Logic board corrosion?

Question

My daughter has a Powerbook 1.5G aluminum 12" that has been running slow for a year or so, she got it new in 2005. The computer has had beach balls and general slowness. yesterday she took it to a genius bar and was told it was definitely slower than it should be, and that the cause was likely softwear or impending hard drive failure. My daughter said recently the computer made a repetive clicking noise, only one time; she had reported this to me about a week ago.
The genius said it should be checked by Apple if due to software, the drive should be reformatted, or else, whatever was wrong should be repaired. Today, she found a message at the repair status link saying to call Apple. She called and was told there was corrosion on the logic board which could only have been caused by spilling liquid on the powerbook, and because of this the repair would not be covered by her AppleCare warranty.
She is adamant that she has never spilled anything on the computer and that no one but her has used it. She is upset that the repair won't be covered because she hasn't done anything to damage the computer, she babies the computer and goes crazy if there's the slightest smudge on it.
Other than liquid spilling on a powerbook, what else could cause corrosion on the logic board? She says that at their previous apartment there was mold in the apartment, and she wonders if this could've caused the corrosion on the logic board. Does this sound like a possibility? Does anyone know if there is any appeal to Apple about this, any reasonable argument that the corrosion was not due to her negligence, but from some other unknown cause beyond her control and knowledge?
MBP 2.16 15" 1Ghz,PBG4 1.5Ghz 12"512MB 80GB, PBG4 1Ghz12" 768M 80G   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   AirportXreme,AirportXpress,iPod,iBook12"dualUSB

Answer 1

Thanks for your reply. That's helpful to hear that the symptoms the computer was sent in for are not explained by logic board damage. The genius bar person didn't characterize it as a logic board related problem; she said it was likely the hard drive failing or need to be reformatted. whatever the cause of corrosion of the logic board, why should that have anything to do with a problem not related to the logic board?
I think she should contact customer relations or a repair supervisor about that, or an AppleCare rep. I have the same kind of computer she has. I just read over the terms and conditions in the documentation that came with my AppleCare policy. It says "1(b) Limitations: Plan does not cover: (ii) Damage to the covered equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse....extreme environment (including extreme temperatures or extreme humidity)...."
One thing that stands out to me here is that it says 'does not cover damage caused by...' If the hard drive is faulty, that isn't caused by corrosion on the logic board; if they want to say the supposed liquid spilled on the logic board may have also damaged the hard drive, maybe so, but that's very speculative. It's already speculative to say corrosion on the logic board was caused by spilled liquid in the first place.
Also, if they look at her computer, they can see it hasn't been abused or misused--she's had it since fall of 05 and it doesn't have any dents or scratches--she has really cared for it. (i wish i could say the same about mine :-o )
As for extreme humidity, i don't think so. They lived in San Diego--it gets hot in the summer but it's coastal Southern California--it's hardly extreme weather.
If they want to insist that corrosion on the logic board voids the warranty on the hard drive (and that's not at all clear by the wording of the policy, as i'm reading it) it still remains that she denies ever spilling anything on it, and to look at it, you can see it's been well protected, so i think they have good reason to give her the benefit of the doubt. They say corrosion is absolute proof there was liquid spilled on it. I don't think that's reasonable. But if so, how do we know it wasn't spilled on before it was shipped to her? It's not like Apple never has any new computers with quality control problems.
You're right, replacing a hard drive isn't too expensive, so if that's the problem, at least it's not too much of a disaster (although she is very short on money, being between jobs). But she is one of your more loyal passionate Apple advocates, and feels betrayed tonight. Until today, she had no idea there was any logic board corrosion, she just followed the advice of the geniius bar to send it in for repair and wasn't prepared for what happened.
MBP 2.16 15" 1Ghz,PBG4 1.5Ghz 12"512MB 80GB, PBG4 1Ghz12" 768M 80G   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   AirportXreme,AirportXpress,iPod,iBook12"dualUSB