Yellow Discoloration

For what its worth, i have had my macbook about three weeks as well and so far no discolorations. It has "mooed" a few times but that was so quiet, for all I know it moos often and i just don't hear it.

ok dude. EVERYONE has said to use NON-ACETONE nail polish. seriously. it's all over this forum. i have no idea why you would use acetone given the significant number of warnings.

You do realize the oil/dirt stains on your iBook
G4 are not the same thing as the orange spots
(which are the topic of this thread, btw) on a
MacBook, don't you?

No, I don't realize that, and I've been following this thread for quite a while, have read every single post, and nothing convinces me so far that they are different problems. Maybe the MacBooks are more prone to the same problem, and discoloration occurs at a faster rate. But I'm not convinced it's a heat issue, and many people have pointed out that their MacBook stains are NOT "orange" but rather, gray-ish -- similar to what I saw on the iBook G4 before it was cleaned. Also, I had tried all sorts of "cleaning" tactics on the iBook without any success, much like what people are reporting here. Am I sure they're the same problem? No. But neither am I sure that they're not. That's why I offered my experience of something that worked for an iBook G4 that might also work for the MacBook. Something wrong with that?


With that being said ,I want to apologize to the person who used acetone based nail polish remover on his/her MacBook and melted it, if my post had encouraged you to do so. All I can say is, what I had worked, and did not, at least on a perceptual level, melt the plastic on the iBook. I did use moderation -- i.e., I didn't just dab some nail polish remover on the palm rest, but rather, put a tiny bit on the tip of a Q-tip and gently wiped the discolored area. The effect was immediate (the tip of the Q-tip immediately turned gray while the palm rest turned white). I guess it could be, as someone suggested, that the acetone removed a very thin layer of the plastic, and with it the grime. I don't know. All I know is that it worked. However, now that I've seen someone burn a hole through the MacBook using acetone nail polish remover, I don't know if I'll have the courage to try it on my MacBook if/when it starts to discolor.

I guess this thread's been dugg (specifically the post about the nail polish remover). I don't know if that's necessarily good or bad, but at least it'll generate a buzz that hopefully Apple won't be able to easily ignore.

mine doesn't show up any kind of discoloration after 1 week. IN france a lot of people start to talk about it. I see it's the sam here. I admit I get a little paranoid

OK dude. MAYBE I didn't see this forum until I ALREADY tried it out, seriously.

http://www.appledefects.com/?p=11

Looks like this story has made it on to the appledefects site.

CHEERS.

I'm wading into this w/ a little trepidation, but here goes...

Before my current PowerBook, I had a TiBook - a Titanium PowerBook, for those too young or too new to Apple to know the "lingo." With that computer, there was a somewhat similiar problem, in that the hand rest areas, which were really painted carbon fiber and NOT titanium, had a tendancy to "bubble" and peel, revealing black underneath. This was well documented on these forums (although most of those posts have expired). I bring it up because it may serve as a cautionary tale...

It took a lot of effort, by a number of people, to get Apple to recognize and finally agree to correct the problem. Many of the same types of comments you see here were made, like "You must have toxic sweat, from eating/drinking/smoking X" or "it is your fault for doing X/not doing X/wearing X" etc. Some of the Apple faithful (I consider myself one; nothing but since the Apple II+!) get irrationally aggressive whenever someone so much as complains about their computer. The company's initial stance was that it was a "wear and tear" issue. Through persistance and documentation, users were able to change their point of view on this, and the company did eventually agree to fix the paint on computers under Apple Care.

So why do I bring this up? I think a few lessons learned then can apply to the current situation...

#1 - Apple will come around, but only if you keep the pressure on. W/ the TiBook paint issues, threats regarding lawsuits were made - I don't know if that made the difference or not. Relative to that problem, the MacBook discoloration one seems to develop more quickly, so more people should be able to document it. Moracity is right - you need to call Apple, bring your computer in, etc. BTW, some Apple employees will say, "This is the first I've heard of this," long after this could be true. Be polite, but be persistant.

#2 - MacAddicts will criticize you. Maybe it is from all the years of people saying, "Why in the world would you use a Mac?" but Mac users tend to be a fiercely loyal, even overprotective bunch. Posters will suggest it is your fault, or that it is all in your head. It isn't, of course. But trust me, the best thing to do is to just ignore them; don't waste time, as I did, comparing who has the bigger "Mac cred" and getting drawn into a flame war.

#3 - You have the right to have a computer that doesn't start to have problems right away. Sure it is a cosmetic problem, and the computer probably works just fine. But who wants to stare at pink/orange/gray computer all the time, especially if you just bought it? Furthermore, as an Apple consumer, you become a (potential) Apple spokesperson. If you open up your computer and people all say, "Gross!" that hurts Apple, too.

In short, once enough people complain, loudly but coherently, Apple should come around. It ***** having to mail in your computer for a fix, but you can always keep the stains if you don't want to part w/ the computer and they don't bother you. Hope this helps.



PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

actually...the first person to mention the nail polish remover method, used acetone based polish(although he thought it was non-acetone at first).

My only concern is how bad does it get? Macbooks are only several weeks old...what happens after 2 to 3 years of usage?

White Rabbit, appreciate your insights. Can you share any other "best practices" for owners of discolored MacBooks in terms of dealing with apple? Should we be taking pictures regularly of our computers, lodging a case number as soon as the first stains appear, documenting our issues as a group? Or is this thread enough documentation for Apple to eventually realize the magnitude of the issue? Based on your experience with the TiBooks, anything else we can do to strengthen our case for a recall/fix of the problem?

Have been following this thread with interest and just received my white MacBook. I ordered it two days before I saw this thread (timing!), and am now terrified of an OrangeBook/PinkBook/YellowBook/BlueBook situation....

well i dont have my macbook yet it appears to have been delayed / cancelled... erm. I hope this is to fix any problems before i receive it.

I'm not dipping a $1600 piece of plastic in bleach, sorry.

I called up apple support about my 4 week old macbook discolored on the palm area today.

Their expert (his name was "France") told me to bring it to a apple store so they can look at it. I told him I dont have any Apple stores near by, that's why I bought directly from Apple. He said he can't do anything for me. He also said "I can't even tell you what to clean it with".

I'm going to drive to the Apple store over the weekend and see what they can do. At this point, I wouldn't mind paying extra money for a black case.

Not surprising the story has "made it on to" there, considering who owns the site...

The owner has done a pretty good job at covering up his identity, but it's still pretty obvious, considering that the site admin on appledefects.com is "CK", and there's also a user called "chr1skearney" that was registered on the same day (June 7) as the site admin...

Tim.

I started the site.

Do you want a medal for your detective work? You really deserve one, cheers mate.

Not too much "detective work" involved here... I just wanted to point out the obvious, since you made it seem like you were simply recommending the site without any personal interest.