M1530 woes, Fading paint in the area i rest my palms

Hey i got my 1530 a couple weeks ago, and I tried my best to keep it blemish free. Then something I couldn't prevent happened, the paint on the area i rest my left palm has faded quite a bit. It's very visible since there is a clear contrast between the area that faded and the normal paint color

The area forms a beautiful outline of the bulging part of my palm, like two crescents. However I could not appreciate this bizarre beauty. I discovered this a couple weeks ago, i thought it's just some sweat that got on the paint, so I just wiped it with the XPS cloth (lol name.)

No help, i think that area is totally screwed up. The only way to make it not very visible is to apply more moisture (water, saliva, etc.) and after it dries off the discoloration comes back.

my theory is that since my harddrive is located right above that area, the heat generates somehow is trapped on my left hand when i rest it on there, and then the paint fades due to rising temperature.

I dont know how to fix this right now, if no feasible solution exists, i might just put a big bumper sticker or some other sticker there (like GET FIREFOX OMG or APPLE, etc.)

This happened to my last laptop, i think it was an inspiron something, the old old one with celeron processor, blue one. 9000? meh, share your experience.

 

sounds funny.

 

a lot of laptops have this specific problem. whenever the area of the palmrests is painted the paint will sooner or later become thinner and the color just rubs off. I have seen quite a lot of Asus laptops with the color rubbed off. but usually this happens after like 6 month to 1 year.

but if i understand you correctly, this is not already the color beeing rubbed off ? it looks more like there is somehow the color becoming different from the rest of the palmrests ?

could it be that some chemical or oil is intruding the colors coating? do you use some kind of hand cream regularly ? maybe, but this is just a wild guess some ingredient, chemical or biological, may be responsible for that.
since you just own your laptop for a few weeks, it just seems to be too early for the color to come off.

 

I have this too. It looks like a faint white smear. It happened so fast. It looks pretty gross. I had high hopes for the brushed aluminum

 

Some people have mentioned wiping the area down with rubbing alcohol. Is anyone really sure this palm rest is aluminum? Everyone seems to say so but it feels more like plastic to me.

 

it is brushed aluminum , that is the reasony why it changes its color when people sweat a lot on the area , I think my Leica M something camera changed color and was so dirty looking.

Since then, I beleive Metal is less durable and practical material for any kind of small hand-held electronic product , such as a laptop , D-SLR, cell-phone.

My Samsung cell phone and Sony cell phone , both change their color since I sweat alot.

Maybe I am wrong though, this is why I did not order an XPS M1330 or a M1530 , I think if you dont use it as much as many people here , it does not get so bad looking so fast.

So I think we better stick with a decent weak GPU and get a desktop for serious gaming or encoding stuffs.

And if you buy a powerful laptop , get a balck one like Vostro, does not get look dirty soon.

 

I had my 1330 palmrest replaced once.. It indeed is aluminium.. I lit up a diode using the underside of the old one as a conductor, just for th heck of it..

It tends to get scratched easily, but there is no "fading" . I have been using it for a year now.. Seen a summer(and hence lots of sweaty palms). A plain moist cloth is enough to clean up any grime/residue...

 

it is , and I know for sure it is Aluminum, but do not think metal is automatically better than plastic , I prefer plastic over any kind of crappy metal or CF........I dont need it look good but work fantastically.

Plastic is more durable and more practical.

HP business or Dell Vostro is made of plastic but they are more durable than this XPS.

 

I recall somebody also suggesting one of those Mr.Clean Magic Erasers to clean off the aluminum, might want to give that a shot.


Also does anyone know how hard it is to remove that bezel or can you buy an extra somewhere? I was thinking of having it anodized, would this void any warranties?

 

The bezel around the screen? You just have to pull it off carefully...

 

I meant the palm rest area, the screen bezel is plastic right?

 

Yes, it's plastic. The Palm rest could be anodized.. But it'll be difficult.. since the palmrest is attached to the piece under the keyboard.. Basically, the whole top comes off...

 

Does anyone else think the original post is an impossibility? The palmrest is brushed aluminium, it can't really fade.

I'd suggest giving it a good clean, use a soft cloth (cotton tshirts are good) but try a solvent or chemical. Don't get the cleaning agent anywhere else (especially touchpad/buttons), but it won't do any harm to the palmrest area, it's aluminium.

I'm thinking the colour change you've seen is hand grime / sweat residue. The brushed surface holds dirt and stains pretty well - but from what I can see, it should always clean off and leave it looking like new. The only way I could see it being damaged is via scratching.

 

Alright, time to try some cleaning agent

How about windex, that's all I got laying around the house.

 

Allowing sweat to sit on the laptop is a terrible maintance practice. Proper cleaning is very important. I have these Wet HDTV Safe wipes I wipe my laptops down with every time I am done using them, safe on screen keyboard and system casing, gets rid of all smudges smears and fingerprints, and wont allow the acidic qualities (althought weak ones) of sweat to do this to your laptop.

 

OP here, just tried windex, no avail.

The discoloration is VERY visible. I think this brush aluminum thing actually has a coating of paint on it.

@Lucanesti:

You misunderstood me, I am indeed not a sloppy person. I use this laptop probably 3-4 hours at a time. Whenever I type or just playing games using the keyboard (especially pressing WASD), I can either rest my forearm on the table edge or put my palm on the resting area. It gets tiresome after a while for me to put my arm on the table edge since it stops the circulation of blood and feels very strange.

Long story short, when I put my palm there for about 10-20 minutes nonstop playing a game that heats up that area, I bet something will happen. This is of course a thought I came up with after the area has discolored, I had no worries prior to the incident that the palm rest area would fade at all whatsoever.

