Letters on some of my keys are fading away !

Just to ask the obvious question - have you tried cleaning the keyboard? The MBP key letters aren't "painted" on, they are translucent plastic to allow the keyboard backlight through. As such, they cant "rub off".

Yes, My Macbook Pro 15" has the same problem -- A,E,N,O,S and Spacebar -- all have the same problem and are worn away. It happened within 6 months of getting my MBP. It is not, as someone suggested, dirt. It is the entire painted panel of the key worn away around the letter.

Genius Bar says they can replace it for free -- but it's not user changeable and they can't do it in shop, and said it would take about 2 weeks to get it back.

I told them to forget about it, I can't be without my MBP for two weeks.

If the Macs are out of warranty, replace the keys yourself:

http://www.powerbookmedic.com/MacBook-Pro-Keys---Individual-Key-Keycap-p-16753.h tml

Hi Ron,

These Genus Bar can order the parts, and then call you when they arrive to repair. I have a Pro Care card, and both repairs I have needed took less than a day to complete. Of course they will quote longer.

And if you have AppleCare, you can request a replacement comp until the repairs are done.

If your mac is only 9 months old, it should be covered by applecare-
I have had 2 different keyboards - one on a 17" macbook pro and one on a 12" powerbook, on both the keys would rub out/fade out. not sure why, but apple did replace both keyboards for me.

I had an apple store with a genius bar nearby where I lived, and was able to get the keyboard replaced for me by taking it to the store. You could also call applecare via phone.

Well, I took my macbook pro to the Genius Bar and of course it is covered by AppleCare warranty --

But basically the scoop is: they order the keyboard from Apple -- when it arrives they call you so youc an bring in your MBP and then they fix it there during a "5 - 7 day period".

Not being able to be without MBP which is my home and business machine, they did offer to let me buy ProCare for 100 dollars so they could "put it to the head of the line" and it would take 1 - 3 days to do.

Since I am upgrading to the new MBP within a few months anyway, I figured it's not worth 100 bucks for ProCare...let the subsequent eBayer take their time to replace it for free with the AppleCare warranty...

That being said -- the Genius at my local Apple Store said they have 4 - 5 of these a week at their shop -- seems like there IS indeed a general keyboard problem with some MBP's. 20 MBP's a month requiring keyboard swaps at one small-market Apple store is pretty significant.

Why is Apple replacing whole keyboards when they just need to replace individual keycaps? It's not rocket science, I replaced one on my PBG4. Look on eBay, you can find keycaps for a few dollars and replace them yourself.

You can't replace the keycaps themselves on a macbook pro -- unlike the old powerbooks, the individual keys don't come off -- it's all one chunk of attached keyboard.

Are you sure? They are attached with the same "scissor" mechanism. They should come off just like the old powerbooks.

Can someone post a picture of this?

I do not understand how the letters, or the silver around them, could possibly fade. The plastic has been cut in the form of the letter to allow illumination from the ambient light.

I have the same problem with my MPB. The letters A and N are very worn and S is starting. It's the gray finish around the letter that scratches off leaving a scratched white blob in the center when the light shines through. I have the same problem here in that, ANYTHING requires the laptop to be sent to Calgary Alberta...I'm in Winnipeg...and the turn around time averages around 4 - 6 weeks!!!
The local Apple Stores won't touch it as it would nullify any warranties and there are no loners to be had either.

Nope. The original illuminating PowerBook keyboard was built as that. The newer keyboards use masked paint.