2007 at 8:02 am George Siede wrote:
I have heard a rumor that there is some sort of indicator inside cell phones that changes color when submerged. This is to prevent people from returning them with a ‘gosh I just don’t know what happened’ story. Now wecan find out if that is truth or urban legend so keep us posted.
on August 23, 2007 at 3:09 pm Scott B wrote:
I know this is probly preaty common knowledge, but i will state it anyways.
If you get electronics soaked like that the best thing to do is shut it off (eg: pop the batery quick) and set it off in a dry spot to dry for a day or two. Then pop the battery back in.
The fog on the screen you saw was the water frying inside of your device and steaming it up while it was shorting out the circutry.
This is not a sure thing of course.. but allot of electronics burn out when some one tries to turn it back on while it is wet.
Just my 2cents…
*mourns the phone*
on August 24, 2007 at 11:51 am Doug wrote:
Hey guys, I just posted for the first time in a few days and saw these new comments.
Ironically, I had not seen George’s comment, but I respond to an email of his with the exact same info. yes, there’s a moisture indicator. In mine it was light red, meaning it had been immersed but not for long. They said it’s white at first, then turns pink, light red, dark red, black, depending on how long it’s underwater. So it’s not an urban legend. The guy at the Cingular store said that it happens occasionally like George described, and people want a replacement under warranty.
And well they should. Because it’s expense to just a buy a phone, when there’s no cellular-service subsidy involved. $350 in this case. So yes, Tom, I’m back in business.
Scott, you may have a point there, since it was on when it got dunked. I dried it out good, but the damage may have already been done.
on June 17, 2008 at 10:21 am Don’t call my cell phone | Doug’s World wrote:
[…] something like this has happened before. Oh well, this time I got nearly a year out of the […]
on July 3, 2008 at 10:37 pm Back on the cellular grid | Doug’s World wrote:
[…] I need to focus. Need to make this one survive, like, a month. Both the first one and the last one made it that far, so I’m optimistic. I can do […]
on August 5, 2008 at 7:13 am tcim wrote:
my cell phone dropped down a balcony. to my suprize it still worked then a week later i dropped it in pool… darn