When you remove the battery you will see a small pink dot in the lower right corner. This is not the real water damage indicator. The real water damage paper, with the pink crosses, is inside the back cover.
Remove all the 8 screws on the back part using your Philips screwdriver. Make sure you choose the correct screwdriver for the screw size to prevent shaving the top of the screws. Next we need to remove this back cover to see the real water damage indicator. Put the screws into the plastic back cover you removed at the beginning to stop them rolling around.
The tricky part is removing this back cover. You can use a finger nail or a guitar pick. I used my fingernail first, then an old sim card like I mentioned above. You need to get the pick between the front face plate and metal. Put the old sim card in, then slowly move it around all the phone. You will hear clicks as you go, these clicks are the white clips coming free and releasing the back. Be gentle and move slowly, there is no rush.
Once you have removed all the back cover turn it over. The water indicator is a piece of white paper with purple X marks. The water indicator is located near the camera lens hole on the back cover. The square is about 0.7mm in width and height. The indicator paper is NOT on the electronics part! It’s on the underside of the plastic part you removed.
That’s all! There are other hidden water indicators around the internal components of the phone, but this big indicator on the back case is the main marking they use.
Here is a video of a Youtube user totally tearing down his new Samsung Galaxy S4 in a teardown video. This is what I used to learn the process before doing it on my phone. He is showing the moisture level sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S4 at 4.20 in the youtube video.
Now I know my s4 has water damage. How do i know what parts are bad and where can I buy the parts to fix the phone. Or do I need to buy another?.
Water damage is bad because it causes corrosion to the electronics over time. This is the main reason phone manufacturers like to deny warranty claims if water damage exists in the device. It’s hard to fix because the problems build over many weeks and months. Fix the parts that you notice don’t work, but be prepared to buy a new phone.
So my galxys4has redmark indicator it was working fine but now wont charge ,….
You might need a new phone battery for your S4, or the connectors might be rusted.
Hi, the same thing happened to my phone this morning. The only place where it did charge was when it was connected to my laptop, but it ended up overheating after ten minutes and automatically stopped charging. Did you have to replace the battery?.
Remove the battery and plug the phone in to charge. I’m not sure, but I don’t think the phone needs the battery to work from a power socket. If phone works without overheating, then you will know the battery is the problem.
Hi does entry of water cause the phone to overheat and zap battery like crazy?.
Entry to water can short circuit the Samsung s4 battery, yes. In this case the battery will quick discharge and electrocute anything in the water as stored charge dissipates. Be careful.
So, to be clear on the moisture/water damage stickers there was:
1) one in the battery compartment (yours looks to be a dot, but the one on mine is a square.
2) One on the battery itself
3) one under the microphone
4) Did I see one on the frame when you removed the earphone jack?
5) Did I also see another near the edge of the phone?
My phone was dropped in water. I think I did a pretty good job of drying it out but I’ve been told that my voice is breaking up during phone calls, I’m assuming that I did not remove all the water from the microphone seeing as it’s a pressure sensor with a deep silicon cavity.
Great video by the way, thanks.
There’s a thumb port along the side of the device for you to use your fingernail to remove it. I think its next to the volume rocker.
Awesome job with the video. Thanks for sharing!.