Salt water is an electronic KILLER. Not only is it highly conductive but it’s also very corrosive. So even if your phone does work after it has had time to dry you might run into some serious problems later on down the road. You want to get that salt water out of your phone as best as you can. I would suggest that you follow all of the advice listed at How to save a phone dropped in salt water but basically… (1) Remove the phone from the salt water as quickly as possible. (2) Fill up a container that your cell phone will fit into with isopropyl alcohol (I highly suggest that you use 99% alcohol). (3) Submerge your phone in the alcohol and try to get the alcohol to go into the phone and try to get the salt water out of the phone. (4) Let your phone soak in alcohol for a good hour (or more). (5) Remove the phone from the alcohol and then dry it by hand as best as you can. (6) Let it sit and dry in rice until the phone is completely dry (this could be over night or a couple of days). (7) Put the phone all...

Like you said, you may have physically damaged the tray (very possible and not fun) but if the SIM is just loose and not making a good connection then you may be able to add some layers of tape to the SIM card to make it more bulky and create a tighter fit… It might allow a better connection between the phone and your SIM card and allow your phone to constantly recognize and read your SIM card(s) properly. Just make sure not to put any tape over the part of the SIM card that need to connect to the phone. It’s worth a try and could save you a lot of time as well as some money.

Hey guys it sounds like your actual keys are malfunctioning. Charles, it sounds like you are already aware of this… To get into safe mode though (which is a very powerful troubleshooting tool and feature for Android phones by the way) you typically have to hold the Power key and another button like the volume up key at the same time while turning on the phone which instructs the phone to boot into Safe mode. If however your volume key is stuck down or malfunctioning you might not be pressing it in yourself but your phone might think you are and it thinks that you actually trying to enter Safe mode (even though you aren’t). So start by rebooting your phone first and then a battery pull (if available) and then check those keys. You can read more about trying to fix this problem at Trying to fix an LG Optimus that’s stuck in Safe Mode. I think that should help.

Typically restarting an Android cell phone should get it out of the Safe Mode feature (a battery pull too as it is essentially a soft reset). If your phone is STUCK in Safe Mode though and restarting it or pulling the battery doesn’t seem to help at all then it could be a hardware issue like a problematic volume key. Mike T. was on the right path here because if the Volume + key is having issues and you press it when booting up your phone you can be loosening it up or in a way show the phone that you are not TRYING to enter Safe Mode intentionally by pressing the Key combination to do so. So check those physical keys too, it might just be the fix you were looking for. You can read more about this trick and some other tricks that might help at How to fix an Android stuck in Safe Mode. Usually the terrific advice already posted on this page should get your phone out of Safe Mode but if not then one of the tips on that page should definitely help.