Looks like I m wrong.

 

call dell about this and see if u can dig up some info on it. brushed aluminum shouldn't fade that fast. u might want to try putting a skin over it.

 

Have you tried a mix of Rubbing Booze and water? I have some 99%, and I do a 50/50 mix with just tap water and it cleans the snot out of just about anything.

What are you using as your "rag"? I would not suggest a cotton shirt, because it does not have the "scrubbing" power that it might take. Get a good Microfiber cloth. Believe it or not Wal-Mart is the best place to get them. Look for a 3M "cleaning" microfiber cloth. I think I found them in the mop/cleaning product isle.

 

OP again.

One word: Success! I think i found a fix for my problem. Since by just applying any moisture on the surface would make the discoloration restore to its original lusture, however liquid would quickly dry off and the discoloration would return.

Solution? Any oil based substance! I had some Carmex laying around, I applied a TINY later (i mean tiny, i just finger tipped the container and put that on the area of the palm rest)

If you think it's gross, it's not gross at all actually, that tiny amount spreads out evenly and you couldn't even tell ANYTHING is there.

-

For the future I think I need to find some metal polishing substance, like those things you put on surface of wood to make them shiny. I think the reason the discoloration happened in the beginning is that such substance is missing from the surface, making it appear discolored. So if i find something more permanate on there to substitute my Carmex, then voila no more discolored surfaces.

 

I just use Windex and it looks like new.......the paint isn't going anywhere you are just getting sweat and grease over top of it.

 

Have you tried calling Dell? If you are in your warranty period and you are unhappy, have them replace the palm rest.

 

But isn't that just hiding the problem (if there indeed is one)? Because say you do the oil thing, and then clean it all off with methylated spirits (or any other alcohol based product, that will rid the surface of oil), won't it go back to looking bad like you originally described?

Because if that's the case then the surface must have actually changed colour or worn away in some way.

Does anyone know if the surface is anodized (you can clear anodize by the way)? Because if it is, then once the anodizing wore away it would make sense that it looked different. But if it's raw brushed aluminium to begin with (and no coating/surface treatment) then I can't see how it could change permanently really.

 

just because it is brushed aluminum does not mean you can use whatever chemical or whatever on it and it wont change color or fade, i think you guys might be a little bit too anal about this but i dont know just how bad it is, it is very possible though that something got on the aluminum and stained it or peeled the clear coat. i would call dell you say its only 2 weeks old?

 

Interesting that this problem never occurred on my MacBook Pro, and that uses aluminium as well, but possibly not in the same way as it's on the M1530.

One thing to note is that the MacBook (non Pro) had this problem in a chronic way. I've seen some with palm rests so discoloured it's like someone spilled black coffee all over them. It also doesn't help that they're built with white plastic!

http://ibloggedthis.com/2006/06/12/apple-macbook-discoloration-issues/

 

The aluminum on the MBP is like 5000 times better than the crap that Dell used for the M1530.

After a week of use with my first M1530, the palmrest was disgusting, and I am a very clean guy. I tried everything to get that discoloration off, but it wouldn't budge. I haven't had any problems so far with my latest M1530..

 

Hi, it would be interesting to know if other 1530 owners have this issue, also. I don't with mine. It just seem's odd that you are having this problem, and I'm sorry.

You should contact Dell, though

 

I don't have this problem and my M1530 is almost 6 months old. The palmrest looks like new. Some people have very sweaty hands, and the sweat will discolor aluminum.

 

So you had the problem with one M1530 and not with another?
What would cause that?
Different batches of aluminum?

 

I just registered to chime in that I have the same issue.

I thought it was because I had put a protective car polish on the surface of the metal (in hopes of protecting it) and then it started to fade a week later.

I tried to polish it off, alcohol, metal polish, etc...Nothing worked.

I have found the same results, with putting lotion or other oily product on the areas where I rest my palm to hide it, however, it fades again over time.

My previous plastic laptop took a couple years before it faded on the palm rests. and seeing how the OP did not apply any initial car polish to the surface, I will not look to that as the culprit.

BTW, just put on another coat of lotion.

 

Everyone just get them replaced. Do it while you are under warranty. Mine developed pitting. And discoloration.

Had it replaced about 3 weeks ago with another, and so much difference (knock on wood). No discoloration at all. And I use my laptop about 8 hours a day if not more on some days.

 

a simple product called Nev R Dull will work wonders... Trust me.. if it gets grimy and a light cleaner won't take it off this will work and not hurt the aluminum... I use it all the time on the brushed aluminum under the hood of my mustang

 

Just wanted to chime in that I got it replaced by Dell, and it has been a world of difference from my previous palm rest. No problems thus far, and it has been several months.

Thanks for letting me know that you were able to.

 

the palm rest is made of magnesium.

 

It's made of brushed aluminum with coating. I placed a skin on the palm rest and when I took it off some of the coating came off and made it looked matte white afterwards instead of being shiny.

 

a quote from pc mag

The design is very similar to that of the HP Pavilion dv6500t, but Dell went with a brushed magnesium alloy finish instead of a "piano" finish with embedded designs. The XPS M1530 is available in three colors: Tuxedo Black, Alpine White, and Crimson Red.

and there was a dell ad flashing on my yahoo page the other day saying magnesium.

 

Yes I have the same problem, so see pictures of my damaged chassis; http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=330937.

I tried rubbing alcohol and some other house hold products, was able to make the marks less noticable, but tiny holes had start forming.

Getting my computer replaced for a new one. Call Dell and complain, they should send out a new palm rest. I've heard of another case in Sweden where the dell xps-owner complained and got the affected part replaced.