It's not uncommon for electronics -- and especially laptops -- to begin showing some discoloration after a few months or years of wear and tear, but reports coming out of Mac forums and websites of three- and four-week old white
MacBooks sporting heavy staining on the trackpads and wrist rests are causing no small amount of alarm among the Apple faithful. Having ruled out
heat, smokers, and people not washing their hands enough, commenters are now starting to use ugly terms like "manufacturing defect" to explain why disparate white MacBooks are all showing signs of heavy use barely weeks out of the box, with afflicted users reportedly unable to remove the stains even armed with the harshest of cleaning agents. While it's too soon to really gauge the scope of this supposed problem, if we owned a MacBook we might start using external input devices just to be safe, and if we were in the market for a new one, well, we might even drop the extra loot for that fancy -- and seemingly stain-resistant --
black edition.
[Thanks, Calamier]
posted Jun 13th 2006 9:45PM
apple is a computer and electronic organization that has revolutionized that world. Who thought of a phone that is just touchscreen? Apple. Who has the computer with the least crashes? apple. Apparently, who ever is buying these computers is not taking care of them, or something, because im going to buy a black macbook and there won't be any problems with it because I will treat it like it is something that is worth taking care of. Sure, things can go wrong with a laptop, it happens to everything. So if yours has a problem, great, fix it or stop complaining. Maybe a better practice of hygene would help.
i have had my white macbook for almost 3 months now and mine is not bad at all. if you just wash your hands after eating or anything else that might get stuff on you hands you'll be fine.
Use soap while washing your hands. Don't forget your wrists!
That sucks! Wow, I'm glad I didn't get one now. I think I am just going to stick with my Powerbook G4 for a while. At least until they can fit a friggin Dual Layer Superdrive in the 15" model.
Um, product testing anyone?
How would something like this not show up in test units? Last minute materials change or something?
This explain the extra $150 for black ;)
My iBook is nearly two years old and it doesn't look even almost this bad. Class action lawsuit just waiting to happen.
Yeah I have to agree with strider_mt2k, how did Apple not find out about this problem in testing....or dont they do that anymore?
My macbook is perfectly stain free, three weeks old to the day, no signs of staining or any other unsightly things.
I'm not sure that I buy this... I've owned an iBook for almost 4 years, and while I occasionally have to clean the "stains" off of it, I think that you'd be hard pressed to get this after 3 weeks of use.
If you work in the yard all day and then immediately start using your iBook/MacBook without washing up first this might make more sense.
Another thing to consider is the pictures themselves, these sweat/hand stains appear more severe when hit with the flash on a camera, in the same way that people look more sunburned in photos when hit with direct flash.
If you want to keep your iBook/MacBook spanking new clean I highly suggest going to your local supermarket and picking up some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. They only cost a few bucks and NOTHING else has been able to keep my iBook looking so good, and believe me I've tried a lot of stuff.
Dirty hands will make dirty laptops.
yuppie mac-lovers make dirty laptops, it's the pc virii trying to come in
Or, knowing that the product is riddled with bugs and defects, just refuse to buy one. Seems like a no brainer to me.
Dude 1: "I hear macbooks get real dirty after a couple weeks"
Dude 2: "I'm going to buy one anyways, and put up with cleaning it a lot!!"
Maybe all the overheating caused discolouration in the plastic.
You would have to be insane to buy one of these after hearing about all of these problems.
supposedly CLEAR, non-acetone based nail polish remover may remove almost all staining. give it a shot.
DON'T USE TINTED ACETONE OR ISOPROPYL BASED CHEMICALS.
no other cleaning methods have worked. give this one a shot if your macbook is discoloring.
This is legit. Check out the apple MacBook support page. Many, many people have been complaining about it.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=516645&tstart=0
So a black one will be okay, right?
Perhaps these owners love their books a bit...ahem...too much?
Wow, this is scandal, a total scandal.
Should it be like this? If this happens to your Mac computer Apple should just provide you with a new one, nothing to talk about...
Is it just me or have this new Intel-macs had alot of problems lately? I never hear so man reports about different problems from any PC Laptop model. I want a Mac, but all these things will make me think twice, or more before buying. Apple realy have to bost their quality.
Don't buy a white laptop. It shows dirt. I thought this was an easy one...
