7 ms·

I dropped my Pixel in water and since it had previously cracked, it had lost the waterproofing. The water apparently shorted the power button and the screen. Th

I dropped my Pixel in water and since it had previously cracked, it had lost the waterproofing. The water apparently shorted the power button and the screen. That was a fun night when the dead phone woke up and started dialling 112 repeatedly and there was nothing I could do short of smashing the damn thing with a hammer to stop it. Every electronic device needs to have a physical disconnect for the power supply. It should be considered a severe enough fault to warrant not getting market approval if this is missing.

unsignedint 3y ago
I guess this is one of the major down sides of battery not being removeable...
- rwiggins 3y ago
  Fortunately, it seems the EU will mandate removable batteries by 2027? Caveat: I haven’t done any research into that besides the headline, so YMMV. https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/22/new-eu-law-to-force-smartphone-makers-to-build-easily-replaceable-batteries https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/22/new-eu-law-to-forc...
  - judge2020 3y ago
    It's not going to do something like require phones use clips again to hold the back on and hold the battery inside the housing. Apple's self-service repair program might already qualify.
    - kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
      We do have a useful invention called the screw. With every phone phablet sized nowadays there isn't a valid argument that they don't have room for waterproofed fasteners.
      - sneak 3y ago
        Screws are how in fact one accesses the battery in an iPhone.
        judge2020 3y ago
        Obviously they should be using big ph1 screws
        throwaway2037 3y ago
        This post is misleading. Have you watched a YouTube video of what it takes to replace a battery in a modern, advanced mobile phone? Woah, that is a lot of glue. And, it is very tricky to do it right.
        linooma_ 3y ago
        A 1-2 hour process which includes heating to soften glue, high potential of damaging internal components, or high potential of cracking some piece of glass is not "Screws are how in fact one accesses the battery in an iPhone." https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+14+Battery+Replacement/152966 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+14+Battery+Replacement/1...
        photonerd 3y ago
        You’re describing removing the rear glass (and it takes 30mins, tops, I’ve done it). Something that’s not covered by the EU legislation I might add. It literally says the following about removing the battery (emphasis mine) > Unfasten the battery connector cover screws and… > remove the single 1.0 mm-long screw securing the charging coil connector cover After that it’s just two easy to remove adhesive pull tabs to get the battery out (which would pass the test for user replaceable in the EU law). Complain about how hard it is to get the glass off, fine, but that’s got zilch to do with the EU law
        zufallsheld 3y ago
        > “A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it.” https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/24/23771064/european-union-battery-regulation-ecodesign-user-replacable-batteries https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/24/23771064/european-union-b... If you need to use a heater to get access to the battery to remove it, this would probably be forbidden.
  - bilegeek 3y ago
    This is good for the EU no doubt; but unfortunately they'll just make an EU-only variant just like Apple did with removable SIM cards.
labster 3y ago
Just put it in a Faraday cage. Problem solved.
- piinbinary 3y ago
  I wonder if a microwave is a sufficient Faraday cage to kill cell reception
  - nickt 3y ago
    Usually. You can check by putting your phone in and closing the door while looking at the signal strength meter. It should go without saying don’t turn the microwave oven on with your expensive electronics inside. If you get decent reception in the closed oven, you need a new one. Definitely works to kill reception forever if you power up the microwave for a couple of minutes…
    - puzzledobserver 3y ago
      "you need a new one." <-- New microwave, I presume?
    - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
      You may just need to clean the inside of the door so it closes better. Try that first.
  - kurthr 3y ago
    They did quite well for 3G and even 4G which didn't have as many above 2.4GHz , but after 4GLTE, 5G has added a lot of mid-bands between 2.6-6GHz. Those tend to leak more since they have shorter wavelengths than microwaves are built around 2.4GHz. Some of them are only used in a few countries, but n2 & n77 are widely used by ATT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands You gotta take that phone out sometime though to heat up your ramen.
    - 3y ago
mhardcastle 3y ago
I also had a pixel begin to boot then make 911 calls upon getting moisture in it. I damaged the sim slot prying it out so it wouldn't dial 911 any more. I figured my experience was a freak occurrence - how is this a (n=2) failure mode when getting wet!?
- MBCook 3y ago
  Sounds lucky. Phones can call 911 in the US without a sim, so that wouldn’t necessarily stop it.
kimixa 3y ago
I had a similar issue - the glass on the back of my Pixel (5 I think?) cracked right by the power button, and it seemed to be kind of OK but I got a new phone anyway, but left the old one in my glove box of my car where I used it for the bluetooth entry to the parking garage at work (and because re-enrolling was a pain). It didn't have the sim setup or wifi enabled so didn't think much of it. This worked fine for a few months, just turning it on at the gate then off afterwards and threw it back in the glove compartment. Until one day driving home I heard a weird beeping, then a voice from the glove box asking what my emergency was. I shouted back pulling over and fumbling to get the phone out, and told the responder my phone had called them by itself. I was a little surprised as I thought every call, even abandoned, had to be followed up on, in case there was coercion? But I guess not if you just blame the phone. I guess the buttons had shorted to turn the phone on, then ended up going into the emergency call? I couldn't even turn it off at that point as the power button refused to work and the digitizer was partially non-functional. A bit of a pain, and a (hopefully small) waste of an emergency responder's time, but I can see this sort of thing being relatively common - in "normal use" I've had my phone somehow end up on the emergency call menu, just being jostled and unlocked or fat fingering the wrong buttons, so wouldn't be surprised if unneeded emergency calls are relatively common on even fully functional devices. But I guess that cost is worth paying if it's more convenient and quick when there is an emergency?
- Twisell 3y ago
  I'v heard from my safety volunteer colleague that damaged (or neglected) lithium-ion powered devices should be regarded as malicious fire hazard. So unless you actively intend to set your own car on fire I urge you to end this habit and send the broken phone to an adapted recycling procedure. (This is also why unrelatedly to the many pollution issues, throwing lithium-ion into landfill is like setting up a time bomb for our kids)
- qwertfisch 3y ago
  In Germany it is not possible to call emergency without an active SIM (if it is PIN protected, the PIN has to be entered before). This has been deliberately disabled since February 2009 because there were too many anonymous calls for fun or (how idiotic!) to test if a secondhand phone still works.

