So my cell phone fell into the sink (damn pocket unsnapped itself). It’s been about 4 hours and the innards seem to be mostly dried out, and amazingly it still seems to work (calling in/out, the menus, etc.) EXCEPT the LCD screen now is either completely blank (most of the time), or blacked out with random gibberish.
I’m hoping against hope that another few hours to dry will resolve the problem, as I’m unemployed and feckin broke (and besides which, I don’t have a duplicate copy of some of the names/numbers in my cell phone address book). But if the situation hasn’t improved by tomorrow sometime, is there a cheap or easy way to either get the screen working again, or at least get my address book off of it?
Just to offer some hope, my phone (Sanyo SCP 6200) was dropped and completely submerged in my dog’s water dish about 6 months ago. It was completely inoperable at first, but slowly regained all of its function back over the course of about 7 or 8 days. It may not help in your case, but I would wait at least a couple more days before throwing in the towel. Good luck!
Thanks… that’s what I’m hoping will happen, especially since everything else seems to work. But in case it doesn’t, I really hope there’s a way to either fix the screen cheaply or get my phone book out of there. grrr.
Oh please. I’m almost positive my phone is older then that.
Anyway, does the phone have a sim-chip?(a flat looking thing that you can pull out of the phone. It’s about the height of a stamp, and 2/3 of it’s width.) If it has a sim-chip then simply popping it into another sim-chip compatible phone(nearly all of them) will recover your address book.
The 2035 is a CDMA phone, so it doesn’t have a SIM card. But you can use a data cable (like this one) to copy the address book off your phone.
If you buy a new phone, they can probably copy your address book right there at the store. You might be able to get the new phone free, or at least cheaper than a data cable, if it’s been long enough since you bought the 2035 and/or you’re willing to sign another contract.
Unfortunately my provider doesn’t have a “store,” they do everything by mail order. I already tried asking if I just couldn’t pick up a compatible phone at an electronics store, but they told me they wouldn’t be able to activate it. Bastards. And I’d rather not buy a cable for a phone that I will no longer be using, too. bleh. I suppose I could ask if I could send my ruined phone to them to have the phone book transfered to the new, but I have a feeling shipping will be close to the price of the cable anyway.
grrr.
Is there ANY way to just open the damn thing up and get the screen working again?
I had a Nokia phone with an LCD that went bad, and was able to find a replacement screen on the internet for about $6. Had to get a special screwdriver to take the phone apart, but they threw that in for the same price. If you’re at all handy you should be able to replace it yourself.
I’m not particularly handy with electronics, though my cousin is. I have no idea if he’s trained to fix cell phones though. At the moment he’s fixing the electronic innards of slot machines (I think). I’ve emailed him to ask. (Did you know that cell phone techs want $100 for labor to fix a freakin screen??)
The guy at Radio Shack (after he tried to sell me a completely new – and more expensive – service plan) said that the techie at the Sprint store MAY be able to download my phone book, though if it costs more than $20 I might as well just buy a cable and do it myself.
The LCD display is still blank, so hope is fading that it’ll recover. sigh. are there any other cheap options I’ve overlooked? I really don’t want to spend $100 on a new handset.
If the screen still isn’t working, don’t expect a cheap and easy fix. Something in there is toasted, and if it’s just the screen, you’re lucky. If it’s something on the mainboard that drives the screen, well, you’re not lucky.
Who’s your cellular provider, and are you in the middle of a contract? You might want to consider switching to get a cheap phone, if you won’t have to pay a fee to get out of your current contract. The techs for Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, and U.S. Cellular should all have the necessary equipment/software to read your phone book.
