NA - Salvage TV remote?

G-Man

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AirmanG
Happy Thanksgiving! In my house, while prepping some food, mistakes were made. Some gravy got dripped onto a Samsung factory tv remote. The chef panicked and briefly rinsed the remote under warm running water, removed the batteries, then dried it thoroughly and put it on top of the heat register to be dried.

Alas, the remote still suffers. It does not work. When batteries are installed, pointing the remote at the tv makes the tv led flash quickly and it does not respond to any buttons.

(Hope you appreciate this writer's total use of passive voice.)

Any way to save this?
I was thinking of rinsing it with isopropyl alcohol. It's plastic with no apparent way to open it. Any better ideas?
Contact cleaner would just destroy the plastic, right?

If not salvagable, any suggestions on where to get a cheap universal remote that will work the various other functions (like source and everything else)?
 
Best Buy usually has a variety of replacement remotes. There may be an app for your phone.
 
We have a zillion portable TVs at work and remotes are always getting lost. Unless it is a really off brand, replacements are usually readily available online.

There should be a model number on the remote somewhere...possibly in the battery compartment needing a magnifying glass to read. Just goggle that and a bunch of hits will probably pop up for replacements. I have even gotten them off Amazon.

If that does not produce an option for ya you can also google the TV make and model. ex: "Vizio UR60001 Remote". I have found Universal remotes to be pretty useless.

You can try and pry it apart to clean...most just snap together. If you break it, it won't work any less then it does now so ya got noting to loose!
 
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You can completely dissassemble the thing. Look for hidden screws in the battery compartment and carefully pry it apart. If you can remove the rubber key pad from the housing, and clean both the carbon pads under the rubber buttons and the contacts on the board itself, you've got a shot to resurrect it. BTDT
 
If... nothing got fried in it... I bet it’s not really dry. Maybe get it back in a warm dry place and let it sit.

Also the rapid flash may simply mean it lost some programming or similar. Is it a universal remote like for a cable or dish box, or is it the remote from the TV manufacturer? The rapid flash may be documented in the TVs manual and most manuals can be found online with a search for the TV model number.

Some search engine magic with the module of the TV plus remote plus rapid flash may also turn up forum posts or other references to it.

Tell the chef to take the batteries out first next time. :)
 
I have one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Har...F8&qid=1511576919&sr=8-2&keywords=650+harmony

Connect via USB to a PC, log on to Logitech's website, click on the brand and model of TV, DVD player, cable box, pretty much anything with a remote, and it downloads everything into that remote. It has several "activity" buttons thatbyou can program. "Watch TV": configure it to turn on the cable box and tv. "Watch a movie": configure it to turn on the dvd player, turn on the TV and switch to the DVD input, turn on the home theater receiver and switch to the dvd input.

The downside: if your wife uses the cable box remote to turn devices on and off, and you use the universal remote the universal remote can get out of sync.
 
You can completely dissassemble the thing. Look for hidden screws in the battery compartment and carefully pry it apart. If you can remove the rubber key pad from the housing, and clean both the carbon pads under the rubber buttons and the contacts on the board itself, you've got a shot to resurrect it. BTDT

Sometimes they hide the screw underneath a sticker.
 
"Alexa/Siri/OkGoogle change the TV channel.

There's not much on worth watching anyway.
 
Put it in a bag of rice for a day or two. The rice will draw out any moisture. It might help and if not what have you lost but a cup of rice.
 
(Hope you appreciate this writer's total use of passive voice.)

<snip>any suggestions on where to get a cheap universal remote that will work the various other functions (like source and everything else)?

Nice job, dumbass. (Hope you appreciate this author’s use of aggressive voice.) Buy a Harmony and program it for all of your electronic audio/video devices and enjoy. Amazon.com

;)
 
Put it in a bag of rice for a day or two. The rice will draw out any moisture. It might help and if not what have you lost but a cup of rice.

Which is a major sin according to my wife.....:yesnod:
 
I did! Made me laugh like hell! Good one, Lachlan!!
(Or if not Nelson from The Simpsons, then Leslie Winkel from Big Bang Theory, based on her excellent delivery of "dumbass.") Either way, funny as hell.
 
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