Rust/Corrosion on DV4000 Speaker Grill

Folks,

It's my first time posting here. I've tried searching for posts relating to rust or scratch problems on the HP DV4000 series but had no success on that.

I have my DV4165CL for a little over one year and a couple months ago I started having a comestic problem relating to the speaker grill. With sweat from my arms/hands, the speaker started to get a little rusted as it can be seen on the attached image.

Initially I thought it was some kind of uncommon problem (who knows, maybe my sweat is highly corrosive), but after asking the only other person I know to have a DV4000 series if he had any corrosion/rust problems, and getting a confirmation that he has the exact same thing, I came to the idea that this might be more common than I think.

I wonder if anybody has ever encountered this problem, and if yes, was there any solution to it?

I use my notebook a lot for business, and it looks very ugly to make a presentation on it with everything rusted.

I would appreciate if someone could help me.

Thank you very much.

G. Rosemberg

 

To clean it, you'll have to disassemble the laptop and use a rust cleaner of some sort. Auto parts stores should stock good ones. Afterwards, clean it really well with rubbing alcohol, then don't touch it with your bare hands (don't want skin oils sealed in) and get some clearcoat paint, or clear nail polish and put a coat of that over the grille for future protection from rust. You might have to sand down the other parts of the grille to get an even finish, because it looks as if most of the rust is concentrated on the left side, and it may have a different color after you clean the rust off.

 

that doesn't looks like a rust... try to scrub it with a (wet) brush and or something... if that don't work; try to put a light soap OR (as pitabred suggested) ALCOHOL on the wet brush, and scrub it again.

its is very very unlikely that it is a rust for a couple of reason, the most obvious reason is the speaker grill is covered with paint!

if it is a rust.... try WD40 perhaps???

 

Thanks for the replies.

That's the thing. The speaker is covered with paint, but with the sweat, the paint started to peel off and give space to rust (or whatever that is) on the bare metal.

When I clean it with one of those LCD cleaning tissues with alcohol, the most of the rust comes off, leaving just the bare metal, but after a couple days, it comes back again.

I was thinking in some kind of protection paint or even if there was a place where I could get the speaker cover replaced. Pitabread had a good suggestion on the nail polish, i just wonder if it wouldn't cause problems on my sweaty skin on top of it.

 

When I had a DV4000 last year, the paint rubbed off of the speaker grill just a month after regular use and I was pretty dissapointed with that.

 

Rust???!!! I never knew laptops or speakers got rusty! Strange!!

 

Well,

Rust might not be the most appropriate term, but whatever it is, it happened when the paint of the speakers peeled off and started to get this "rusty" look.

Now i'm just trying to find out how to work the problem.

 

Oh, that's not good!

It shouldn't of just started peeling off by itself, lol, did you pick at it?!

 

Not really. Actually, initially I thought it was some isolated problem or I was doing something wrong, but after checking with a friend of mine who also has the same notebook, and the same problem, i came to a conclusion it is not that rare on DV4000s..

 

my laptop has the same thing. mine's on the right! it's so disappointing. what did you do to remove it? the peeling keeps on spreading. it's so annoying!!!!

 

I would be sending it back to the factory. That should NOT be happening. Get them to replace the entire grill.

 

i have rust on my dv1000 too!! right side, right above the altec lansing label on the grille..

 

Just be happy about one thing.... at least their made of metal ehh? Once that paint is off then its probably going to rust, sepecially if your sweating on it. I'd say that the only way to fix it yourself is with some clear coat, if you do it right then it should stay on there forever and you wont have to worry about the metal oxidizing(rusting) after that.

 

i have the same exact problem on my dv4170 on the left gril

i ran over it with a tiny toothpick and a bit of nail polish (black) helped quiet a bit
can only tell the diffeerence if u look really closely
hope that helps, i may try other peoples methods too

 

i have the same problem as well... it started to peel off within a month i owned it. someone suggested me to take it off and give to to car garage for repaint, one of those expensive spray paints...gonna give it a shot next month and will update then.

 

I wonder how hard it would be to disassemble it in order to remove the speaker grill.

For the ones who done this before, would you care to explain?

I'm thinking about going for the nail polish strategy.

 

I too have rust on my HP dv5000 grill on the right side. This is definitely due to sweaty palms resting on the grill as it happened over the last 2 months of summer when the temp. was 36-40*C. It has happened 14 months after purchase so since I am out of warranty I might have to repaint it myself.

I was wondering if I could paint it without removing the grill from the laptop since I am not an expert in opening laptops. I have one concern - that since the holes in the grill are very tiny the paint may fill in the holes and block them - has anyone tried to paint the grill yet and what did you use. I was considering using black metallic paint- but might need to add a coat of primer to the rusted part before painting so that the paint sticks on.

 

You know the worst part about the rusty grill issue. Those folks at HP knew about the rusting, looking at the number of cases. And then they just picked up the unsold pieces from the western markets design flaw and all, and shipped it to the third world countries. (design flaw- cause it should have been of durable fibre or plastic.)
And it was a very small dot when i took it to service guys before the warranty expired, the service guy said dont worry use an ext. keyboard to avoid sweaty palms there. So they knew about it. 2 months later it is completely screwed... despite the ext. keyboard, with warranty gone So shouldnt we all get together and blame faulty design.
Do i hear a chorus going "class action suite, class action suite, Attica, Attica?" Pl. help: [email protected]

 

Hammerite it!!

 

I made a huge noise about the whole issue with HP.... and got in touch with consumer activists. I used the defence that- this was already a problem they were aware of... and despite such a defective design, they brought the same model after discontinuing it, to indian markets. in addition, india has a moisture problem during the monsoons. Rusting was definitely on. They, MNCs, have to stop dumping faulty products that dont work out there in third world countries.
they just decided its simpler to shut me up.. and replaced the entire front cover, because the grill is attached to the entire top cover.
ANyway, the laptop looks like new. and I guess I have to thank HP for it.