Yellow Discoloration

Go to the Apple menu and click on About this Mac. Click on the Version 10.4.6 text until it displays your serial...

macfan, mine is the same as yours. 4H621. I hope I dont have the same problem with discolouration as you do. I think its bad when you spend so much on something and they it develops such an obvious silly fault. If the same happens to mine in straight onto Apple about it. Obviouslt being white you would expect dirt, but not something that doesnt come off!

It looks like it could just be a few people what are getting it, so hopefully im one of the lucky ones that doesnt. Everythings been good up to now!

I have also experienced this yellow discoloration on my MacBook 4H620, 1.83 GHz model. No amount of cleaning it removes the staining. I don't smoke, I wash my hands regularly, and I don't use latex gloves or any chemicals. This has occurred from normal, everyday usage.

I've posted a picture here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=2510382#post2510382

4H6200 here

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Since discovering quite a few people (ok alot) have this problem of the discolouration on the palm rest and track pad button, i thought i'd search the net for an answer.

After looking at numorous photos it does appear to be where people have placed there hands.

For Example:
myself, I spread my left across the left side of the palm rest and my little finger extends to the plastic above the USB / Firewire ports, whilst resting my right thumb on the button whilst using the track pad.

There are 2 different types of sweat glands in humans, so there are 2 kinds of sweat. The more numerous gland type is the one that secretes sweat as a means of helping to regulate our body temperature. For example, on the palms of your hands, one square inch of skin contains over 3000 sweat glands!! This type of sweat is about 99% water with the other 1% consisting of NaCl,Vitamin C, uric acid, urea, ammonia and lactic acid. It varies among us by diet and heredity, as well as by our level of activity.

It could just be that the new plastic used on the MacBook has a strange reaction to one the acids we excrete. The only way I can see of apple fixing this is to change the plastic. However it is cosmetic and doesn't really effect the performance of the machine.

Just my thoughts.

Hi y'all. My MacBook, which I've been using for a little over 2 weeks, haven't started to discolor yet (knock on wood).

I did want to throw in a tidbit. Some people above have said how their iBooks in the past had never been affected this way. Well, the iBooks aren't immune to this. My wife's iBook G4/1GHz, which she's had for about 2 years has showed the same kind of discoloration the past year or so. You can check out a picture here.

The stains are on both sides of the trackpad, but the one on the left side is noticeably darker. I'm guessing that's because my wife usually uses an external mouse -- hence, her left hand tends to remain on the palmrest much longer than her right. I'd call the color grayish, not yellowish. We've tried different cleaners without success.

I'd hate to see this happen to my new MacBook (which does moo, by the way).

Weird, though, because before I bought my previous laptop -- a Powerbook 12in/1GHz -- I owned an iBook G3/500MHz for about 3 years, and never saw this kind of discoloration. Which, I guess, could be explained by one of the following three:

1) Older, G3 iBooks and newer G4 iBooks used different plastics
2) Difference is physical/chemical between my wife and me -- her sweat, or whatever, is chemically more prone to cause discoloration
3) Length of time used -- laptops, for me, are always secondary machines, while for my wife, has always been the main and the only computers. With that said, I'm worried about my MacBook now because this will be MY main and only computer for the rest of the summer while I'm out of the country.


For everyone's information, my MacBook is a white, superdrive model, serial number 4H620 ***.

MacBook 2.0GHz Superdrive (White) Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Well if sweat is causing this, then naturally heat is somewhat to blame, because of the excessive heat of the MacBook, one's wrists/hands will sweat more.

The discoloration of the white PC+ABS coverset is not a new problem - it also occurred on the last generation of the iBook. The discoloration is caused oils and dirt on a user's hands, and is exacerbated when the user does not clean off the palmrest and trackpad buttons after usage.

MBP users report palmrest "pitting", and its caused by the same thing as the MB plastic discoloration.

On another note, users have expressed surprise that worn textured MB surfaces turn shiny, and shiny surfaces turn dull. This is completely normal.

First time Mac owner here and I am sad to say that I too am seeing this discoloration problem start to rear it's ugly head on my Macbook. **Sigh of dissapointment ** I've had my white 1.83ghz for around 3 weeks now and I am seeing discoloration start to form on my palm rests and the left side of the mouse button. Obviously this is very frustrating, especially seeing how this was my first time buying a mac. I really wanted this to be a positive experience. It's too bad, because performance wise the Macbook is very nice, and I am enjoying my first experience with OS X.

The only other complaint I have in regards to this notebook is the heat which almost everyone is having to deal with. Hopefully a firmware update will be released down the line that will help with the heat issue. I haven't had any of the "mooing" that many complain about. However this discoloration issue is a serious design flaw and needs to be addressed by Apple.

I have tried Magic Eraser and it didn't do a whole lot for me. I clean my hands very well before each and every use of this machine. I have since I got it. It definitely seems like a chemical reaction resulting from oil's in the skin to this plastic they are using. Maybe the plastic is too pourus. At any rate, I am trying to control my frustration and be patient that there will be some sort of resolution or at least recognition of this problem by Apple. It is completely ridiculous for a $1500 notebook to be having these issues 3 weeks after purchase. One can only assume this discoloration will continue to get worse as time goes on. If this continues, and Apple does not address the issue, this will be the first and the last Apple product I will ever own.

Hopefully others see this thread and learn about these problems before investing in these products.

MacBook - 1.83Ghz - 1GB Ram - 80GB Hard Drive Mac OS X (10.4.6) Ser#4H620****

This is not normal..

4H619 here (3 weeks old), and discoloration is just starting to appear, but I spend most of my day on my primary machine (a G5 iMac).
I'll be calling Applecare tomorrow to help get this issue on the radar. Everyone who has this issue should do the same.

And, as a sidenote, if you don't own a MacBook, you probably don't have much valid input on this issue. So please don't post. We've established that the MacBook has different plastic than the iBook internally, and that no amount of cleaning will fix the discoloration.

agreed

The MacBook certainly has different plastics from the early iBooks -- but the very last revision was at least somewhat rubberized and/or texturized on the keyboard panel in a way that is similar to the MacBook.

It would be worth using the final G4 iBook as a reference point because if MacBooks are going yellow in three weeks while an iBook with a very similar if not identical case surfacing is still good after six months it would clearly isolate the problem to whatever tweak Apple made in the surface and not user abuse.

Hey what did you use to make that ultra sweet slideshow??!

Please email me a link to whatever you use or something!!

Dave
davidpazdan@yahoo.com

Oh... Im thinking of buying one, but I dont want it to turn yellow after a few weeks. Are there problems like this with the black Macbook?