This S23 Ultra Was Saved From the Ocean… With One Big Delay

This Galaxy S23 Ultra had a rough day. It was dropped in the ocean, and by the time it made it to us, the phone was not looking good at all. Saltwater is brutal on electronics, and once we opened it up, the damage was clear.

Corrosion had already spread across the mainboard and even behind it. If you’ve ever seen what saltwater does to metal, you know it doesn’t take long before things start breaking down.

What We Did

The first step was a deep cleaning of all the internals. That included scrubbing away the corrosion and making sure the board was safe to reuse. We also replaced the display since that was clearly damaged.

But then we hit a roadblock.

The Passcode Problem

We couldn’t test the device. Why? Because the customer didn’t want to share their passcode. That’s totally understandable. Privacy is important, and no one should feel forced to hand over their password.

The catch is, when we can’t access the phone, the repair process takes much longer. We eventually got the customer to come in and put the device in maintenance mode, which let us move forward. That’s when we found another issue: the bottom microphone wasn’t working because the board it was attached to had also corroded.

Why This Matters

There’s nothing wrong with not giving out your passcode. But just be aware that it limits testing, and that means your repair could take way longer than expected. Maintenance mode helps a lot, but not every customer knows it exists.

Final Thoughts

This Galaxy S23 Ultra survived a dunk in the ocean and a fight with corrosion, but not without a few extra headaches along the way. The lesson here? Saltwater and smartphones never mix, and when it comes to repairs, being able to test the phone fully saves everyone time.

See you in the next article.