DailyTech - White MacBook Turning Shades of Yellow

Submit News

Gadgets White MacBook Turning Shades of Yellow
Tim Thorpe (Blog) - June 11, 2006 10:22 PM

E-mail

del.icio.us

23 comment(s) - last by Hare.. on Jun 17 at 7:50 AM

Image Courtesy of TSwartz

Some users have reported the palm rest area, touchpad and mousepad of their new white MacBooks has begun to discolor

A few weeks ago DailyTech reported that a user at an Apple store had seen flaking on a black MacBook less than 24 hours after the MacBooks initial release, fortunately that seems to have been an isolated case. Last week DailyTech reported that some MacBooks had accidently left the factory with a clear piece of plastic covering the rear air vent. Now some users on the Apple support forums are reporting moderate to severe discoloration near the palm rest and other locations of their new white MacBooks. At least one user has posted images of the problem to Flickr.

The cause of the discoloration isn’t clear but many users are speculating as to the cause. Some think that it might be due to the cleanliness of the user’s hands, while others think that it may be a chemical reaction of the plastic to the user’s body chemistry. A few others believe that it may even be a heat related issue. Apple has not officially confirmed the issue yet.

One thing is clear however, removing the yellow discoloration is rather difficult. Users have tried a verity of products to removing the discoloration with little to no success. Among the remedies tried has been the popular iKlean line of products, Windex and even the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser all with different degrees of success.

Due to the location heat seems like the least likely culprit, as only the battery and hard drive reside under the palm rest area. However heat can’t be completely ruled out as the cause as at least one user has reported seeing the condition above the keyboard near where the screen and computer connect, where normal wear is much less likely to occur. Incidentally this is near where the heat sink for the processor resides.

A possible preventative measure has been suggested by one of the users of Apple’s support forum. They suggest using clear static cling vinyl film to cover the palm rest. This doesn’t prevent the discoloration appearing on the touchpad or mouse button but it might be a viable option for some MacBook owners.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Not new.

By psychobriggsy on 6/12/2006 5:38:08 AM , Rating: 2

This has happened on every iBook I've seen as well, but not as vividly yellow as that picture above, and not as quickly either.

It's clearly something to do with where people rest their hands when typing - in many cases you can see the shape of the base of the user's palm in the discolouration.

OTOH even standard laptops change colour too, as grime, sweat, sunlight, etc, have their effect. Ever peeled a Windows sticker off of a non-new notebook and compared the difference? It can be quite drastic sometimes.

RE: Not new.

By shabby on 6/12/2006 7:05:01 AM , Rating: 2

Ya even regular laptops change color too, however since most are black/silver you never see the yellow stuff which looks pretty disgusting.

Parent

RE: Not new.

By kibets on 6/12/2006 7:34:27 AM , Rating: 2

Well..

I would be upset if I purchased a product like this and it started to turn yellow a few days after I purchased it.

Mac users are very sensitive about appearances and I'm sure they will not take this lightly.

I think Apple should test their products for a few weeks before deciding to release them to market and some of these issues could be avoided.

Parent

RE: Not new.

By zeroslugfm on 6/12/2006 8:48:57 AM , Rating: 2

aye, the powerbooks have always had their nice finish rub off after heavy use near the palm areas. Doesn't bother me at least, heh and nothing a sticker can't fix.

Parent

RE: Not new.

By otispunkmeyer on 6/12/2006 2:29:24 PM , Rating: 2

yeah its most likely the crap people have on their skin. same thing happens at the swimming pool

when its my turn to clean the showers/floors its disgusting...everything looks normal till you start scrubbing and then you can see your removing this yellowy/pink gunk from the tiles....this gunk im a told is mostly body fat and oils from the body and it sticks to tiles like no mans business

Parent

RE: Not new.

By Dev17 on 6/13/2006 1:20:01 PM , Rating: 2

Apple has let their quality standards slip as of late.

Parent

RE: Not new.

By AMDcertfdbigot on 6/14/2006 4:54:31 AM , Rating: 1

early symptoms of IntelTITIS [a more chronic digital variants of Hepatitis

Parent

Probably Heat

By TomZ on 6/12/2006 8:53:04 AM , Rating: 2

My guess, based on those photos, is that the spots are due to heat. I think that the odds of a chemical reaction with something on the hands is pretty unlikely, and overheating plastic could easily make spots like that. It doesn't have to be "burning" hot to discolor, especially if the heat source was on the inside of the case.

quote:
Due to the location heat seems like the least likely culprit, as only the battery and hard drive reside under the palm rest area.

