HELP!!!!Water Damaged iPhone

I just used the ultrasonic cleaner method on an iphone 4CDMA dropped in salt water. I cleaned the main board and used another handset to reassemble. I got 28gb worth of data with a cellebrite physical dump. I used isopropyl alcohol in th ultrasonic cleaner.

Eric

@jhup
JFYI here de-mineralized or deionized water is what you put in steam irons, and is much cheaper than distilled water (what you put in car/truck batteries).

Strangely enough isopropyl alcohol is (besides practically nowhere to be found) rather expensive due to some regulation Laws, as a matter of fact you can only find it in a few specialized shops which provide materials and chemicals for wood restoration and similar.

Of course a ultrasonic cleaner is a good idea, but unlike the other suggested tools is not something that everyone has, and expecially if the submersed thingy is larger than a mobile phone (let's say an iPad or a laptop) you would need a very large one.

The 48/49° are good as well, any piece of electronics can stand much higher temperatures, if you forget by mistake your handy in your car with the car under the sun in a sunny summer day it may easily be "cooked" at much more than that, like 60 or even 70°.

jaclaz

From a recovered exhibit perspective there is an important issue to be considered regarding the procedure to be actioned for dealing with exposure to water etc and whether those actions interfere with any possible 'fingerprint' / 'DNA' tests that might need to be conducted.

Another technique for dealing with water damaged phones is this
[…]
Step 4 Put the PCB in an ultrasonic cleaner machine (like for cleaning jewelry) with distilled water and 2-3 drops of hand soap. (If you can, use isopropyl alcohol instead of the water/soap mixture as it will need much less time for drying). Clean for about 4-5 minutes at the highest setting.

[…]

(my emphasis)

Are you sure about these?

Yes. This is one of the procedures that we learned during the Mobile Phone Repair / Chip-off Forensics Training given by TeelTech. It has worked almost every time that I tried it. The other times, the corrosion was so severe that it had already damaged pins of electronic chips.

Here, you can find isopropyl alcohol in pretty much every electronics repair store.

Here is a link to the Ultrasonic Cleaner we're using http//www.ibreakityoufixit.com/shop/catalog/2

From a recovered exhibit perspective there is an important issue to be considered regarding the procedure to be actioned for dealing with exposure to water etc and whether those actions interfere with any possible 'fingerprint' / 'DNA' tests that might need to be conducted.

Yep, just for the record
http//www.ucidiver.com/fingerprint_study.html

Standard procedure for almost any piece of evidence recovered is to test it for latent prints. Any piece of evidence recovered from underwater should also be tested for prints, no matter the amount of time spent beneath the surface.

Jaclaz's personal comment on the following

Finally, it would be prudent if a more thorough study, using more "realistic" conditions, greater times spent underwater, more types of surfaces and more methods of detection and enhancement, were performed.

is of course

If you have these doubts why don't you carry those experiments? They don't sound exactly like brain surgery or space technology, do they?

jaclaz

Here's the question. Working case where the iPhone was submerged in water. I put it in rice, but know that it was in water for a long period so im not even going to try powering it on for 2-3 days. Is there any chance at me doing an exam on that phone or is there any methods that someone can give me?

have you got a dehumidifier? You can use it to dry the phone?
Is it fresh or salted water?

I had a case last year with phone that had been exposed to the elements for about 6 months. It was fairly wet when we got it. A buddy of mine rigged a contraption which had a box with a fish tank heater inside it. After a day or so the phone worked.

With the rice in a tupperware thing I'm wondering if "slightly" warming a sealed bowl with a hair dryer might assist in the process?

With the rice in a tupperware thing I'm wondering if "slightly" warming a sealed bowl with a hair dryer might assist in the process?

You can use a hair drier directly, for that matters, using some minimal common sense avoiding heating too much the thingy (the outer plastic of a handy can bear much more than 40 or 50°, if you actually - as you should - disassemble it, the actual electronic board can bear much more than that, a common practice for smd or BGA soldering is to pre-heat the board and components to 150° then to 180° for a few minutes)

A hair drier doesn't provide that much high temperature, otherwise the world would be full of bald women. wink
If you hold the board in your bare hands and you dont' burn your fingers when using the hair drier, the board won't either. (the issue about noise is another thing)

Sealing the bowl is IMHO the actual mistake, moisture/vapour has to go somewhere and where better than evaporating outside the bowl?

Also, remember that any normal consumer electronics has a working temperature range typically within 0 and 40°, and can normally operate in high humidity environments, since someone was talking of the iPhone
http//www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Operating ambient temperature 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature −4° to 113° F (−20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude 10,000 feet (3000 m)

The Motorola RAZR, to make another example
http//www.motorola.com/mdirect/manuals/V3i_9504A48O.pdf?pubid=987654

Never expose batteries to
temperatures below -10°C (14°F) or above 45°C (113°F). Always take your phone with you when you leave your vehicle.

clarifies that the issues are more with batteries (and let me add with the finishing of the case plastics) than with actual components, as well freezing the device below recommended temperatures should affect mainly the LCD/Touch screen, and not the inner components.

jaclaz

My concerns with alcohol are the rubber, plastic and possibly the polymer parts on the PCB reacting.

As for the ultrasound, I guess if I am willing to brush with a toothbrush, it cannot be any worse, potentially loosening or breaking things.

@Jhup
Yes, I share your same opinion.
Just in case
http//tayloredge.com/reference/Science/solder_cleaning.pdf
the scope of the exercise is not (as in the above) to clean a board from flux residuals, but rather to more plainly "wash" them from possible saline/conductive deposits.

I still think that plain water (distilled or de-mineralized) rinse and if needed a previous wash with some soap and (again if needed) some scrubbing with a soft brush is all that is needed.
Manually cleaning some contacts with a cotton swab or similar with isopropyl alcohol or another solvent can still be needed, but immersing it downright in isopropyl alcohol is IMHO risky.

BTW I was talking of "real" isopropyl alcohol, something 95% or higher, it is not that other people is talking of "drugstore" isopropyl alcohol?
http//gorum.ca/clen-pcb.html

jaclaz