Yes I know this is an all to commonly posted thing, but oh well. My hinge broke on my powerbook g4, so I didn't have it closed and spilled pepsi on it. I wa spissed at myself, and I am an idiot. But that won't help me now. This happened a long ass time ago...like 6 months. BUt here's the deal.

As soon as I spilled the pepsi on it, I soaked it up with paper towels and the like. The computer still worked, but the keys were sticky. Fine. Then about a week afterwards it died. I would turn it on and nothing owuld happen...it sounded like it was starting up, but nothing on the screen. Shit. Guess I am gonna go buy a new computer. I take it on a trip to see my bro, show him the problem, turn it on and BAM, starts up like it was never broken. WTF? So it works for another few months. Then one night it starts running r...e....a....l....l.....y slow. So I turn it off. Come back in the morning and try to boot it up, gets almost done with the progress bar, then it just stops. So I tried resetting it...same thing. Turned it off and left it for a while. Tried later, now it doesn't do anything. That's where I am today, it's been like 3 months. If I insert a CD and try boot up, it just has a flashing system folder icon. If I go into the thing so that it shows what discs I can startup from, only the inserted CD shows up, otherwise nothing.

Is this the logic board? Hard Drive? Both? Any help is very much appreciated[/i]

This happened to me once when a coworker was playing football in the office and knocked his can of orange soda into my powerbook.

If this happens to you, you need to IMMEDIATELY power off the machine, and quickly flip it over (open) so that the liquid does not continue to drip into the inner parts of the computer. Use paper towels etc. to soak it up. Let it sit overnight if possible. Take out the battery as well as disconnecting the power supply.

Next (first thing in the morning!) is a trip to your authorized repair center. The reason is this: ANY LIQUID (even water) that you spill into your laptop can corrode small internal circuitry, especially over time. (It sounds like this may be what is happening with your machine - major but intermittent failures. At this point you've waited a long time and probably have damage to many components – repair may unfortunately be quite expensive.) Sodas contain citric and other acids that are especially corrosive, in addition to sugars that will adhere to parts inside your laptop and slowly corrode them over time. Even water can cause damage if there are any mineral contents to it - and of course any liquid can "close" electrical circuits that shouldn't be closed and short out or burn out components.

Luckily I was sitting right there when the soda spilled and was able to shut down and flip the laptop right away. My Apple dealer scrapped my keyboard and replaced it with a new one, as well as thoroughly cleaning all internal components of the PowerBook.

There are rubber keyboard covers available for the PowerBook that can help protect against spills. The best policy is to keep beverages on a separate table from your expensive equipment.

Good luck!

I hope you sued your coworker for repair or replacement of that computer