Stanley wrote: ↑22 Sep 2023, 02:07
Do all the cats have 3 legs?
I don't know if it was an accident but I watched a video on Youtube of a trip on the Electric Railway , the man was aiming to get off at Laxey and go on the Snaefell railway but it was closed due to the weather so he went to Ramsey instead. He had bought a roamer ticket.
At least 3 but no tails
Paulette watched the same YouTube video
The hotel is on the promenade at Douglas and is a short walk from the electric railway, we plan a trip on it today. It was a very smooth crossing and a pleasant 20 minute walk along the prom, in shirt sleeves, at 11pm last night.
To get us back on topic here is a story of Sally's recent woe's with her mobile phone. Wendy will be aware of this as she was also on the very wet walk with Sally at the tail end of last week. Sally's phone was in a fold over case and when retrieved from her pocket at home was wet through. The case was retaining a lot of water. When she fired it up to stop her Strava app that was tracking the walk the display was chucking a wobbler. Striation lines all down the screen and random flashing of the brightness. I tried to turn it off but it wouldn't power down! Display by then was totally grey at first and then went totally black. The phone was still working as it got an incoming call but without a display it couldn't be answered!
I took it out of the case and shook it to try and clear as much water as possible then we shoved it in a box of rice to try and dry it out. I went online to look at the reset options for the model (Samsung A13). Over weekend I tried it on all the main recovery routines that were suggested for a BSOD (Black Screen Of Death). Discharged fully, recharged fully, baked it on the radiator. soft reset, hard reset, start in safe mode all via various combinations of power and volume control button presses and all to no avail. Phone battery died again and I tried charging it but all it did was loop into a constant beeping session. I have lots of experience with water damaged electronics and they rarely end up with a happy ending, this was no exception. By Monday night I came to the conclusion it was totally bricked. Still under contract so the phone was only just over 18 months old. Sods law said that when she got it she didn't elect to pay the £3 extra a month for insurance!
We went to the EE shop yesterday in Skipton and was seen to by Harry who did her a fairly good deal on a later model (Samsung A15). They didn't charge for getting out of the current contract which was a bonus as was a fast (25W) charger usually sold as and after market accessory but provided free. She agreed to insure this one as well. Spent the rest of yesterday after noon and early evening reloading all the stuff and apps, some of which failed to recover the auto backup from her Gmail account as she couldn't remember the password when it asked! Other apps didn't bother asking they just downloaded the stuff they needed from Gmail. The Gmail backup is very handy for Android users as Google of course developed and and run the Android platform. I think the backup restored probably 80% of app related data before it found one that asked for the password.
Sounds like a nightmare! I hope Sally has recovered, never mind the phone. I'll bet form now on it will live in a plastic bag when she is walking, One of those tough plastic ones with a resealable zip.....
(I'll bet she thanked her lucky stars she had you Ian!)
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Cover all bases Peter. Rice has been used for years to dry stuff out, but what do I know? 40 years of dealing with stuff like this. I don't need Apple to tell me what to do especially as your link is also click bait to the water resistant over priced Apple models available.
Sin of sins I baked it on the radiator as well, never got to its normal running temperature in summer when they get baked anyway. If there is a major flaw in modern mobiles it's that the batteries can no longer be disconnected, cutting the current supply to drenched electronics is the key. I know why they are built in though as it will be cheaper and increase reliability. It has the added benefit for the manufacturers that it creates a built in death feature if they get wet. A bit like those nice little fluffy beasts that have the same feature in Gremlins!
Ian. I remember once talking to a Nikon technician about retrieval procedures for a camera that had been dropped in the sea. He said that basically there were none as it was almost certain you had lost it and the only way was a complete strip down. However, he did say that in the absence of a Nikon Fitter you could try first immerse the camera in warm water to get rid of the salt and then dry the camera by swilling it out with methylated spirits which absorbed the water and was very easy to dry off afterwards.
Needless to say I never tried it and so have no idea whether it would work. Of course all this was mechanical, no batteries involved.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
I once rescued two Amstrad 8512 word processor computers, (the ones that you swapped a typewriter for). Also made Alan Sugar's fortune with an obsolete OS, redundant 3" Hitachi Floppy Drive (actually technically better the 3.25" Sony that won the race for the mass market). Sold with a CP/M word processing and spreadsheet package (green or grey mono screen). We sold lots of them.
Anyway back to the tale. Office in Colne that they were in got broken into and the robbers nicked the petty cash and trashed the office for fun. They had a photocopier that used liquid toner which they found in a cupboard and tipped three bottles in the back of the monitors which also contained the integrated computer chassis, more tipped into the dot matrix printers, proper mess. Owners brought them in to see if I could fix them!
Stripped them all down and took all the circuit boards and wiring looms and washed them in the sink in hot water and washing up liquid. I used a paint brush to get in all the crevices. Did the same with the printers. Rinsed them all off with clean water and scattered them round the workshop on the storage radiators. Left them for a week then went over both sides of the circuit boards with isopropyl alcohol (better than meths as it leaves no sticky residue). Re-varnished the boards, built them back up and they both worked perfectly.
If you use meths on circuit boards it leaves the residue from the purple dye which can lead to tracking between component pads. Found that out the hard way and swapped to Isopropyl, used to get in big bottles from Leedham's Chemists in Colne. Much cheaper than proprietary spray cleaners. Still use those for some specialist cleaning tasks.
It was but the key is not to switch them on, you stand a fair chance then of recovery.
The dye in meths is also sticky which I wouldn't think would do a camera any good either! Proprietary cleaners such as switch cleaners used to be carbon tetrachloride based and had a light lubricant added. They used different more inert chemicals now. Can't go far wrong with Isopropyl Alcohol as it has no additives. It will strip varnish though. So when used to clean circuit boards up you always gave the solder side a new coat. The varnish stops the soldered joints from drying out.
I believe it's the dye in Methylated Spirits that sends you loopy if you drink it. Never tried it.
Oxford Reference web page: Methylated spirits is a mixture consisting mainly of ethyl alcohol with methyl alcohol and petroleum hydrocarbons. The addition of pyridine gives it an objectionable smell, and the dye methyl violet is added to make it recognizable as unfit to drink. It is used as a solvent, cleaning fluid, and fuel.
I will add that the reason drinking methylated spirits causes blindness is that the added methanol destroys the optic nerve at the back of the eye. I learnt that from the Mark Miodownik book that I'm reading.
Nullius in verba: On the word of no one (Motto of the Royal Society)
There used to be a regulation forbidding the sale of methylated spirits after a certain time on Friday. A vain attempt to stop it being mixed with cheap red wine to make 'Red Biddy'.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
When I started work in a Boots Chemists branch the manager taught me which people made regular attempts to buy meths. They were very persistent and they'd go round all the pharmacies and keep trying even though they were being sent away. Now people are addicted to opiate meds and they just ask the the doctor and get given more!
Nullius in verba: On the word of no one (Motto of the Royal Society)
This is the first page of the current legislation Meths legislation and you have to click on `Next: Provision' at the bottom to go through all the other pages. [sarcasm on] But, hey, who cares about legislation, you can buy it online, about £10 for 5 litres, from lots of sellers! My Boots boss would turn in his grave if he knew this. Blind for £10, cheap eh! [sarcasm off]
Nullius in verba: On the word of no one (Motto of the Royal Society)
I clicked my way through all the sections and think that it's illegal still to trade methylated spirits between 6PM on a Friday and 8AM on Monday.
But that might only apply to the methylator........
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