Not sure why you think that - battery and HDD can each generate a lot of heat that can accumulate if not vented properly. Batteries get warm when charging, and obviously HDDs are warm whenever they are operating, more when the computer is running HDD-intensive tasks.

If the source is heat, then if you open up the laptop case, you would see similar discoloration on the inside surface. Otherwise, it is something else.

RE: Probably Heat

By Hare on 6/12/2006 9:22:48 AM , Rating: 2

My thoughts exactly. Same thing happened with my Fujitsu Siemens laptop (just over the hd left of the touchpad). Although the effect is barely visible on the silver ssurface.

Parent

RE: Probably Heat

By Rocksaurus on 6/12/2006 5:58:11 PM , Rating: 2

The hottest point on the MacBook is towards the back center. The main thing the heat on the palmrests is doing here is causing people's wrists to sweat.

Parent

This just goes to show...

By heulenwolf on 6/12/2006 9:46:53 AM , Rating: 2

You shouldn't eat cheetos while using your computer.

RE: This just goes to show...

By BladeVenom on 6/12/2006 9:57:36 AM , Rating: 2

And you have to wash your hands after looking at art online.

Parent

I would be mad.

By obeseotron on 6/12/2006 12:17:11 PM , Rating: 2

If you're going to sell Macs at a premium price point, make the build quality match the aesthetic quality. A laptop isn't an iPod, you can't just throw a sleeve on it.

RE: I would be mad.

By TomZ on 6/12/2006 1:14:35 PM , Rating: 2

Even non-Mac owners are concerned about aesthetics, believe it or not. :o)

My 5-year old Thinkpad still looks pretty good, despite a lot of use over the years.

Parent

My PowerBook 12"

By Suomynona on 6/16/2006 5:23:47 PM , Rating: 2

After a month the metal under my palms started to get black, another month or so there were bumps in the surface, another couple of months the surface under my palms was too uncomfortable because of the bumps/holes so I traded it against a Dell laptop. It's too bad the material suck. Good looking laptop :(

My Dell laptop also changed color under my palms, but at least the surface holds after a year.

Don't they have sweatty testers using their laptops 6-8 hours a day before releasing them to customers?

RE: My PowerBook 12"

By Hare on 6/17/2006 7:50:51 AM , Rating: 2

Are you sweating some kind of an acid? Our company has used ibooks and powerbooks since the first clamshell ibooks and there are no signs of wear. My >10y old ibook is still white.

Parent

Intel curse?

By Burning Bridges on 6/12/2006 7:26:25 AM , Rating: 1

It seems to me that since Apple switched to using the Intel chips, they've had no end of problems with their kit. From burning power connectors to overheating, to plastic left inside the case from the factory, to this decolouration.

Let me make myself clear, I'm not saying Intel are better/worse than any other chip manufacturer, just that it's wierd that all these high-profile things are going wrong now that they have switched CPU maker :/

RE: Intel curse?

By Hare on 6/12/2006 7:54:12 AM , Rating: 2

This has nothing to do with Intel. I mean it's just another cpu and chipset. Big deal. They simply have a new enclosure and design. Apple seems to have huge quality control issues and in the end this is a problem with MSI or Asus, whichever makes the macbooks.

Parent

Accelerated Wear

By sintaxera on 6/12/2006 10:57:45 AM , Rating: 2

This looks like a combination of natural oils+heat+delicate surface. The only cure of course is protection. They alread have i-drops to get rid of i-pod scratches. Now they need to make i-sex-wax. I see a new market for the surfboard wax industry.

Looks great ?

By xit2nowhere on 6/12/2006 11:10:46 PM , Rating: 2

The design maybe great, but white is a very bad color, especially for a laptop.

Use Whiteout

By Shenkoa on 6/14/2006 12:38:43 AM , Rating: 2

White out will cover it.

MACs should be yellow

By IHateMac on 6/12/2006 3:16:07 PM , Rating: 1

I think they are actually just wearing off the white paint to reveal the true piss color of Macs. This reveals that you actually can't do "piss" with a mac.

Must be a fake...

By INeedCache on 6/12/2006 4:56:40 PM , Rating: 1

This couldn't actually be happening to a real, bonafide, genuine, certified Mac. They are simply too good for this. Find these fake Mac perpetrators and off with their heads!