Thinkpads Forum

Have a 760ED that hasn't been used in a quite a while, stored in the leather case in the house. The rubberized palmrest has become very sticky and soft, I can scrape it off easily with my thumbnail as it is the consistency of soft sticky glue. My question is, what can I use to strip it back to the plastic?

I live in the tropics, where we have hot humid conditions. I had a Logitech MX700 mouse that had similar trouble with the rubberizing, though no-where near as bad, I managed to disassemble and strip it with lot's of rubbing under a running tap, '0000' grade steel wool then brasso. But it was a very very lengthly process. I'm certain there's a faster way. Has anyone any experience?

FOLLOW UP:

Well I've managed to clean the offending rubberized goo off, albeit with lot's of elbow grease.

Here's what I did
1) Plastic scaper, type used to remove ice from freezer, to remove as much of the goo as possible.

2) Actetone-free nail polish remover used sparingly to soften the remainder and wiped with paper towel.

4) In a sink full of cold water, scrub with old toothbrush to remove as much of the remaining globs and smears as possible.

5) Using toothpaste (not kidding) and the same brush, removed 90% of remaining surface finish.

6) Final step: Vigorously polish entire surface with brasso.

The result is quite a glossy plastic surface, at least it's dry, smooth and not a sticky mess.
Downside - the plastic moulding has a number of imperfections in the surface which were covered by the rubberized finish - now they are clear to see.

In future, should I need to do this again - I might leave out step 2, as this can eat into the plastic surface if not careful. The cold water and toothbrush was quite effective.

One other problem with the 760ED, the keyboard had developed a fault with a diagonal array of keys not working (-=opklnm) for some time (and is why the unit was out of use) however now the entire keyboard doesn't work. The intellipoint and L/R buttons are still fine, as it an external keyboard. I have disassembled it all but the M/B and cleaned contacts. But after re assembly the problem remains.
Would I be right in assuming the keyboard is 'definately' at fault, or could there be some other problem which causes this?