Paint wear on Inspirons?

I noticed last night while cleaning my 1721 that the area of silver paint under where my hand rests while I'm typing is beginning to show a slightly lighter shade of silver. It's not worn through or anything yet, but now I'm paranoid that it's going to soon. I've only had this rig for about 3 months, and if the paint is already starting to wear in those areas, I'm going to be seriously pissed off. Has anyone else experienced this yet, and if so, is there anything that can be done about it?

 

cover it with something.

heres another related thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=193893

 

its normal, thus one of the main reasons i got the all black vostro.

 

Someone wrote that the plastic on the newer Inspirons is silver -- so though the finish will wear to a slightly different look, it's not like it will be a drastically different color underneath.

Second post in this thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=175186

 

the way you can tell is to open up the laptop and check out the color of an unpainted part.

 

I have yet to produce so much a scratch on my 1420.

 

Well that's good to know. Thanks for the info!

 

Paint wear/fading/discoloration on the palm rest is inevitable. It's gonna happen sooner or later. Regardless of the color (yes even on vostros).

Over time, the area/plastic gets worn and there will be some discoloration or fading. For example on the Vosta, the resting area may become shinier or duller than the rest....

Either buy a sticker or something cover or accept the facts and love the machine.

 

This is what's happening to mine:



Sorry about the quality, took em with the phone..
My S460 is 2yo and it looks exactly the same. I don't even want to imagine what the 1520 will look like in 2 years.

Someone suggested an external keyboard, or even a gaming keypad, but I really don't have space(or money for that matter)

BTW, I know it's not dirt, I have dirt on my a, s, d, and w keys, and it looks totally different(you can see some on my 'a' and 's' keys in my first picture ), but the dirt does come off with a wet cloth. The spot on my palm rest will not come off - or at least it will need more than a wet cloth.

 

This has happened on my inspiron e1705. The paint wore down where I keep my palms seated regularly. Mine wore pretty fast as I spend a lot of time gaming on it. It sucks but with my next laptop, I'll know to get some type of protection.
When I first noticed it...I thought it was dirt and I thought I really needed to keep my hands cleaner.

 

One of my friends at work has an XPS that is a couple of years old and that same area is all worn out. It looks like the paint or finish or what ever it is has rubbed off(he uses his notebook alot!) Another friend at work just bought a mac and put some kind of protective film on the entire palm rest area. He said he got it from some company that custom makes these for all kinds of applications like different notebooks, cell phones, etc... I want to put it on my new vostro before it starts doing that. I can't remember the name of the company right now but I will ask him tomorrow and post.

 

id rather buy a new plastic palm rest in each year for about 10 bucks from ebay than have some plastic on it.

 

Posts #4 and #13 by drumfu in this thread have a suggestion
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=54791

#4

#13

 

fyi the plastic is nt silver underneath its black. my friend scratched his on the palm rest and you can see the black under the scratch. it is not at all the oils on your palmrest it is in fact the paint wearing down. the finish is generally more of a matte type finish i mean its not glossy... even if you were to rub to hard with a towel to clean a spot... if you rubbed to much or to hard you will cause the silver paint to take on a different look because you polished it some causing it to be more shiny. eventually it will wear through. i keep my notebooks clean with eagle one spray wax for auto use. it works awesome and adds a layer of carnuba wax over the painted plastic this will add some protection of the "wear" but over time it will still do this anyway.

what i recc for a clear covering is the 3m stuff used for the clear car bra's. the reason is it canbe very easily peeler right off if you want without causing any damage or leaving residue behind like a vinyl sticker.

 

Sorry about the late reply but I just found out the name of the web site for the company that makes those protective coverings is www.bestskinsever.com.

 

Well I use my laptop 16+ hours daily. And it's no where near any of that. It looks brand new after 6 months of daily use. It helps if you wash you're hands once in awhile.. lol You grubby little gamers...

 

yeah hm some pictures of mine....
those plam rest scratches is from a dell guy that replaced the mobo.....they need to be more careful.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambchopsz/2091638775/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambchopsz/2091638765/

 

Would painting the laptop void the warranty? When that starts happening with mine I plan on painting it some sort of silver and putting clear coat on it.

 

millermagic, I plan to do the same thing when mine starts to ware.. lol

 

That's interesting. In lambchops468's pictures, it's white. And in B2's post in the other thread, he said it was silver. So maybe Dell uses different colored plastics?

 

thats what I use.

Just get their DIY Custom sheets and cut them out to size....paste and done