Here's my take on those new patronizing Mac adverts.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/967/2097/1600/MacBook.jpg
ejdmoo:
I have a white laptop. It's called an iBook, and it's 3 years old. I use it every day and there's no dirt on it at all. Sure, I take the time to clean it once a month or so, but I do that with all of my fancy electronic crap.
This isn't about white laptops, it's about the white MacBook. This is an issue particular to those computers, and your comment doesn't help at all.
I was very close to picking up a MacBook. But, all of these nasty problems have me worried. There's problems with the heat, the noise, the 'mooing' and now discolouration. I think the MacBook was 'too good to be true' from the start. It's had too many serious problems already.
Kal Viclund,
Though it's true there have a been a few hiccups with the Intel transition, there would be such hiccups with any manufacture, even more with most of them. Apple happens to be very high profile so you're going to hear about a stained white Macbook long before you hear about an IBM Thinkpad doing... well, anything.
I don't suggest buying any new 1st Generation HW (I'm waiting until the next CPU increase + Dual Layer DVD Burner in the Macbook Pro before I buy mine) as there will be problems, guaranteed.
Here are list of the compaints with the Intel Macs:
- White gets dirty too quickly.
- Black shows oils on trackpad too easily
- Aluminum cases on Macbook Pro 'feel' hot.
Looks like burn marks to me.
I havent seen this in person but I find it hard to believe that it's the material discoloring. Shiny white iBook, easy to clean, dirt slides right off. Porous white, hard to clean, dirt like to hide in the tiny little holes (yes, it might feel smooth, but your fancy matte finish macbook has a textured surface).
Oils do wonders (bad) to matte finishes.
Apparently clear or blue acetone-based nail polish remover cleans it up. Apple really needs to change the inner material. This is simply ridiculous coming from a company that prides itself on it's products' looks.
"Here's my take on those new patronizing Mac adverts"
What's a laywer? but I agree. Mac is getting cocky. i was a mac convert with a PBG4 but make switch back to a VAIO just cause Apple's arrogance annoys me (more than Sony's). Is there an easy way to run OS 10.4 and XP on a PC?
My girlfriend had a similar problem with the ibook G4. one day she spilled some of this on it.
http://www.coppertone.com/products_oilfree.aspx
and it cleared it right up for some reason.
-dean
thank god for brushed aluminum.
Hmmmm....maybe I can get in on a market for some iBleach? Or iCleaner?
Maybe some iNerd has been spending too much time on his MacBook and hasn't been washing his hands. Don't get me wrong or anything, I'm a Mac guy, but some of these Mac guys need to open their eyes and realize that THEY may be the ones causing the problems, not the hardware.
I really hope this just ends up being a few stupid people, and not a defect. After the whole iPod scratches thing I thought Apple would have learned to be more careful when choosing materials. The thing that gets me is that they know better. They had a material for iPods that didn't scratch so bad, then they stopped using it. If this MacBook things to be true then they had a white material that they made iBooks out of that didn't turn brown after a few weeks, and then stopped using it. Where is the logic in this, guys? I like OSX, and the hardware that goes into these Macs, why can't they just nail down the details? I'm so close to switching, and little things like this keep saying "they don't care about you". Now hey, maybe it's just a few people who don't wash their hands, I'm just saying.
Why would anyone want one of these anyway? Those flat keys suck.
We have these on demo in our store (an independent one, not the nazi owned/run Apple branded kind), have been since the day they were announced. Tho it's one of our duties to clean or demo computers periodically, we haven't. We've had every nerd in the tri-state area get their grimey hands on the thing and it's not dirty at all. Albiet it's not the 16 hours a day I put on my personal computers, but it's getting a solid workout among a lot of dirty hands.
Different batch of plastics? Maybe.
Coal miners use these? Maybe.
Who knows... good luck with ours. But I do have to wonder just how anal someone can be about the cosmetics of their tools? If you clean your screwdrivers and use Blue Coral autowax to polish up the finish on your Miller Welder...
Any one consider using Mr. Clean Magic Eraser?
http://www.homemadesimple.com/sites/en_US/mrclean/products/eraser.shtml
There have been enough people posting about problems with this over at the Apple support site that I'd be hard pressed to believe that it's just a user error and not a serious problem with the materials.
Also I hope by now everyone understands that iPods are made to scratch easily *on purpose* since Jobs expects you to upgrade your iPod every year or two. The Nintendo DS Lite is made out of a very similar material that doesn't scratch as easily and I doubt that Nintendo has access to materials that Apple doesn't.
