Chosen Solution
I swam with my iPhone 5s last November and went through all the usual protocol after I got out of the water. The first few days I got no response. I then put it away for 6-7 months in a box of silica gel. Last week I opened it and it turned on!! I checked every single feature (touch id, camera, gyroscope, compass, calling texting/receiving, etc) and it all worked fine. The only thing wrong with it was the battery. I then replaced it but it didn’t fix the problem. Is there anything else I could do to maybe fix it???
The fact remains is that the phone is still water damaged, there will be a lot of corrosion that has developed over it, and you never got it cleaned, silica gel, rice, all that rubbish, it doesn’t work, and you have just made a phone more than likely non repairable due to leaving it so long. you may have damaged the logic board trying to pry out the old battery also. If it doesn’t show an apple logo for a few seconds when you plug the charger in, without the battery plugged in, then you have damaged something else, the corrosion on the board may of broke some chips off when you pulled the screen connectors out, due to them being damaged and weakened etc. Try get some pictures. :-)
madochill, not sure what you are referring to as “usual protocol” Dessiccant like silica gel etc, do not prevent corrosion nor do they prevent corrosion. you are needing to completely go over your phone and check all components, and connectors for any kind of corrosion. you also should tell us how you tested each of the components you listed as working ok. Since you have a new battery but your phone does not turn on, I’d start with checking components around the battery connector. Hopefully your protocol also included to remove all EMI shields and a proper cleaning with high grade isopropyl alcohol, or even better an ultrasonic cleaning. If you have not removed the EMI shields, you will have to do that now to ensure that the components under those have not corroded away. Post a couple of high res images with your question so that we can see what you see.
