So, I just washed my SP

[neuropolitique]

yup. Left it in my pants, threw em in the wash, and now have a thoroughly soaked SP. I had Sword of Mana in it at the time, but I'm fairly certain it should be ok. The SP on the other hand... I'm disassembling it as far as I dare, and I'll check it tomorrow.

Who thinks I'm screwed? :roll:

[wberdan]

i have *HEARD* (so dont take my word for this)- that what you should do in this case is submerge the item in a jug of clean distilled water and perhaps do a couple "flushings".
then let it dry by air.

if you try it, please let me know if it works


willie

[neuropolitique]

Yeah, in theory that should work. It's not the water that destroys electronics, it's the impurities in the water.

But, I have no distilled water, and I'm impatient. I already have the board out. There is a lot of some kind of gunk all over the solder points for the shoulder buttons. No idea if it's build up or a result of the wash. It doesn't appear elsewhere, so maybe this is the reason the shoulder buttons are flaky?

I'm moving on to the screen next. I find that I'm a lot braver when the unit is nonfunctional.

[-hellvin-]

You have made a very large mistake. Hope ya get it fixed up.

[captain nintendo]

*Homer Simpson*

DOH !

*Homer Simpson*


I hope it works for you. Those things arent cheap.

[FantasiaWHT]

Who remembers EGM testing the original GBA by flushign it down a toilet and it still working?

Or the story about the guy who lost it in the front yard over winter, it was buried under snow, and they found it when the snow melted, dried it out, and it worked fine?

[VACRMH]

Or the story about the guy who lost it in the front yard over winter, it was buried under snow, and they found it when the snow melted, dried it out, and it worked fine?

I remember that one, I think I read it in an old NP

Good luck neuropolitique

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Wow, I thought I was the only person to ever do this.

I did this exact same thing a few months ago with my SP. Well, It was in the wash for a total of one minute, but it was still soaking wet. What I did was, took the game out, set it pcb-side up to let it dry. I shook the hell out of it, and the SP until no more water flew out. I then opened the SP, unfolding it, took out the battery, and set it in a dark area on top of a dishrag for 2 days. I was incredibly surprized to find out that it still worked. Good luck man, but you should be alright.
MAKE SURE IT'S COMPLETELY DRY FIRST!

[WiseSalesman]

Lucky you. My fucking liquid crystal crack a couple of weeks ago from the pressure changes in an airplane (i know it wasn't a puncture, as it was in my pocket the whole time, closed, and fine before I got on the plane). I'm calling Nintendo tomorrow to complain and see what they can do about it.

[tholly]

damn man.....good luck with that......just dont try using it until it is completely dry...i know you said you are impatient.....but, wait this one out a little bit

[neuropolitique]

Unfortunately, mine went through the entire cycle. I really didn't want to let it dry on it's own, because of all the soap and dirt that probably got in it from the wash.

So, last night I completely disassembled my SP, and used a paper towel to dry everything. The only thing I couldn't dry was the LCD. There was no good way to get behind the glass to dry it. It appeared that it was just glued together, but I didn't really want to push it. I spent a lot of time cleaning the solder points for the shoulder buttons. It appeared like they were corroded, but I'm not sure there was enough time since the wash for that to occur. I ended up using a brass brush ( very lightly!!) to remove as much as I could. Then I reassembled everything, got a known good game, and turned it on,

*Bling!*

It turned right on. All the buttons worked fine, the LCD light, everything. Only real problem I had was the moisture in the LCD caused the light to not work very effectively. I figure when that dries completely it should be fine.

I can't believe it. This is one sturdy piece of hardware. Besides this, I keep in in my front pocket at all times. So much so that my pants are worn where it sits. It receives all types of abuse during my day, and it always works. Too bad Nintendo, I almost had to buy a new SP. :P

[QBert]

Awesome news!! Glad to hear its running fine.

Maybe you can start a service...GBA cleaning services!
You dirty em up, we'll clean em up!
We only use the highest of high pressure washers from our friends at Maytag. :)

[Mr.FoodMonster]

See, I told you!

[neuropolitique]

Awesome news!! Glad to hear its running fine.

Maybe you can start a service...GBA cleaning services!
You dirty em up, we'll clean em up!
We only use the highest of high pressure washers from our friends at Maytag. :)

hehe, might get more business than you think. People are rough with thier toys.

[DasCrewShtool]

I have had a couple of run ins with stuff getting wet, one of the maint guys was repairing something in my apt and smacked my aquarium with his tool belt, so I had 100 gal of water flooding my living room, I had my PS2 on the floor and it got soaked, I used some denatured alcohol and deoxit on it and it still plays fine to this day, I was a little bit more worried about scooping my fish up off of the floor to grab the PS2 or I think it would have been dry.

[Predatorxs]

Thats cool... it worked, the one thing you need to remember is as as long as you don't turn it back on when there is even a hint of moister on any of the board.. it should be ok!

I had something similiar happen to me my nokia 8310 was completly soaked i stripped it down to the board, and dried it all off and stood it on the fire place (above the fire) and let the rising heat dry out all the joints and contacts..

Like i said as long as power doesn't go through the board and contacts when the pcb is wet, it should be ok..

Trust good old ninty!.... if you washed a game gear it would have come out the wash in bits LOL :o LOL hahahhha

:vamp:..XS