Look here for the nail polish remover fix and how to do it properly:
http://techwrap.blogspot.com/2006/06/white-macbook-yellow-discoloration-fix.html
I work in an Apple Store. We have 1000s of grubby handed people fondling the MacBooks daily. Do they discolor? Yes. To the extent shown in the picture? No. Usually they take on more of a grey hue around the trackpad and wrist rests. I would have to say anyone with the ability to turn their MacBook that color are really filthy.
Someone has mentioned that these stains look photoshoped, and I slightly agree. However, if these stains are cleanable they aren't a defect, they're dirt.
1 word: PORN!
Class action anyone?
It's an Apple easter egg - all white MacBooks are black underneath...
The black macbooks pick up more grease and trackpad wear, and suffer more discolourisation than the white ones...
That's what convinced me to go for the white after I visited the macstore in london, they positively gleam in comparison.
But naturally, most laptops don't have the kind of material Apple uses on theirs which is prone to a lot of dirt. They should make everything Aluminium like the powerbooks/MBP's. I've never had this issue with my 12inch powerbook :-/
gosh, chris clark! I wouldn't be tempted to wait for the nxt macbook because it had a dual layer drive!! ionly ever use singler layer dvds for backing-up as dual layer are well expensive, esp. when the writing goes wrong and yr left with an expensive tea coaster
Hate to say it, but my ibook did something similar where my plams rested after about 6 months or so, but not near as bad as those pics. I just bought a new macbookpro and one of the first things I bought was Mareware's Protection Pack. If yoiur intersested in protecting your laptop these are awesome. Here is a website where you can pick one up: http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?code=7578-MBFP
It's not DIRT, people. It's a chemical reaction in the actual finish. I've had this happen on every non-black laptop I've ever owned eventually - it doesn't matter if you have millions of people with dirty hands using them every day in a store, it's all about hours and hours of resting human hands on those hand-rests (which people aren't doing in a store). But it shouldn't happen after only a month.
I agree, 1000's of people using a MacBook such as in an Apple store isn't going to discolour it, it may make it a little grubby but it could be easily cleaned.
For example, my Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse has started to discolour like the MacBook on both sides where my fingers rest and its got a silver finish. Only hours of use can cause the stains you see, you should see the state of my old MS mouse after 4 years use.
To me, it's likely one of two things: either discoloration from heat, or a chemical reaction. You'd be amazed what some people's bodies can do to materials - my wife turns any white gold back into regular gold just by wearing it for a few months. The only solution to this is to have the jewelry re-coated in white gold again (or she gets used to regular gold, whichever :D ) Looking at the picture and comparing it to my laptop right now, those stains are exactly where I rest my wrists and hands - I'm going to vote chemical reaction with the plastic - maybe Apple needs to switch to some type of varnish sealant.
Hmm not sure this is a "manufacturing defect" or a problem with sweat causing discolouration of the plastic.
If you can clean it off, it cant be a problem with the product...unless of course what you are cleaning off is essentially the top layer of the plastic (i.e. remove stained bit to reveal the white udnerneath), but I find that a bit far fetched.
Things get dirty (yes even mac products too), deal with it. No one complains to the manufacturer when their white car gets road-grime on it!
The minority always makes the biggest noise, don't they? Sure, there may be a lot of people having this problem, but it seems to me that we're not hearing from the majority of people who don't have a problem with their MacBooks. This has happened several times, especially with Apple products. "Hey, mine has a weird defect that 1 in 1,000 are experiencing! Apple sux! It's a defect! I'm going to start a Web site and tell all my friends to post stuff about how theirs is doing the same thing so I can get mine replaced for free!"
How many thousands of people bought these on launch? And…how many people are complaining? Two dozen?
Not switching to Apple because of a few people with bad experiences is a bad decision. And before people ask, no, I don't work for Apple, I switched in 2003.
I've seen the same thing with a white wireless keyboard and mouse. Turns out it was from the tanic acids in sodas!
When will people EVER learn that Apple make crap out of crap, and charge over the odds for it. As a Sony man said recently, "Jobs could stick an Apple logo on the PS3 and sell it for $2,000".
Hey I bought a white car last year, and after 1 hour I could see discoloration on the paint. Maybe I should sue!
Beauty is only skin deep, ha haaaa... but yea still is nasty.
