[DSi] Even worth trying to save?

[nasune]

This tale starts many a year ago (eleven to be precise) when I went swimming in the ocean. This was a lovely dip and much fun was had,right up to the point when a single realization occurred. I had forgotten that my DSi was still in my pocket. After quickly leaving the water (well, quickly after the realization that is, it had been the better part of an hour since I had entered the water) an attempt to assess the damage was made, and sadly it seemed like a total loss. Unfortunately, since I was on vacation at the time, I lacked the resources to open it up or try anything else until more than a week had passed and it seemed like it would never work again.
Fast forward to the present day, and I stumbled across the remains of that fateful incident. And, to be quite honest, after a quick visual inspection it doesn't look that bad (considering the circumstances). There is very little corrosion on the boards (mainly the shields, and a few connectors (some of which might be salvageable by removing the corrosion) and even the screens look somewhat intact (apart from the fore mentioned corrosion on the shielding) although these have not been pulled apart just yet.
So the question now is: Should an attempt to fix this even be made, or should I just accept my losses and use one of the other systems in my possession ( I have a DS and several 3DS systems so it's not like I actually need the DSi to play those games).

Some pics of two of the boards:

Spoiler

 

[IC_]

Doesn't look that terrible, I've seen a board with worse corrosion that still powered up and worked just fine.
Was the system completely dead? No lights, no popping sounds, nothing at all when trying to power it on or plugging in a charger?

 

[nasune]

Yeah, that's why I wondered if it was worth a shot. Originally it did turn on to a white screen, but a few days later the system had died completely (which might be due to a short caused by the residue remaining, it was seawater after all).

 

[IC_]

Not even a blinking orange light when plugging in the charger?
Still, if you have a multimeter or anything that works as a continuity tester, you can check the fuses on the mainboard, and while something obviously would have had to cause a fuse to blow, there might be a possibility that the board will work after replacing blown fuses, and cleaning the board with isopropyl alcohol using a brush to get rid of unwanted residue that might cause shorts.

 

[nasune]

Sadly no, there's no light at all (even the battery charging won't work). The LEDs themselves are fine though, so those are not the issue. I've ordered a new (cheap) multimeter since the old one met a fate of permadead by crushing, so when that one comes in (hopefully in a week or so) I'll give the fuses a try. If those are blown, I'll probably clean the boards and replace them to see if that'll help. Thank you for the help so far .

 

[FAST6191]

As above that is not bad looking at all (visuals can tell a lot but it is the water you can't see, such that is under the boards, that I worry about). Battery in is not ideal but hey. Going to be a bit of work to fix some of the pins with green death on them but again nothing too drastic.

I picked up a DSi for £10 the other week (and that was only because it had 4 bits of shovelware with it) so you might be able to find a broken one to swap things around to make a working one with if that is an easier option.

I would add on a bottle of contact cleaner (get the electrical stuff rather than automotive) to your ordering efforts. In an ideal world it would be going into a suitable ultrasonic cleaner with requisite chemicals but that is getting into real toys at that point.

If you are only doing continuity checks then you can make that easy enough with a battery, resistor and LED.

 

[nasune]

Sorry for the late response, I've been sick these past few days (touch of the flu). If I can't get it to work I'll probably get a new DSi at some point (again, no real rush since I do have several 3ds systems). It's more of a let's see if I can't get this to work again type of situation. And I should still have some contact cleaner somewhere. (Not sure where it is though, since there's enough stuff lying around that I recently discovered that I apparently have an 8mm copy of the Sound of Music, even though I have no memory of buying it)
Once the multimeter comes in though, there's one additional thing I'm going to check. I'd like to know whether the power port is working (who knows, maybe there's no power to the board period and the battery's flat after all these years).

 

[Lavender01]

ok i am so sorry for asking this but how did you not realize your dsi was in your pocket
anyhow, i hope you can save your dsi!

 

[nasune]

ok i am so sorry for asking this but how did you not realize your dsi was in your pocket
anyhow, i hope you can save your dsi!

Eh, basically I was wearing swimming trunks while playing a game whenmy father asked me to come help him. So I stuffed the DSi into my pocket to help, and immediately after we were done my brothers asked me to go swimming so I didn't really think about the DSi in between.

edit:
Quick little update. After cleaning the boards, there are more shorts so saving this wouldn't be worth it (I'd basically have to cannibalize another DSi to the point that it would be more viable to simply switch over the nand chip, although I'm not sure if that would even work). Pity, but it is what it is.