Did your poor little Sansa go swimming with you? Drop it in a mud puddle? The toilet? (Ewww!) Forget to take it out of your pants pocket and Mom or your wife/husband (or maybe even you) sent it through the washing machine? Get caught sitting on the ‘hot seat’ of a dunk tank at the company picnic and forget to empty your pockets first?
There’s a number of existing threads here on the forum on this subject, scattered across different boards. And everytime this happens to someone new, another seems to be created. I ran across this on-line article today, and while it talks about smartphones and water, the same principles apply to any pocket-sized portable electronic device, like our beloved mp3 players.
Note that Step #1 in the article specifically says (and I can’t stress this enough) . . .
“Whatever you do, don’t turn it on to check to see if it still works!”
Hopefully, anyone unlucky enough for this to happen to (and smart enough to use the Search function here on the forum) will come across this post in the search results. While the results are spotty, you may be able to save yourself some grief and money.
Over the years, I have restored several Sansas from a trip through Davy Jones’ locker. The key is to remove any conductive material, as water contains dissolved minerals (ions) that conduct electrical current. When flushing out the device, distilled water is excellent, since it contains no minerals. Distilled water is actually an insulator.
The dessicant method mentioned is critical. Dry rice is amazingly hygroscopic, meaning that the rice has a strong affinity for water, and will dry the device very nicely after it is shaken out.
About that shaking concept: shaking involves rapid changes in velocity, in hope that the water trapped inside will “fling out”. Shaking is better than banging the device against a countertop, since there can be too much of a good thing,and the internal bettery, display, et cetera might not fare so well under the onslaught. I prefer an improved centrifugal method:
Grab a clean, dry tube sock , and plop that Sansa inside. Now, being careful that you don’t smack your significant other with the whirling sock- keep a firm grip on that sock’s open end and play rodeo cowboy, spinning the secured device for a few seconds. Again, a word of caution! you may have valuables scattered about the room, so be careful that you don’t send the device flinging across the room.
Place the rice in a small bag, and with the Sansa added to the rice, leave it in a warm dry place for a day or two.
The device can then be recharged after it’s completely dry. Be patient, and you may be lucky!