unsignedint 3y ago

I guess this is one of the major down sides of battery not being removeable...

rwiggins 3y ago
Fortunately, it seems the EU will mandate removable batteries by 2027? Caveat: I haven’t done any research into that besides the headline, so YMMV. https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/22/new-eu-law-to-force-smartphone-makers-to-build-easily-replaceable-batteries https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/22/new-eu-law-to-forc...
- judge2020 3y ago
  It's not going to do something like require phones use clips again to hold the back on and hold the battery inside the housing. Apple's self-service repair program might already qualify.
  - kevin_thibedeau 3y ago
    We do have a useful invention called the screw. With every phone phablet sized nowadays there isn't a valid argument that they don't have room for waterproofed fasteners.
    - sneak 3y ago
      Screws are how in fact one accesses the battery in an iPhone.
      - judge2020 3y ago
        Obviously they should be using big ph1 screws
      - throwaway2037 3y ago
        This post is misleading. Have you watched a YouTube video of what it takes to replace a battery in a modern, advanced mobile phone? Woah, that is a lot of glue. And, it is very tricky to do it right.
      - linooma_ 3y ago
        A 1-2 hour process which includes heating to soften glue, high potential of damaging internal components, or high potential of cracking some piece of glass is not "Screws are how in fact one accesses the battery in an iPhone." https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+14+Battery+Replacement/152966 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+14+Battery+Replacement/1...
        photonerd 3y ago
        You’re describing removing the rear glass (and it takes 30mins, tops, I’ve done it). Something that’s not covered by the EU legislation I might add. It literally says the following about removing the battery (emphasis mine) > Unfasten the battery connector cover screws and… > remove the single 1.0 mm-long screw securing the charging coil connector cover After that it’s just two easy to remove adhesive pull tabs to get the battery out (which would pass the test for user replaceable in the EU law). Complain about how hard it is to get the glass off, fine, but that’s got zilch to do with the EU law
        zufallsheld 3y ago
        > “A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it.” https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/24/23771064/european-union-battery-regulation-ecodesign-user-replacable-batteries https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/24/23771064/european-union-b... If you need to use a heater to get access to the battery to remove it, this would probably be forbidden.
- bilegeek 3y ago
  This is good for the EU no doubt; but unfortunately they'll just make an EU-only variant just like Apple did with removable SIM cards.

