Macbook Aluminum Unibody Palmwrest Discoloring

[Joshua1689]

Hi everyone, I have a 2008 Macbook Alum. Unibody and the palm wrest has discoloring on both sides of the trackpad. The area on the right (pictured) seems to fit the palm shape of the hand. The area on the left (not pictured) is much smaller and less visible.

The area doesn't feel any different than the unaffected area like a scratch might would. I'm hoping someone might have some idea how to correct the discoloring. I have wiped the area down with a damp cloth but it did not come off. Thanks for your help!

 

[sml238]

try some cleaner, a sponge, and some elbow grease if wiping it with water doesnt work. its anodized aluminum so it's not going to wear away or anything.

thats just the obvious though..i dont see why you wouldnt try that before posting on here.

 

[blackburn]

Looks like marks from sweating, try cleaning it, aluminum is relatively easy to clean

 

[Joshua1689]

It's not sweat. I've cleaned it with water and alcohol.

Does anyone know of any approved cleaner? Approved as in approved for this type of polished aluminum, not just your random metal cleaner.

 

[sml238]

hmm thats odd. i usually just use some orange clean spray or something. iv never seen any discoloration on the mbps. its hard to believe it wont come off with alcohol :/

try scrubbing it lightly with the green side of a sponge. use your common sense to not wear/scratch the alum. but it can def handle a good scrubbing.

 

[jaxmanjoe]

They big aluminum areas below the keyboard are also a pain for those of us who wear watches. The metal clasp of my watch grates on the resting area and has scratched it up pretty good. Definitely needs some sort of protection on it...

 

[vlad-miami]

hmm thats odd. i usually just use some orange clean spray or something. iv never seen any discoloration on the mbps. its hard to believe it wont come off with alcohol :/

try scrubbing it lightly with the green side of a sponge. use your common sense to not wear/scratch the alum. but it can def handle a good scrubbing.

If you guys say that aluminum unibody normally does not wear off, look at my brand new MBP 4 hours old. It came with a scratch and I tried to wipe it with a wet paper towel. Look at the result. I can only imagine what will happen to this "paint" after couple months of use. Very disappointing. As well as overheat issue, which no one fixes. Machine overheats due to bad fans management. This was suppose to be my first MAC machine and I already figured out all I need. The solution is: RUN from mac as far as possible. I am already in a market for the new PC machine.

 

[-tWv-]

I've had my unibody macbook for two solid years and I haven't had any problem with discoloration. It definitely is not "paint" and it actually is quite a durable machine. Mine has suffered a few drops around 3ft off my desk and out of a locker at school, and still works fine. There are a few bends and dents on it as a result (understandable) but it has handled way more wear and tear than I would have expected. Just use it for a while and you will never be able to go back to a PC. Now whenever I try to use a PC i get frustrated because the trackpad doesn't function nearly the same as a macbook, and so many other things about windows that just don't work as well as OSX.

An answer to the overheat issue, you are going to have problems with heat in all laptop computers, especially ones that are built as to the form factor of a macbook. There's really not a way to get around it because of the small space and the high heat that is generated by the processor. One little piece of software that has helped a lot with heat issues on my macbook is SMCfancontrol. This lets you set the minimum fan speed for the macbook, which helps cool it off if you have issues with heat. Also, I use a shareware application called CoolBook Controller to undervolt the processor on my macbook. This helps with not only battery life but cools the computer down a lot as well.

Just give the mac a chance