We have these on demo in our store (an independent one, not the nazi owned/run Apple branded kind), have been since the day they were announced
Wow, the fact that you threw in a Nazi reference when talking about a retail store just about completely invalidates ANY comments you have to say in my opinion. Its disrespectful an disgraceful.
When will people EVER learn that Apple make crap out of crap, and charge over the odds for it.
Funny given that comparison after comparison shows that Apples are priced roughly equivalent to equally specced PC's, and that Apple consistently gets high ratings from Consumer Reports and others for reliability.
The reason this is a story? Well there are three reasons.
Reason #1: Apple users don't put up with crap like PC users tend to, these kind of stories come out because we demand top quality.
Reason #2: People like to pick on Apple, especially with the success of the iPod lately. Especially PC-fanboys who apparently have nothing better to do than look for every single Apple article and troll it.
Reason #3: People have come to expect and even accept shoddy quality from PC's. Just look at Dell. If this story were about Dell laptops people would just be saying, well yeah its Dell. Of course it wouldn't even be a story because Dell isn't interesting to write about. Once again it goes back to point 2. People like to target Apple because it goes against the crowd.
"Jobs could stick an Apple logo on the PS3 and sell it for $2,000".
Jobs could sell a paper bag for $2,000.
This is not cause by grease, it is acidity who cause that kind of stain. Rub your hands with Rolaids or stop eating junk food !!
This clearly show how "good" Apple command their OEM to make these. I'm so glad this is happening. Another con agaist Apple.
You know, it is really frustrating and annoying to read people post such uninformed and wilfully ignorant comments as, "These users must be filthy!", "Wash your hands, dude!" or, "They must be doing something stupid." Is it not possible that a small batch of MacBooks were distributed with a slightly different plastic or some other manufacturing fault? Oh sorry, I forgot that Apple aren't actually just a company that happen make good computers; it is a religion. Well, I am one of the users who have this problem. I've had my MacBook three weeks, and the palm-rests and track-pad look as though I've been using it constantly for five years. It looks disgusting. So, let's get a couple of things straight:
1) Am I filthy? No, thank you very much, I am not. I have owned a white iBook for two years and used it for hours every single day of that two-years, and it has no such staining. My three-week MacBook looks much grubbier than my two year-old MacBook. I would say that this is good evidence that I do not have strange oils or chemicals in my body, and also should be enough to testify that I am not dirty. And no, I don't smoke, either.
2) Am I whinging about nothing? Well, only if you call £960 nothing, in which case I envy you your riches.
3) Am I anal about the cosmetics of my tools? Do I clean up my screwdrivers? No, of course not. But then neither have I paid £960 to a screwdriver company who pride themselves on style and the good looks of their shiny white products.
4) I have scrubbed and scrubbed at the surface of my MacBook with mild cleaning products, and those stains will not budge. This is not a "dirt" issue. Let me say that again: this is not a "dirt" issue.
Apple make good computers. Apple have an amazing operating system that beats others hands down. That does not mean that they are incapable of making mistakes. If this was any other computer, I would be just as annoyed, except that I would immediately return it and switch brands. But I can't do that, because I love OS X and Apple have locked me in (and the MacBook is all I can afford, and I need an Intel machine right now in order to port software to it). If this is not happening to your MacBook, good for you. If you don't have a white MacBook, then please don't make uninformed judgements. And please don't belittle those of us who have a genuine cause for grievance or accusesus of being "whingers" - this is *not* normal wear and tear, but given that Apple classify this as "cosmetic", unless we make a little fuss, it is unlikely that anything will be done about it. Sorry if I come across as a little angry in this comment, but over the past few days I have indirectly been accused of being dirty, of not washing my hands enough, of washing my hands *too much*, of being incapable to clean a computer, and of being inutterably stupid - all because there is a particular breed of MacFan out there who cannot tolerate the idea that Apple could do anything wrong, and whose attitude seems to be that if they don't have the problem, everyone else should shut up about it. Well, just to please them, I will shut up now.
I have a 2001 iBook, I've taken it to school every day throughout my High School career, in a regular backpack being banged up against textbooks and car keys.
I used it daily, rigerously, never washed my hands before use, and never cleaned or washed my iBook.
My trackpad and wrist rests look fine.
Thusly, I have no reason to believe that all these cases are caused by people with dirty hands.
