Water damage, is my 3ds doomed.

[Thejax]

So, I was an idiot and had my 3ds in my pocket, (new 3ds xl) and the caused it to fall in my toilet for about 6 seconds.

In my process of drying it out (hadn’t opened it up yet) I hit the power button (I shut it off right after pulling it out) and got a blue light and nothing else, I could force it to shut off and it did after about 2 minutes.

I’m going to open it up to dry out, but is it ruined at this point? Worst part is I overlayed for this thing

 

[Niels Van Son]

First, let it dry. Clean it with a cloth. Try to leave it for a day or so, then you can try to power it on again. If it still gives you a blue light and nothing else, it's possible that the water got into the screen connectors on the motherboard.

Also take the battery out.

EDIT: Check out this post https://gbatemp.net/threads/new-3ds-stuck-on-black-screen.615233/

 

[Thejax]

Will do, got the back off, battery out and almost got the actual back off but had to run inside first.

Time for fuuuun

 

[ghjfdtg]

Bad advise. Never leave the battery in water damaged devices. This will damage them even further.

Remove the battery and put it on the heater for 1-2 weeks or better disassemble it as much as you can and let it dry for several days.

 

[Niels Van Son]

True, sorry if what I said implied that the battery should be left in, it should not

 

[Thejax]

Well I, uh.

I’ll let it sit out for a few days.

Funny my new micro SD Card for this was coming today

 

[Hayato213]

Dry it out, take out the battery, which you did so that is good, don't turn it on.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Well I, uh.

I’ll let it sit out for a few days.

Funny my new micro SD Card for this was coming today

Cleaning all the corrosion off with IPA might resurrect it. Take special care to check the ribbon cables and connectors, corrosion on the pins can prevent them from making proper contact.
If some of the corrosion is stubborn, reflowing the solder joint with a soldering iron (and flux) can get rid of it, but if you have no soldering experience you could make things worse.
I've seen many liquid damages devices be resurrected by just cleaning the corrosion and reflowing some joints, but sometimes replacing components is necessary and figuring out what components are bad is tricky.

 

[Thejax]

Dry it out, take out the battery, which you did so that is good, don't turn it on.

Have done, just scared cause I accidentally did (first steps as wrapping the whole thing in a towel to get the first layer off, bumped the button) but it’s off and dead now

Post automatically merged: Feb 22, 2023

Cleaning all the corrosion off with IPA might resurrect it. Take special care to check the ribbon cables and connectors, corrosion on the pins can prevent them from making proper contact.
If some of the corrosion is stubborn, reflowing the solder joint with a soldering iron (and flux) can get rid of it, but if you have no soldering experience you could make things worse.
I've seen many liquid damages devices be resurrected by just cleaning the corrosion and reflowing some joints, but sometimes replacing components is necessary and figuring out what components are bad is tricky.

Honestly at that far of a point I’d try my chances with the local game store/repairs shop I bought it from

Post automatically merged: Feb 23, 2023

Triple posting is bad form but, wondering a bit more in time scales. I saw some things that said just a couple days, some that said months.

It appears very dry here on the onset of 24 hours, even considered putting it near a heat for a bit (the heater in question actually being my GPU)

 

[Thejax]

Finale, it was dead.

Both screens have a texture to it, and all it does it boot to luma menu with the down on DPAD forced down

 

[caipora]

RICE
Put all of the console parts into a bow of dry, clean rice
It sucks out umidity

 

[linuxares]

RICE
Put all of the console parts into a bow of dry, clean rice
It sucks out umidity

Rice doesn't do shit... it's a old myth. If it was so effective at pulling moister all rice in the world would never be dry.

Kitty litter that is Silica or even better Silica bags.

 

[nWo]

Exactly. Leave it a couple of days totally submerged in rice. That should help you a bit.

 

[caipora]

Silica bags

Makes sense... I had the impression that it was probably a myth in the moment i was writing the comment :'-)

Exactly. Leave it a couple of days totally submerged in rice. That should help you a bit.

That's what i'm talking about!

 

[Kwyjor]

and all it does it boot to luma menu with the down on DPAD forced down

This is a contradiction. How can you say it's "dead" if you can get to the Luma menu..?

Unfortunately replacing the top screen in particular is known to be quite the ordeal.

 

[linuxares]

This is a contradiction. How can you say it's "dead" if you can get to the Luma menu..?

Unfortunately replacing the top screen in particular is known to be quite the ordeal.

I've seen Tronicsfix change them... it's that annoying hinge that is the big pain in the butt.

 

[JackTheFroster]

Finale, it was dead.

Both screens have a texture to it, and all it does it boot to luma menu with the down on DPAD forced down

seems like parts for booting into the firmware are like "shorted" or "corroded" or simply dead. idk. just remember that water on a powered board is damaging parts. Next time, be sure to let it dry first. Never check a powered off device if its still working after it fell into water, this will lead to damage if you're unlucky.

I've seen Tronicsfix change them... it's that annoying hinge that is the big pain in the butt.

It is indeed painful. i have ripped several ribbon cables in this process because you need to bend it really weird to let it fit through everything. At least you need the right tools which i probably dont have. still managed to fix two 3ds consoles. But i will probably never do this again ;-;

 

[Kwyjor]

seems like parts for booting into the firmware are like "shorted" or "corroded" or simply dead.

If the firmware wasn't working, it wouldn't be booting at all.

 

[JackTheFroster]

If the firmware wasn't working, it wouldn't be booting at all.

i would rather say some parts of the nand are corrupted, maybe even the whole nand. if luma gets into configuration screen, the system can at least read the boot file in the nand or maybe even just the sd card boot file. but if luma cannot boot to homescreen, it must be the firmware or at least an outdated luma version. if boot9strap is working, the nand could potentially still function. i dont know actually, its just an assumption. but to be sure, there is a way on boot9strap github readme:

LED Status Codes​

By holding X + Start + Select during boot, or if either FIRM file is corrupt, the notification LED will display the following:

• SD FIRM successfully loaded: green
• SD FIRM missing, CTRNAND FIRM successfully loaded: yellow
• SD FIRM corrupt, CTRNAND FIRM successfully loaded: orange
• SD FIRM missing, CTRNAND FIRM also missing: white
• SD FIRM missing, CTRNAND FIRM corrupt: magenta
• SD FIRM corrupt, CTRNAND FIRM also corrupt: red
• In addition to the above, the LED will blink if it is actually a ntrboot boot

 

[Kwyjor]

The point is, boot9strap is installed to the NAND and the Luma menu (either loaded from the SD card or from the NAND) would be unreachable without boot9strap.

i would rather say some parts of the nand are corrupted

It seems very unlikely that water damage would somehow only corrupt parts of the NAND without rendering it completely inoperable. (It's hard to imagine anything capable of doing that.)