Aluminum Powerbooks Chipping?

[alia]

This seems totally nuts, but I spoke to a guy today who's a PC repair tech, and he talked about how the new aluminum powerbooks have a chipping problem just like the tibooks. He said that they have a silver coating that's chipping off...

This seemed totally rediculous to me, as why would you bother to coat anodized aluminum? Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Or was this guy full of BS?

Thanks,

Alia

 

[morgan-e]

Re: Aluminum Powerbooks Chipping?

it seems like it may be false but i could be wrong and it wouldn't be the first time.

 

[rainman::|:|]

Nothing i've heard suggests there is any coating to be chipped off. The aluminum could probably be stained tho...

pnw

 

[robbieduncan]

You can scratch annodised aluminum. I have such a PC case and it has one slight scratch on one side panel.

 

[gopher]

PC Repair Tech

That says it all. He just has some FUD to grind.

 

[stylum]

the other day my 17" got a pair of UGLY scratches against the zipper of my backpack and my natural reaction was just to rub them with my finger.

they dissapeared completely in seconds!
no marks no nothing

you can rest now

 

[janey]

you can paint anodized aluminum?! i thought that was like really hard or impossible...
no probs with mine , just looks a little dented

 

[patrick0brien]

-alia

Sounds like an uninformed person basing his 'expertise' on another's 'expertise' without thinking for himself.

The AlBooks are naked anodized aluminum, nothing to chip. Anodization is a process that changes the outer molecules of aluminum to a state that hardens and prevents oxidization.

Nedless to say, all aluminum we see is anodized for this reason.

-übergeek

Well, you can try, but the paint job will slough off in fairly short order. But, one can alway re-anodize with coloring in the bath. And color anodization is as tough as the metal itself.

 

[Rezet]

Originally posted by gopher
That says it all. He just has some FUD to grind.

I don't know man. This case does sound strange to me. I don't think Als chip. But don't make it sound like all PC people lie.
To my experiance, PC salesmen and repairmen tend to admit all minus sides of pcs and that Macs are good machines. They tend to say that Mac has smaller choice of programs, but that's about it.
Mac resellers however in my area lie thru the teeth just to make the sale. FIrst time I wanted to get ibook, about 2 years ago, they guy lied almost about all specs, thinking I have no idea what's in it.
I have 2 resellers 10 and 15 minutes away from my house, but I'm willing to drive a over an hour to go to an official mac store, as I dont trust apple resellers at all.

 

[topicolo]

Yeah, this makes no sense whatsoever. The coating in anodized aluminum is molecularly bonded to the Al and won't chip like paint.

If that repair guy actually did manage to chip an Albook, I'd be careful with him, since he's obviously able to break the laws of physics

 

[janey]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
Well, you can try, but the paint job will slough off in fairly short order. But, one can alway re-anodize with coloring in the bath. And color anodization is as tough as the metal itself.

yah, that's what i thought. thx~

 

[alia]

Thanks for the responses guys. I didn't think he could possibly be right about that stuff, although, in general, he was a very knowledgable guy, and he'd had Apples in the past, so I was thinking FUD wasn't his goal. I think he may just have not known what he was talking about in this respect.

He also said something else which I thought was weird, and that was that the RIAA was getting a direct cut from Apple for the distribution of their music, and that Apple had been paid big time from the RIAA. Neither of these statements made much sense to me, and they both seemed kind of contradictory. If Apple was being paid, then why would the RIAA get a cut, and vice versa. I think maybe some FUDer was spreading false info to him and he didn't know enough about it to make up his own decision.

I certainly won't be letting his comments keep me from getting a new 15" powerbook when they finally make an appearance.



Alia

 

[topicolo]

I remember reading that apple's paying out 2/3rds of all of their revenues from their music sales to the music companies themselves and since the RIAA gets money from them, i guess it sorta makes sense.

 

[Snowy_River]

Originally posted by Rezet

Mac resellers however in my area lie thru the teeth just to make the sale. FIrst time I wanted to get ibook, about 2 years ago, they guy lied almost about all specs, thinking I have no idea what's in it.
I have 2 resellers 10 and 15 minutes away from my house, but I'm willing to drive a over an hour to go to an official mac store, as I dont trust apple resellers at all.

If I had such an experience, I would certainly report said employee to the manager, and if it seemed that the management supported that kind of behaviour I would report them to the Better Business Bureau. That's very definitely illegal, and any manager should know that and fire an employee that does it on the spot.