A screw came out and induced a short-circuit, and definitely killed the motherboard. From our French forum, numerous PowerBook 17" owners were reporting similar story, or when opening their notebook to check the screw found it loosely attached.
Yesterday, one of our team members, Yoc, lost his similarly aged PowerBook 17" the same way.
The very same screw created a short-circuit almost exactly at the same place. If in March, one could have thought that this screw was coming out due to physical or mechanical stress applied when carrying the notebook, for Yoc's PB it can not be: it was a used as a desktop computer which was almost never moved.
If you own a PB 17" and have the skilled required doing it, or living close to an Apple Center, you should really have a look at this screw. You will need a Torx T9 screw-driver.
