Black specks appear on my macbook pro

[wankey]

I've had my macbook pro for about 2 months and the aluminum next to the trackpad has started to show some weird black specks. It is in the area where the bottom of my right hand palm rests when I am using the trackpad. It looks like fine grain pepper as been spilled near there and it doesn't wipe off. I've tried to scratch it with my finger nails (thinking it's some sort of dust that's been stuck on) but even with the hardest scratch it doesn't budge.

Some basic questions:
is the Aluminum color on the MBP (early 08) the actual materal color (ie no silver paint's been sprayed on)

Will Apple care look at this?

Is it rust from my palm sweat? (I'm kinda ruling this out, as I've sweated in most of the palm area under the keyboard and there are no marks at all)

 

[mobi]

Aluminum does not rust.....it can oxidize. I would think they would throw the usual wear 'n' tear card at you.

 

[wankey]

Hmm... wear a tear? But these are black specs on an aluminum surface which only oxides into AlO (which also looks like aluminum)

Meh... just wondering if anyone else has this problem. I don't really mind it at all.

 

[iMacDragon]

I believe that some kinds of sweat react with the anodised aluminium surface and cause that reaction, doesn't happen to everyone, but search for pock marked macbook pro/powerbook and you should find other similar things.

If yours is the type it happens to, I don't think there's much that can be done about it

 

[MVApple]

Aluminum oxidizes and forms a thin aluminum oxide coating but the coating is transparent. Just grab a piece of aluminum and sand it down to remove the aluminum oxide coating and look at it. Now dip it in water and leave it out to dry and the coating will be right back on it.

Anyways, don't really know what to say about your problem. It sounds strange though. My first guess would be that black specks are bacteria or fungus forming colonies. Metal isn't supposed to be a good place for them to grow on though.

 

[Teej guy]

I believe that some kinds of sweat react with the anodised aluminium surface and cause that reaction, doesn't happen to everyone, but search for pock marked macbook pro/powerbook and you should find other similar things.

If yours is the type it happens to, I don't think there's much that can be done about it

This is what I've been led to believe. Apparently my sweat is particularly bad for it...very soon there's going to be more black than silver on my palm-rests.

 

[wankey]

I have found what the black specs are... they are the beginnings of this:

and this

and may eventually lead to this:

This is someone's elses laptop. Needless to say, Apple care does not support this...

I will be getting a full slab of plastic protection for my baby starting tomorrow.