Yellow Discoloration

Some of the snafus date from well before the recent outsourcing fetish. A large proportion of 2004's G5 towers coming out of Sacramento had serious QA problems, and the situation may have hastened the demise of that plant (for all you serial number afficionados, anything beginning with XB is out of Sacramento). My US-made PowerBook 145 from 1992 was part of what was apparently a major recall for the want of a "shim" that was needed to prevent the LCD panel from shimmering horribly -- a problem that apparently reared its ugly head once again with the most recent Powerbook DL Superdrive 15 inch; enough that when I called them well out of warranty (no AppleCare in those days), they knew right away what it was, AirBorned me a mailer overnight, turned it around and had it back to me within 36 hours, all at their expense as I did not have to pay a penny for the tech call, shipping or repair.

The QA glitches especially on first-run products are nothing new with Apple and I do think they usually end up getting fixed. I'm a bit more concerned by their apparent slow-down in dealing with them; besides the "cosmetic" mantra and other obfuscation that didn't surface in the past, Apple service is significantly slower than it was even just a few years ago. To get the kind of service I got with my 145 (and, for that matter, with a fritzed hard drive on my TiBook two years ago) you now probably need to shell out extra for ProCare unless you're lucky enough to be close to a store with in-house service -- and even then you might need the ProCare to get the 24 hour turnaround that used to be standard for a one-part repair. Otherwise you're looking at four or five days to repair. Apple needs to realize that computer companies were faster than consumer electronics ones for a reason (your computer is exponentially more important to your work than your iPod Hifi, unless you have a Windoze box that is 90 percent graphics card), and computer customers are going to get tetchy if service goes on increasingly resembling consumer electronics service.

...At this point, I
wouldn't mind paying extra money for a black case.

Here's a thought I had. Let's assume the worst, Apple won't cover under warranty a case replacement. Also, let's assume that other than the heat issue, that the little computer is working like gang busters and a likeable box.

I'm just throwing this into pure conjecture.

If my MacBook was staining, and for whatever reason it just isn't, but if it were, and Apple gave no solution, then I think I would pull the plastic, disassemble the computer as per the various take-a-part sites, and PAINT the plastic.

I mean, this really isn't such a bad thing. The plastic is prepped with a paint adhesion spray, painted with a color of choice, then clearcoated. The paint would be for plastic.

An automotive store, such as NAPA, or AutoZone has many choices of plastic automotive paint.

I really think if Apple just isn't going to cover this, that I would bail out and spend the few bucks to paint the plastic. The issue just isn't worth the aggravation of expecting a solution from Apple, unless a real fix is announced.

I have painted a lot of plastic trim pieces for cars, using just automotive spray paint and it just isn't that difficult. The result looks "factory".

all this painting of plastics and dipping in bleach and... god sake. Why cant we just have a bloody case that actually is guaranteed.

The discoloration hasn't happened to me yet, but i'm wondering if I can expect a recall? How does apple traditionally handle situations like this?

I'm a little worried since my 14 day return policy will be up soon and can't decide on whether to take my chances by keeping it, or return it. Does apple really charge $110 for returning an open item?

Although there has been hundreds of thousands of Macbooks sold so far, and 30,000 views of this thread, and almost 250 posts, I count about 19 Macbook owners that have actually indicated they experienced the discoloration. That's enough to indicate there is a problem (and not user error), but not enough to indicate that the problem is widespread.

In comparison, when the Nano scratches issue first arose, hundreds if not thousands of owners started to complain overnight.

There's some chemical reaction going on, but the reaction seems to happen with a small percentage of the population. If it starts happening to you, you can easily put a protective clear plastic film (or other cover) on the surface to protect it.

Like the Nano, the more widespread the problem becomes, the more solutions will come from the gadget protection industry.

Let's keep monitoring this issue, but let's not lose our heads.

An '05 switcher.

You can't say that this problem isn't widespread. 30,000+ views indicate that more than 19 people are most likely having the same issue. Otherwise, there wouldn't be this much buzz.

Bottom line is we have all paid $1000+ for sub-standard quality from a business who prides themselves on the same.

When I heard that Asus is making these, I knew there would be issues...

Mine has issues ejecting CD/DVD discs, and the rim around the screen seems to be loose too... With all the complaints about 'fit and finish' and other more substantial issues, I'll keep my black macbook and suffer...

PS: What is the 'mooing'?

Would like a macbookpro, but value the skin on my thighs and the crease in my pants...

Perhaps Apple should rethink the manufacturer... Can't Lenovo or whoever does HP's books do them? I've got an HP book that is spot on the best one I've ever had...

dude,
I never said anything about 'dipping' the unit in bleach!

Plus, I was talking about Oxygen Bleach.

Also, why would you not have the common sense to use a Q-tip or other 'small' applicator

"Dipping a MacBook in bleach...............LoL"

I'm hoping that indeed this problem isn't as widespread as this thread has made me believe. MacBook here hasn't shown any signs yet, and going on 3 weeks now.

How often is your MacBook powered on? I'm wondering if this has only happened to those who have practically left their macbooks ON since the day they bought them.

30,000 views means that the thread was linked from outside, and was on Digg, which means a lot of curious clickers.

Well, technically it's not my MacBook (it's my brother's), but he left it at my house since I'm the mac geek of the family and he's out of the country. I use it every day but I'd say only for an hour a day, since I have my own collection of computers to use.

Oh, and I leave it "powered on" since Day 1, but it lies asleep for most of that.

mine hasn't been off-off since i got it, except when i recalibrated the battery. iStat shows my current uptime as 9 days...which is when I downloaded iStat i think 😝

Clearly this is an issue just and lets not insult anyone's attention.

So far my MB is stain free, but I'm down right paranoid about using it.

I purchased the white MB because the white finished was supposed to be more durable. Add in to the mix the premature reports of the black MB's finish flacking off, and then the cost increase - I was not willing to pay 200 for the color black.

Now it seems more and more people are starting to report this. The key to get apple's attention is to keep the heat on them. Do any of you recall how long it took apple to acknowledge that some 15" powerbooks had a problem with white spots Months, but then they were only going to fix it if it was within the warranty (a while later they said regardless of the warranty they'll fix them).

I think the more bad press is generated from this, the more likely we will see a resolution.

People should definitely contact Apple directly though, these forums are fine for user to user discussions, but hardly the most direct route to Apple. Use either the Feedback page or use your 90 day free phone support.