Nintendo Switch Liquid Damage, lost cause?

Ryguy92250

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Hey all!

I recently took a flight to TX, and during TSA a liquid beverage can got punctured and spilled all over my laptop and nintendo switch! Sucks, haha.

It's been a few weeks, and the Switch has completely dried, and I also opened it up with high quality IPA to clean it up and make sure there's no, at at least normal eyesight, residue or gunk.

It lost the touchscreen function, SD card is very hit or miss for connecting, and the game catridge slot is just not function at all. The right joycon rail detects, syncs, and charges any right joy con, but the left joy con rail doesn't work, nor would a replacement work either - I'm guessing there is a mainboard issue preventing it from working. The wifi, bluetooth, usb c port, dock, wireless joy con play, pro controller play, and digital content worked just fine. Essentially, I could still use it as a fully docked console and just play with a digital library.

Well, I got myself a new OLED switch, and was going to give this switch to a friend who would only use it in docking mode, with the caveats listed above. He doesn't have one, so any switch play > none at all! So I went to clear up the data, and decided to do the switch initialization - mistakes were made - and now it is stuck on the "connect both joy cons" to proceed.

Since the right joy con rail functions properly, I can easily slide in and connect it. However, I cannot get the switch to detect any left joy con because the mainboard has sustained liquid damage in a way that prevents it. I did try a new left joy con rail, still nothing.

I saw a post made about using some pc software off the SD card to bypass the screen, but since the SD card reader barely functions, I don't think it will work, and I certainly don't want to risk bricking the system. I can still enter maintenance mode, and I can confirm that the left joy con is not being detected, and that the right joy con is detected. Also, if I dock the switch, and use a pro controller that's connected usb c -> usb directly to the dock, the system does detect it, and pressing buttons makes noises, but it still won't allow me to go past that initalization screen.


Is there a way to force the switch at the initialization screen to sync the left joy con, or force the switch to be in pairing mode, using either the initialization screen or the maintenance screen? Or is this just a lost cause, and the Switch is just too fargone to use?

Thanks for any information and taking time to respond,

- Ryan
 

OhItsSlick

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Fortunately all of those components are easily replaceable. Though before you go down that route, I suggest you give cleaning these components another try. A brush of some sort and IPA should work. The goal is to clean the corrosion on the pins within these components.
 

Ryguy92250

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Fortunately all of those components are easily replaceable. Though before you go down that route, I suggest you give cleaning these components another try. A brush of some sort and IPA should work. The goal is to clean the corrosion on the pins within these components.
Thanks for the quick and thorough reply! I will do my best to continue to clean around the left joy-con area, hopefully I'll be able to remove any corrosion. Really hoping its not a mainboard issue, bc its a 2017 hackable switch, even though its not being used in that capacity as of yet. It would just be tough to replace the mainboard haha.
 

l7777

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Find a repair shop with an ultrasonic cleaner. Remove all the boards and have them cleaned. If they don't work after that, it's time to start replacing components and searching the boards for corrosion. This of course will have some escalating costs associated with it.
 
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OhItsSlick

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Thanks for the quick and thorough reply! I will do my best to continue to clean around the left joy-con area, hopefully I'll be able to remove any corrosion. Really hoping its not a mainboard issue, bc its a 2017 hackable switch, even though its not being used in that capacity as of yet. It would just be tough to replace the mainboard haha.
I'd remove the joycon rail from the chassis, wouldn't want to get IPA on the screen. It's held by 5 screws.
 
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