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Palmrest scratches on unibody MacBook

johnny13oi said:
What's wrong with the pictures. They look about right. I would assume that Apple uses really soft aluminum to make these cases. My M1330 which has a brushed aluminum palm rest shows no signs of wear like that after about a year. Judging by how the Macbook Air bent like crazy in that Airplane crash picture I would assume the aluminum used in the Macbook Alu is the same and is very soft. I would expect it to get worse as time goes by.
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So your saying that because a MBA bent in an AIRPLANE crash! They MUST use soft aluminum?
 
tsuru, you're not the only one that have that kind of "scratches" on your unibody MacBook. I have a small patch of similar "scratches" on my Unibody 2.0GHz MacBook (o the left side of the palmrest). I discovered it 2 weeks after buying it (I bought a brand new machine too). This MacBook is always on my table & never even left it or my home once. I'm also one who babies my things & I did not even allow anyone else to use it & still.... 🙁
 
Just like what tsuru had said, you can only see the "scratches" if you look at it at different angles & under certain lighting conditions. Like tsuru, I have no idea how these "scratches" come about & I'm very disappointed with it since this is my first Mac machine. 😡

Pictures on the actual left palmrest of my MacBook:

 
I have the same MacBook and I don't have a single scratch on it in that area.(or anywhere for that matter) I don't wear any jewelry so it might be either a defect in the aluminum (just throwing out ideas) or someone who uses it wears jewelry.
 
I wear a watch on my left wrist (which I know rests on the palm rest at times) and have had my MB since October and havent noticed any scratching like the OP describes.
 
I have not noticed any scratches on mine but I will take a look see when I get home. I take very good care of my MacBook and keep it in a Speck case all the time. I must admit however that even if I find something similar to this, if I have to look "just right" and under a magnifying lens I would just let it go, it's no big deal.
 
gan6660 said:
So your saying that because a MBA bent in an AIRPLANE crash! They MUST use soft aluminum?
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idk man... plane crashes aren't that intense... did you hear about the MacBook Pro that got bent when that train ran over it?

shoddy craftsmanship is all i have to say about that
 
Bad anodizing by apple ?

That's what it looks like, as the "scratches" seem to follow the pattern of the aluminium next to it, only a little brighter... Mind you good luck explaining that to a Genius 😉
 
Answering acfusion29's question, yes I tried cleaning it with a wet cloth and even with soap but, as I expected, it didn't do anything.

Sorry to hear that you have the same issue SPEEDwithJJ, although, it is nice to know that I'm not the only one with this problem. Hopefully the reason for this problem will come up.

Ok, I took a few more photos. The last photo was taken with the MacBook in the same place as in the other photos, just at another angle, so you can see how the marks completely disappear depending on the viewer's angle. The marks look really bad in these photos so either they've gotten worse over the last two days or the lighting shows it up more. Either way I think I'll give Apple a call.
 

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Especially since it seems to be spreading I would be inclined to believe that its some sort of weird chemical/coating issue. 😕
 
Stetrain said:
Especially since it seems to be spreading I would be inclined to believe that its some sort of weird chemical/coating issue. 😕
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Yes, shaped like a palm, so likely a chemical reaction with the MacBook and your skin, handsoap, or hand lotion.

Likely the problem won't go away, so a laptop skin for that area is likely in order.
 
tsuru said:
Answering acfusion29's question, yes I tried cleaning it with a wet cloth and even with soap but, as I expected, it didn't do anything.

Sorry to hear that you have the same issue SPEEDwithJJ, although, it is nice to know that I'm not the only one with this problem. Hopefully a solution will come up.

Ok, I took a few more photos. The last photo was taken in the exact place as the others, just at another angle, so you can see how the marks completely disappear depending on the viewer's angle. The marks look really bad in these photos so either they've gotten worse over the last two days or the lighting shows it up more. Either way I think I'll give Apple a call.
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These look even more fake than the first lot to me...............but you never know.............*removes watch*
 
well you see it with guitar strings. the chemicals and oils in your hands force them to rust. some people can play strings for upwards of 2 months and they will still be new

others will have 2 weeks and need to replace the strings...


that is super weird... sand it down!

instead of posting on a forum. call apple. goto the apple store. do something instead of asking what to do.
 
I'm not calling Apple and/or asking you guys what to do. I'm just responding to the OP's post. However, I'm not sure about the OP, tsuru, though.

I mean I've read & heard so much about aluminum MacBooks/MacBook Pros scratching & denting real easily but this is really too much. 🙁 What made me mad is that only reading this thread do I know that these scratches are not "normal." I had thought it is normal to get such scratches easily. 😡 Mind you, I discovered those scratches only 2 weeks after purchase. 😡 It has always been on my desk (at home). I'm the only one who use it (I'm very anal about my stuff). I don't wear watches, jewelery at home, I personally hated lotions, so don't use them, except when I went to bed at night. I also make sure that I wash my hands thoroughly before using the notebook. All the above things are usually what I did to all my notebooks too. 🙁

To be honest, what good is it for me to contact Apple? 😕 I'm not going do it just to get into a situation where it'll only increase my blood pressure. Why? Because Apple will only say that this cosmetic blemish is caused by me & no one else & so they cannot do anything because those were caused by me. 😡 I just wished I had discovered the scratches earlier so that I can still return the MacBook (I've had it for about 1 month now) & be done with the Aluminum machines. 😡 Oh well, I guess my only option is to just sell it & be done with it. This is even more annoying because I probably am going to lose a whole lot more of resale value (in my case, this means that the Apple MacBook does not have any better resale value than a regular PC notebook). Oh well, I guess I fully deserve this for not discovering the scratches earlier. 🙁 Serves me right for being an ignorant stupid fool. 🙁
 
tsuru said:
Answering acfusion29's question, yes I tried cleaning it with a wet cloth and even with soap but, as I expected, it didn't do anything.

Sorry to hear that you have the same issue SPEEDwithJJ, although, it is nice to know that I'm not the only one with this problem. Hopefully a solution will come up.

Ok, I took a few more photos. The last photo was taken with the MacBook in the same place as in the other photos, just at another angle, so you can see how the marks completely disappear depending on the viewer's angle. The marks look really bad in these photos so either they've gotten worse over the last two days or the lighting shows it up more. Either way I think I'll give Apple a call.
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You sure you're not this guy? 😉
 

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michael.lauden said:
instead of posting on a forum. call apple. goto the apple store. do something instead of asking what to do.
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Actually, as for what to do, contacting Apple is what I've always planned, and really the only option as you pointed out. But the likelihood that someone at Apple support would know whether or not that the oils and chemicals on my hands would act adversely to the anodized aluminum surface seemed small. So, I posted more out of wanting to see if anybody knew what is going on, hence the additional photos to help anyone in determining the problem. So I was hoping that maybe someone knowledgeable in the field of metals would have a definite answer as to why it's doing this in the first place. Thank you for you replies and suggestions though.
 
There aren't no metal experts in here, just a bunch of mac geeks 😉

Just take it to an apple store and see what they say.
 
gan6660 said:
So your saying that because a MBA bent in an AIRPLANE crash! They MUST use soft aluminum?
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Umm no, I am saying that instead of the case cracking it bent really bad. This shows that the aluminum they use is extremely malleable and is really soft.
 
rgarjr said:
There aren't no metal experts in here, just a bunch of mac geeks 😉
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What?! I thought every self-respecting geek modded something or another out of aluminum...my faith in geeks of this generation has been weakened. 😛
 
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