water damage

Liquid Damage Service / Recovery

Liquid damage is by far the worst thing that can happen to your Phone or Computer. It is the most pervasive type of damage as it get’s into every nook, cranny and component in the device. It also has the most misinformation given & understood by both “techs” and customers alike.

Why water damage is so bad.

liquid damage

Water damage is brutal because of how it damages electronics. If the device is on or turned on after liquid contact then components can immediately short / fail and take heavy damage instantaneously. This means that open ended circuit board repairs are almost guaranteed especially if the devices are no longer powering on.  If a device no longer powers on then that makes testing other components specific to the device difficult and that may mean other parts of the computer or phone are also damaged.

Liquid Damaged Phones are for "DATA ONLY"

phone data recovery

If your Phone has liquid damage all the way through the device we can offer our Data Recovery Service. We do not service liquid damaged phones for the sake of the device. ANYONE WHO DOES IS DOING YOU A DISSERVICE! Why is that you ask? Liquid damage repairs on phones are NOT practical. They cost a lot of money to replace components, they rarely work 100% after they leave the shop. They have cascading failures, basically expect more issues down the road. People do not like going more than an hour without their device and liquid damage repairs take days-weeks to resolve, especially board level issues. Under qualified techs do junk repairs by simply “scrubbing” your phone with alcohol and not going any further. Most shops get the phone on and hope the repair sticks and often do them with no warranty. Save your money and time and headaches and go buy a new phone. We offer a comprehensive data recovery service for liquid damaged phones. We will repair the device enough to get the data off only.

Liquid is not the only issue...

water damage

Many people are under the impression that by drying the liquid they are doing the right thing to solve the issue. This is actually not true. The problem is that when the liquid dries it leaves behind deposits and causes components and circuitry to corrode and burn. Often corrosion can be unseen and accumulate underneath BGA chips that connections under the component causing shorts. It is necessary to clean the main circuit board in order to relieve shorts using an Ultra Sonic Cleaner but usually does not resolve all the issues.

Rice is for dinner! Not a repair tool...

Rice is not going to bring back your electrically failed chips and components, rice is not going to clean or remove corrosion and rice is not going dry your tightly sealed device or repair burned or damaged connectors and traces. Simply put, if you have stuck a device in rice in the past and your device came back to life the next day or so then you got lucky. It had nothing to do with the rice. It was either going to work after drying on it’s own or it was not. Liquid damage is a PROGRESSIVE type of damage and it get’s worse the longer you wait to have the device taken apart and properly assessed. Putting your device in a bag of rice and praying is a bad idea especially if you have important data. Take action and save the rice for dinner.

Computer Water Damage Service

water damage

We do offer peripheral component liquid damage repairs on Computers. Basically, if your computer has liquid and still turns on but your keyboard, display, trackpad or other peripheral component is failed it may be a candidate for repair. We will offer a free assessment and go from there. If the internal motherboard has severe liquid damage it may not be practical for repair and we can offer to recover the data. It is a case by case thing.

water damage

What if my Keyboard or Trackpad has liquid damage?

When it comes to liquid damage we need to check the rest of the internals to insure the device is a candidate for repair. We replace liquid damaged peripheral components such as keyboards, trackpads and so on. However, if the computer has severe liquid damage such as corrosion on the motherboard or burns etc, we may decline the device for repair.

Why won't you fix my liquid damaged motherboard?

The reasons are many but here are some of the main reasons.

Motherboard repairs take a significant amount of time and therefore cost between 200-350 to fix or replace.

We don’t know what other components are failed until we have a working motherboard. We would have to charge for the logic board repair regardless if there are other issues such as a bad keyboard etc. Makes it hard to accurately quote.

Cascading failures, once a board has failed and get’s fixed it is likely that although the computer may work when it leaves will likely experience some other failure down the road.

Not cost effective & not time effective. Simply put, it takes too long for the customer and costs too much.

Another shop offers liquid damaged phone repairs for reasons other then data recovery.

You roll the dice on this one. It is probably a waste of your time and hard earned money.

Most water damaged devices will have other issues.

Most techs do not do a comprehensive service and only do the basic requirements to get the phone on.

You will not have a phone until the repair is done, can take some time to do.

You will likely not get a warranty on liquid damaged device repair.

Expect to pay a premium. May as well put it towards a new device.

They don’t offer low lever board repair. We do and that means we have the best shot at getting your data. Another shop may say there is no hope because of low capability.

Can you just dry out my wet device?

We can, but it will likely not work. There is usually so much more damage that happens the instant the liquid hits the device that just wiping down a computer can fix.

How difficult of a repair is this?

From moderate to extreme. The most difficult repairs are severe liquid damaged devices for the sake of data recovery. We have to access all the damage to try and get the device working in order for data recovery.

Can you just take the chip off my phone and get the data?

On older NON-APPLE phones we can. However almost all phones within the last 2 years have encryption built into the device. This means we need to get the phone working and enter your password if it has one in order to get the information. This is why the process is so difficult.

How long does this repair take?

This repair takes roughly 2-7 business days depending on shipping if a part is needed. For data recovery only between 1-4 days for computers. For data recovery for smartphones between 1-4 weeks.