Ti Paint Repair

[bkasten at octavian.net]

I've had enough Ti's, and have replaced enough top cases myself to
confidently say the paint problem is most certainly real, and most
certainly has NOT been "fixed."

However, since some people don't seem to have this problem at all, I
suspect it has to do with exactly how the system is used, where one's
hands are placed and for how long, and possibly something having to do
with what is on the skin at the time of use (sweat, lotion, whatever). I
have a tendency to rest my palm on the left carbon fiber bezel for hours
at a time, and every single time the paint there has bubbled and flaked
off. The paint also seems to consistently chip off in tiny bits near
the audio jack.

Now on the other hand, I have NEVER seen paint come off of the titanium
areas. But it is still quite delicate and easily chipped, so a good
laptop bag is recommended.

My solution to the carbon fiber bezel paint problem is to very carefully
cover it with clear tape. I use 3M/Scotch Gift tape. It is not glossy,
it is very tough (altho I do replace it every few months), and the
adhesive does not seem to interact with the paint (yet). It seems to
have solved my problem permanently. My nearly 3 year old TiBook with
its 4th top case now permanently looks like new. And that's a good thing.

Apart from this problem, there is the problem of the noisy fan: any
time you put a high load on the system, the fan will come on. And when
it kicks into high speed it's quite annoyingly loud. I consider this to
be a bigger problem than the aforementioned.

But still, the Ti is such an incredibly beautiful, light, reliable,
laptop. It's still my primary system, and apart from the whining above,
it's by far the best (i.e., least problematic) laptop I have owned in
the last 15 years. 

In fact, I like the system so much I recently upgraded the system to
1GB ram, a 60GB 7200rpm travelstar, and a new higher capacity battery,
and it's really made a huge difference.