I acquired a ~16 year old laptop. The mat black plastic top (back of the LCD) is sticky. At first I thought the previous owner had stickers on the back that were removed. But that seems like a bad theory now. I rubbed it with a cloth and denatured alcohol and it only got slightly less sticky, but black residue came off on my hands and the cloth. This is apparently not adhesive.. it’s the plastic itself.
What’s my best move? I don’t suppose I can do anything to re-polymerize it. I don’t care about cosmetics.. I just don’t want it to be sticky and marking anything that touches it. One temptation is to put plastic film on it, like cling wrap. But that could just make a bigger mess.
Let me know when you find something that actually works.
Just happened to use gasoline on a sticky Dell XPS. Didn't help. Baking soda does reduce the sticky feeling, but leaves a weird coating.
Alcohol didn't work for me, perhaps I'll just need to wrap the laptop with some sticker
actually after using alcohol and letting it dry it’s not really coming off on my hands. Just still a little sticky. But temp could be a factor. I wonder if on a hot summer day it will be more likely to mark things that touch it. If that happens, my temptation will be to cut out a piece of sheet metal and try using a 2-component epoxy.