Chosen Solution
I’ve got a river water damaged iPhone 6s. I took it apart and it wasn’t too wet inside. Nevertheless I cleaned up with Isopropyl Alcohol and haven’t seen many areas with any sort of water residue. I put alcohol on the motherboard and left it to dry unplugged for a few days. • I replaced the screen because the digitizer was dead. Now it functions fine. • I plugged the phone in and battery is now 100% staying charged • The volume buttons don’t test well but I have been able to increase and decrease volume • The headphone jack works • The external speaker plays Siri voice but not iTunes music • I feel like the phone is getting hot depending on activity type such as when I Restore it. If you’re looking at the inside of the open phone the large chip area under the connectors , I put a laser thermometer on it and the lower left portion of the shield was up to 118° while the rest of the area was 108° • I checked the connectors and I had the screen come on after doing a Recovery Mode Restore from Factory then I Restored the Phone to my backup. • If you can believe it, the phone screen came on and I was able to use the phone so I closed it up and now its black again. At this point, I’m guessing it could be a motherboard issue but I’m not sure. I don’t want to buy a new one but I’m coming up empty handed.
Did you remove all the EMI shields before cleaning ? If not, cleaning isn’t of much use since 90% of components are shielded and it’s likely under shields there’s still water and residues oxydizing and slowly eating up components and traces. Water damaged phones are usually very difficult to take care of even when professionally decontaminated and turning them on before they are, it usually adds to the existing damage. Unless you have proper tools and knowledge you would need a pro to take care of your iphone at this stage.
