+Obilon Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 I dropped my Tom XL330 and put a tiny knick in the screen. Then a short while later a large drop of perspiration fell on the screen and found its way in thru that hole. The GPS touchscreen features quit working almost immediately. What might be the best way to get that moisture out? Will it work again once I do? Quote Link to comment
+GeoTrekker26 Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 I dropped my Tom XL330 and put a tiny knick in the screen. Then a short while later a large drop of perspiration fell on the screen and found its way in thru that hole. The GPS touchscreen features quit working almost immediately. What might be the best way to get that moisture out? Will it work again once I do? If you haven't already done so, remove the batteries immediately. Now let it dry completely with the batteries out. I would say several weeks, perhaps more if you are in a humid climate. Once it dries out completely it might work again. The big problem is that perspiration is very salty and the moisture might leave a salt bridge after it dries. The salt itself may not conduct electricity, but rather it acts as a magnet for any traces of moisture and once damp it will be an excellent conductor. The problem is more common with cell phones and one of the suggestions is to put the wet cell in rice as the rice will absorb the moisture. This isn't really recommended as the rice is very "dirty" with rice dust which is not good for the phone. However the gps tends to be better sealed than most cells, so you might consider putting a layer of rice in a tupperware type container and placing the gps face up on the rice, then sealing the container. In any case be patient and give the device lots of time to dry out. Good luck. Quote Link to comment
Fuzzyfruit Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Do as GeoTrekker26 says strip it to bits then put it in a sealed container of white rice. It worked for my touch screen phone the rice obsorbs the water like a charm. also to fix the hole put a little clear nail polish on a Qtip and rub it n the spot if the hole is small enough to fill with that. just m,ake sure you dont get it on the rest of the screen. But your best bet is to get a screen cover. and put that over it. I hope that helps. Quote Link to comment
Fuzzyfruit Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Oh i forgot to mention. wrap the gps in a bit of thin cloth or kitchen tissue paper. This stops the rice dust getting in to it Quote Link to comment
+Redwoods Mtn Biker Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Yes - rice is the answer! Quote Link to comment
+kwcahart Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Rice fixed mine. Until I dropped it and really broke it. Quote Link to comment
+Obilon Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Well, those were all really rice answers, but 1. my GPS doesn't have consumer-removable batteries, and 2. I ended up putting it face down on a glass-top stove burner on VERY low heat, with frequent progress checks. After about 20 min. the moisture was gone, but a strange discoloration remained in a thin line where the last of the moisture was...perhaps that salt residue that was mentioned. The GPS is working fine again! Thank you, all! Quote Link to comment
billybisme Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 That was a heck of a way to get rid of the moisture. I would have just let it sit out and dry naturally. Pretty much the same process with any electronics. Just don't want to turn on the power until it's fully dry. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 (edited) Your TomTom 330 uses a resistive touch screen. If you'd hit the digitizer with pure distilled water, it might have never come to your notice, but eventually something would have got in there and you'd have this same problem. Your 'salt water' is quite the conductor, and it's a microfine film of metal in the digitizer of your screen that makes it respond to your touch. Drop any conductive liquid into a void in the digitizer and you get trouble. Now, contrary to some things that have been recommended already (your moisture problem wasn't that large -- one drop!), and even THOUGH your device is now working satisfactorily, I think you'll still find trouble down the road. While you have taken the moisture out of the void, but the conductive salts remain, just waiting for the humidity to rise or any other moisture to hop in and start the trouble again. IF you do run into future problems (or to avoid them), the best solution would be to first swab out the crack with pure anhydrous isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol), but few people have access to that reagent. That can flush out both the salt and any oils. The stuff you buy at the store is at best 70%, and the remaining 30% is water. Still, that's better than anything else that comes to mind. After carefully swabbing out the crack, the easiest solution would be to find yourself a screen protector for your unit (can help you avoid the dings down the road, too). While I do not prefer the feel of the Zagg screen protectors when panning the map on a device (they feel a bit tacky at the beginning until a bit of skin oil gets on them from use), they are exceptionally durable, and will seal out any additional crud from getting into that crack that might be conductive and cause the digitizer to act up again. Your question and answer session would be of interest to users here as well: www.tomtomforums.com Edited July 6, 2012 by ecanderson Quote Link to comment
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