Apple has acknowledged problems with its Intel-based portables that buyers have been banging on about for some time. In two support documents, the company informs suffering users to contact its AppleCare customer service team.

That's it - just contact AppleCare. No solution is offered for the "high-pitched buzzing sound" affecting some MacBook Pros or the "discolouration" seen "on the top case [of a MacBook] after some use".

You can find the MacBook Pro document here and the MacBook one here.

MacBook Pro users have complained about numerous noises emanating from their machines since the Intel-based notebooks began shipping in February this year. Audible irritations reported by machine owners include whining sounds coming from the screen, from the body of the notebook, and from the area below the screen hinge when the laptop's running on batteries and both cores of the Core Duo CPU are enabled. This reporter can certainly confirm the latter - it's doing it now on my own MacBook Pro.

The MacBook discolouration took a little longer to emerge, but appears to be a reaction between the laptop's plastic casing and chemicals exuding from sweaty palms. Apple's machine isn't the only notebook out there to show this symptom - others do too - but it's more obvious in this instance because the machine is white. That said, there don't appear to have been quite as many, if any, of these complaints made about the old iBook, and that was white too.

Claims that the black MacBook suffers from flaking paint problems remain unconfirmed beyond one or two users who've alleged online to have suffered from them.

Duff products do slip through, and no one notebook vendor is worse than any of the others if Reg Hardware's inbox is anything to go by. More popular vendors tend to attract more vocal criticism of individual machine failures. ®