labster 3y ago

Just put it in a Faraday cage. Problem solved.

piinbinary 3y ago
I wonder if a microwave is a sufficient Faraday cage to kill cell reception
- nickt 3y ago
  Usually. You can check by putting your phone in and closing the door while looking at the signal strength meter. It should go without saying don’t turn the microwave oven on with your expensive electronics inside. If you get decent reception in the closed oven, you need a new one. Definitely works to kill reception forever if you power up the microwave for a couple of minutes…
  - puzzledobserver 3y ago
    "you need a new one." <-- New microwave, I presume?
  - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
    You may just need to clean the inside of the door so it closes better. Try that first.
- kurthr 3y ago
  They did quite well for 3G and even 4G which didn't have as many above 2.4GHz , but after 4GLTE, 5G has added a lot of mid-bands between 2.6-6GHz. Those tend to leak more since they have shorter wavelengths than microwaves are built around 2.4GHz. Some of them are only used in a few countries, but n2 & n77 are widely used by ATT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands You gotta take that phone out sometime though to heat up your ramen.
  - 3y ago

mhardcastle 3y ago

I also had a pixel begin to boot then make 911 calls upon getting moisture in it. I damaged the sim slot prying it out so it wouldn't dial 911 any more. I figured my experience was a freak occurrence - how is this a (n=2) failure mode when getting wet!?

MBCook 3y ago
Sounds lucky. Phones can call 911 in the US without a sim, so that wouldn’t necessarily stop it.

kimixa 3y ago

I had a similar issue - the glass on the back of my Pixel (5 I think?) cracked right by the power button, and it seemed to be kind of OK but I got a new phone anyway, but left the old one in my glove box of my car where I used it for the bluetooth entry to the parking garage at work (and because re-enrolling was a pain). It didn't have the sim setup or wifi enabled so didn't think much of it. This worked fine for a few months, just turning it on at the gate then off afterwards and threw it back in the glove compartment. Until one day driving home I heard a weird beeping, then a voice from the glove box asking what my emergency was. I shouted back pulling over and fumbling to get the phone out, and told the responder my phone had called them by itself. I was a little surprised as I thought every call, even abandoned, had to be followed up on, in case there was coercion? But I guess not if you just blame the phone. I guess the buttons had shorted to turn the phone on, then ended up going into the emergency call? I couldn't even turn it off at that point as the power button refused to work and the digitizer was partially non-functional. A bit of a pain, and a (hopefully small) waste of an emergency responder's time, but I can see this sort of thing being relatively common - in "normal use" I've had my phone somehow end up on the emergency call menu, just being jostled and unlocked or fat fingering the wrong buttons, so wouldn't be surprised if unneeded emergency calls are relatively common on even fully functional devices. But I guess that cost is worth paying if it's more convenient and quick when there is an emergency?

Twisell 3y ago
I'v heard from my safety volunteer colleague that damaged (or neglected) lithium-ion powered devices should be regarded as malicious fire hazard. So unless you actively intend to set your own car on fire I urge you to end this habit and send the broken phone to an adapted recycling procedure. (This is also why unrelatedly to the many pollution issues, throwing lithium-ion into landfill is like setting up a time bomb for our kids)
qwertfisch 3y ago
In Germany it is not possible to call emergency without an active SIM (if it is PIN protected, the PIN has to be entered before). This has been deliberately disabled since February 2009 because there were too many anonymous calls for fun or (how idiotic!) to test if a secondhand phone still works.