Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

moron

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2003
29
0
London
I have a Powerbook G4, which is probably about 8 months old now. I've noticed that ever since I bought it the tiny little grey rubber lumps in the bottom corners, which keep the lid from banging on the main body of the computer, have been disappearing inside the case. Recently I've noticed that they don't even stick out anymore, and have been pushed completely inside the case, even though I've done nothing out of the ordinary which should cause this. Just a minute ago, I poked my finger nail in the thin hole which has been left, and a bit of the rubber came out on my fingernail and has the consistancy of putty, almost. Has the rubber deteriorated? Is this normal? I'm somewhat concerned!
 
if I were you I would just go to radio shack or a hardware store and pickup some rubber bits as close to the originals size and thickness as you can find. another alternative is to get a very thin piece of the flexible packing foam and cut it to the size of your screen. those little nubs that you are concerned about are only there to keep the keyboard from pushing against the screen when the powerbook is closed. try that.
 
Guarantee

Did you not get a years guarantee? I'd be back at where I bought it and get it fixed. I wouldn't want bits of putty like rubber inside my mac.

Good luck

Simon
 
I suppose I did get a years cover, I never really gave it much thought. I bought it from the apple store online, does this mean I'd have to send it back to them, or could I just take it to an apple store?
 
not sure

I've never dealt with the Apple store so I don't know - but obviously the first step is to contact them. I'd also want to know if what they are replacing them with is better than the original. Its no good in 8 months time if they turn to putty again. Of course your year will up by then and you'd have to pay.

More good luck
 
take it to your local apple specialist or apple store and explain to them the situation. i have really never seen that problem before so im sure what process they would do but they should fix it, i just dont know if it would be done in house or sent back.

iJon
 
My powerbook G4 (17/1.3) doesn't even HAVE those rubber bits on the LCD. As a result, I'm wearing off the coating in the corners.

Two of my four feet on the bottom have also fallen off and disappeared.
 
I have a powerbook that has that exact problem. It is not that the little rubber bits have gotten pushed inside, it is that they have disintigrated. Several of my friends that have powerbooks also have this problem. Definitely put something (i.e. a piece of paper at the very least) in between the keyboard and screen when you close it, otherwise you will end up like me, with permanent key marks on the screen.
 
the problem with those rubber feet is that if you lose one, the others come off in a matter of time. the good thing is if you catch it when it comes off you can throw some super glue under there and put it back on and it probably wont come back off. as for the 17" powerbooks, they dont have the rubber on the screens so dont worry.

iJon
 
ive got a TiBook too and one of them has sorta disentigrated and the other is almost pushed in and the top seems to be just ....disloving. they are crappy...just get one of those cloths (or a peice of felt) to lay over the keyboard when you close it and dont worry about it. The casing keeps the screen far enough from the keyboard to prevent any real damage other than some smudges from finger oils on the keys :)
 
Well, so long as I'm not the only person to have this problem, I'm a little bit happier! I suppose it must be sweat off your wrists that makes the rubber decay or something. It's a bit crap though, you would have thought apple would have sorted it. I may or may not get it fixed, I'll probably email apple and see what they're saying. If its gonna involve me sending off my machine for weeks, then I won't bother, it's not the end of the world.

I've got a foot missing on the bottom too, and although I found it, I promptly went and lost it again, so now I'm footless. I was planning on popping into PC World sometime this week and picking one off the bottom of the display model, actually!
 
pcworld

Good idea to get a new foot in pcworld. None of the sales reps will notice you as they keep well away from the macs in there - cus they know nothing about them. I brought my 17 inch iMac in there and they didn't even know how to turn it on. They were helpful (very helpful) with buying it when the one I bought had a blown pixel and they replaced it the next day and delivered it to my house. But I still think you should kick up a bit of fuss about the little rubber bits - I don't see why when we pay for a premium product it should have a low build quality.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.