Older Dell Latitude (6430s) is suddenly sticky?

[Zarathustra[H]]

So,

Just to be clear, nothing has been spilled on this laptop.

One day it was normal, and then a week went by and the next time I used it, the surfaces surrounding the keyboard were all very sticky.

I'm guessing the rubberized coating is starting to degrade after 11 years.

I tried cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol, and that didn't really do anything. Once it dried it was sticky again.

Has anyone experienced this before?

I did some googling, and found suggestions to try first cleaning with Turtle Wax Tar and Bug remover, and if it is still sticky, carefully rub in some corn starch.

Sounds sketchy as all hell to me. I generally try to avoid putting food on computers.

Has anyone tried it?

 

[daglesj]

Lucky you got 11 years out of it before it failed.

I had a customer bring me one once for a service. As part, I clean up the machines as they usually look like a dog slept on them for 6 months. Anyway I started cleaning it (it was sticky) and it just got worse and worse. The wrist rest went gloopy. I got a lot of it off but it looked a mess. In the end I had to cover the rest in black adhesive vinyl. The customer just shrugged and went "oh okay!" when I handed it back and explained.