White Macbook turning beige :(

K1LLSW1TCH

K1LLSW1TCH

K1LLSW1TCH

Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2009
Posts
26,776
Hi, as in the title of this thread. The keys, the hinge where the screen folds up and down and the speakers are all turning from white to beige. Is there anything I can do to prevent this? I never use the machine with dirty fingers and I've taken good care of it. Is there some kind of cleaning product I can purchase that will restore the colour to it's original white-ness. Or does this happen with all white Macbooks? I was even looking at buying a set of Blackbook keys, that's how much the colour fading is starting to annoy me!:(

Any help would be appreciated :) Cheers.
 
I removed the keys and soaked them in a bowl of water with some mild cleaning product. Haven't tried T-cut though! that might be an idea... :)

I never thought I'd say these dodgy, dodgy words, but next time I'm going black :p
 
Orange Peel said:
Awful advice. Do not do this!

T Cut will scratch the surface. You need a non abrasive cleaner if you're going to try car products.
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the abrasiveness is what he needs to take the microscopic layer of beige discoloured plastic off

a wax type polish over the top off it is hardly going to remove the biege :/
 
"andy" said:
the abrasiveness is what he needs to take the microscopic layer of beige discoloured plastic off
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So you'd be OK having a clean laptop that's scratched to ****?

If the plastic is discoloured by more than surface dirt you're not going to get it white again. You'd have to take more than a microscopic layer off to get it white again.

There are such things as non-abrasive cleaners which should work without scratching the surface.
 
Orange Peel said:
You'd have to take more than a microscopic layer off to get it white again.
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no you dont. thats exactly all you need to do

the plastic has been discoloured by the light. the light only hits very top 'layer'

it shouldnt be scratched either. not visible under normal light anyway

for an example google t cut and car lights. loads of people use it to 'refresh' the plastics on car lights and break lights that have been affected by sunlight. anything must be better than BIEGE eurgh
 
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"andy" said:
no you dont. thats exactly all you need to do

the plastic has been discoloured by the light. the light only hits very top 'layer'

it shouldnt be scratched either. not visible under normal light anyway

for an example google t cut and car lights. loads of people use it to 'refresh' the plastics on car lights and break lights that have been affected by sunlight. anything must be better than BIEGE eurgh
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We'll have to agree to disagree then. T-Cut is in most cases a last resort when damaged paint needs to have a layer removed. It's NOT a finishing compound that leaves the finish shiny and smooth. Those people who T-Cut lights will also use a polish to finish the paint surface. For example T-Cutting a car then leaving it 'as is' is one of the worst things you can do to the paint. It leaves it open to attack from moisture and other contaminants. After paint has been cut a polish and wax or sealant is needed to protect the surface.

One other thing. How will someone take a uniform amount of the damaged layer of plastic off a laptop case? How do you suggest the T-Cut is applied so it's exactly the right amount of pressure? Finally, how does an abrasive compound such as T-cut leave it unscratched under visible light when it's designed to remove layers by 'scratching' them away?

edit. I've just googled as you suggested.. All the guides that are worth a damn say you should remove any scratches with T-Cut then use a polish to restore the factory look. Which backs up what I've been saying.
 
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I have to say I haven't tried toothpaste, but I did remove a few keys and tried a small amount of T-Cut on them, just rubbed it in with a lint free cloth and they certainly have improved. No visible scratches as far as I can tell, that said though I'm still waiting for some cleansing wipes to come in the post so I probably won't be using T-Cut on any of the larger areas of the Macbook. :)
 
Orange Peel said:
edit. I've just googled as you suggested.. All the guides that are worth a damn say you should remove any scratches with T-Cut then use a polish to restore the factory look. Which backs up what I've been saying.
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I'm confused now, you said that T-Cut would ruin the laptop a few posts ago?
 
Orange Peel said:
T-Cut is in most cases a last resort when damaged paint needs to have a layer removed. It's NOT a finishing compound that leaves the finish shiny and smooth.
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It is finishing product that leaves finish shiny and smooth. It might be really bad idea on some paintwork, but after all - it's place in auto industry is exactly as that - finishing product to make your paintwork shiny in smooth 5 minutes before you flog the car to some punter. And no, you don't need wax on a laptop either. :D I used cheap, basic, halfords rubbing compound and it does job on white macbook brilliantly too. If anything, it leaves the surface smoother and shinier as it removes all those tiny surface scratches from rubbing against every day objects.
 
I wouldn't listen to these people on the internet as I tried the brillo thing on an old broken power adaptor just to see if it would work on my ipod and no it didnt but it did stain it the colour of some alien insides.
 
I just cleaned mine, put a tiny amount of toothpaste on a cloth and cleaned the palm rest area and did the rest with a baby wipe, first time its been cleaned since I got it and its looking as good as new now. :)
 
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