I was at the pool and it fell in and wont to turn on
We’ve been having a rash of people getting thier Sansas wet recently on various player boards. It never fails to amaze me that the FIRST thing the shocked owner wants to do upon discovery of the wet device is try to turn it on to see if it still works. HELLO! If it wasn’t damaged before, you’ve got a better than even chance of frying just by pressing that power button now!
The circumstances of the “swim” may determine the likelihood of restoring the player to it’s original factory-fresh, squeaky-clean state (pun intended). If you think about it, if the player and/or you get dunked into the swimming pool, chances are the player was on when it hit the water, possibly causing a short in the electronics. A player that suffers this type of accident has less of a chance of being resurrescted as the damage is probably already done.
If, however you go to move your laundry from the washing machine into the dryer and discover your Sansa in your pants pocket, yes it will be soaked, BUT chances are it was powered off (which is why you forgot it was in your pants) and I would think you’d have a better chance of reviving the unit with patience and careful drying out procedures. The key word here being P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E!
Do a search for water, washing machine, pool, wet, etc. in the search box & you’ll discover this has happend to many people, but more importantly good informed tips & suggestions on how you’ll have the best chance of avoiding having to buy a new player.
You may also notice in reading all these discussions on this subject that more often than not, most of the advice is ignored in the person’s haste to see if their precious Sansa is dead. The key word here again is what, class? That’s right! Letting it air dry overnight isn’t going to do anything to help. You’ve got to give a few days at minimum. Water is a confined area isn’t going to evaporate that quickly. A week would be better. If your player can be dis-assembled, all the better.
There’s a lot of good information on this board provided by well-meaning and caring folk. And all you’ve got to do is look for it. But please, use some common sense too. DON’T TRY TO TURN ON AN ELECTRIC OR ELECTRONIC DEVICE WHILE IT IS WET!!!
Don’t be one of these people who “have more dollars than sense” or pretty soon you won’t have either. 
Ummm, the Clip is technically ALWAYS “on” as there is no true hardware OFF switch that completely breaks the battery connection. There is always a small current draw internally and adding dirty water (= conductive, due to ionic comtamination) can and will provide other current paths. This is what kills wet electronics; if the water is absolutely pure it has no polar ions in solution and is non-conductive thus no more harmful than air. Unfortunately even the PC board itself (in the Clip) has residual contaminants on it and these will serve to produce the conductivity no matter how clean the water.
Conductivity is only a problem with a voltage applied, which again is always the case with the Clip…
If it gets wet, immersing it again is not a very good idea unless it is cracked open first and the battery actually disconnected. This is not easy to do.
I think the best solution is to just allow it to dry by itself in a moderately warmed, dry environment (no higher than 35 deg. C or 115 F) overnight, and if that doesn’t fix it, you might as well try anything because it’s probably toast anyway.
Best of luck
@click wrote:
Ummm, the Clip is technically ALWAYS “on” as there is no true hardware OFF switch that completely breaks the battery connection. There is always a small current draw internally . . .
Hmmm, I didn’t know that . . . I was ‘generally’ speaking and ‘randomly’ ranting.
@click wrote:
. . . you might as well try anything because it’s probably toast anyway.
You’re probably right . . . butter & jam, anyone? :smileyvery-happy:
Immersion in deionized water is actually applying an insulator to the device, as DI water is non-conductive. It’s the salts or ionic component of “tap” water that conducts electricity.
Case in point: sea water is many times more conductive than fresh water.
When the device is turned on, many more points within the device circuitry become energized, multiplying the opportunities for damage. Current leakage can cause circuits to become oscillators, feedback paths can be formed, and all kinds of nastiness can cause a resulting digital maelstrom that the devices were not designed for.
Remember that re-immersion in ordinary water is a bad idea.
As they say, dilution is the solution, as washing the conductive materials in a flow of DI “solvent” away from the circuitry is key.
Remember that water damage is NOT a covered situation under the warranty. This kind of accident is just part of life, and SanDisk’s great price on these machines makes the emergency less of a burden.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
If it’s dried, the damage has already been done. The inner workings of these devices are very small indeed. I had a Clip survive a cleaning via the clothes washer, and my daughter found the device while still wet, before it went through the dryer.
Once a Clip has “gone swimming”, the warranty cannot apply, of course.
In my personal case, I didn’t feel too bad, since I would like to get another Fuze for my wife anyway 
but she still likes the convenience of the wee Clip around the house.
I took the soggy device through the lab for some work, and with the right equipment, it is squeaky clean. Oh, and the dust specks in the display are all gone too!
In the fire department, we ran into soaked Motorola pacsets regularly, from drops onto the ground amidst plenty of runoff water. We would run the devices through a bath in DI water, in an ultrasonic tub, then a bath in 2-propanol as a dessicant. They seemed to always come back from the dead! Those radios are expensive, over a thousand a copy.
Bob 
i tried to turn my sansa clip on and the nothing worked than a few hours later. it turned on and now it is really broken