If you really want to avoid the problem check out http://shieldzone.com they have an amazing product. I use it on all of my electronic devices. And the guarentee is hard to beat.
i too am having this problem... macbook < 2 weeks old, discoloration appearing mainly on the touchpad button but also a little in the areas surrounding the touchpad... i've used the macbook for a total of approx 40 hours -- half that time i was using external mouse/keyboard so my hands have made contact with the unit for maybe 20 hours total... am in love with the functionality of the computer itself, though i am absolutely disgusted with this gross oversight -- i did Not pay this much money for something to look like shit 2 weeks later... period! i emailed apple this morning. i have already convinced several family members & friends to 'make the switch' -- i'm hoping apple gives me the right answer (ie no questions asked - fix it and make it right) otherwise i'll have to let it spill to all my cohorts... "nice computer, everything is perfect, exceeeeeeeeeept...." ******BOOOOOOOOOO*****
Just call Apple support and they'll send a box to ship it back/have the case replaced. What other computer company would repair cosmetic issues like this? True, it shouldn't have happened in the first place, but I doubt anybody else would fix all of them for free.
people sometimes complain too much and do so little!
god knows all that staining only came from tanning-obssessed guys and gals who would immediately use their macbook an hour after they self-tan!
yeah, i looked at the white one today at compUSA and it's a pretty machine. they didn't have a black one for comparison purposes, but i'd seen one when i was on vacation. the white looks glossy, whereas the black looks a bit more matte.
not sure, but i agree that apple should have cought this in product testing. i have had my powerbook g4 for over 2 years and it does not exhibit any staining either (but then it's aluminum) and my hands are not always freshly washed when i sit down.
I used to have an iBook G4 and it had this problem somewhat after quite a while of use. Recently I upgraded to a MacBook. I've only had it a few months and the discoloration is far worse than the picture shown. I don't really understand because despite what you might like to think, I am not dirty. I wash my hands frequently. The only thing I can think is that maybe using hand lotion could discolor it. I have a guy friend who has an older MacBook than mine. He's definitely dirty--their bathroom hardly ever has hand soap... yet his isn't discolored and mine is. I'm eager to try the eraser because nothing else works.
The dirty hands comment is only worthy of quick and summary dismissal. Who posted that, Steve Jobs? I am, in spite of myself, a long time Apple user and fan, but I wonder when Apple will wake up and smell the market? You can be cavalier just because your laptops are a different color. I own a Dell for work purposes and it works fine. And, oh yeah, by the way, it looks great wheter or not I wash my hands! I own an Apple to support a company that I think cares. Maybe I'm just an idiot. Along with all the other drones who feel that Apple can do no wrong.
I'm not going to read all the comments right now, but I have a 100% solution for this...Mr Clean Magic Erasers. I bought some today, and took the black marks off in about 5 seconds. Saves a lot of hassle to send the product away for servicing.
ACETONE FREE NAIL VARNISH REMOVER USERSS BEWARE!
While it will remove the discoloration (which apparently is caused by a reaction between your sweat and the plastic) be very careful with it and make sure that you keep it to the wristguard plastic!
IT WILL REMOVE YOUR MacBook LOGO AND OTHER PRINT AND DEGRADE YOUR PLASTIC.
This will actually make your plastic more susceptable to the staining after use.
I recomend using hot water and malt vingear instead, it isn't as effective straight off, but if you clean your MacBook with it every week or so it will keep the discolouration down and cause no side effects (the smell actually disappates within five minutes).
Too late for me tho >_
HTML Tags :<
http://tinyurl.com/24n22h - what happened to mine
Here you go. Mine was looking like that one in the picture and now is clean. Just use a eraser rubber on it. http://www.iapoce.com/blog/2007/07/how-to-remove-stains-from-macbook-white.html
hi, i've had an apple ibook G4 for about 2 years. my trackpad is still white as is the area where i rest my wrists. i have had to clean it maybe 3 times in the 2 years i have owned it. i bought apple iclear cleaner and polish. if you use it the first time you see a little discoloration it takes it off and prevents it from accumulating anymore. the discoloration is nothing more than the oils and acids in your skin accumulating on the laptop. everybody is different so some may have heavier buildup than others. i don't reccomend using anything other than products reccomended for cleaning ibooks and ipods, it would suck to mess up your laptop from a home remedy or something not made for it!
i now have a reason to wash my hands regularly
I've owned my white MacBook for over a month now, and I've used it for several hours each day, and it is perfectly fine. Still wayyy better than a Blackbook. They show grease and it looks horrible. I love my white MacBook :D