Keyboard casing damage from cable contact?

[Zilog Jones]

I have few Dell AT102W's at work that have mostly been lying in storage for 5+ years. They all had the cables wrapped around them. I got them all out recently to try and start getting rid of them (giving away or selling), but found some were in pretty bad shape:

DSC01140.jpg (967.29 KiB) Viewed 1892 times

Doesn't look too bad? Take a closer look:

DSC01139.jpg (741.41 KiB) Viewed 1892 times

It's like the ABS plastic has had some bad reaction with whatever's in the cable after being in contact for so many years. In some parts the plastic feels tacky.

This keyboard is not that old - it was manufactured in 2000 and all the other examples I have are from around 1998-2001. It was stored in a relatively mild environment (temperatures would be around 17-24 degrees C, maybe 40-70% RH)

If you're storing keyboards with ABS casing for long periods of time, based on what I've experienced I would strongly recommend not wrapping the cables around them and keeping cables separated. Not sure if this is common knowledge, but Googling the issue failed me anyway.

[chzel]

If I remember correctly, it's an issue with the plasticizers in the PVC insulation of the cable affecting the ABS of the case. I have a G80-1000 case with the same issue, far less extensive though.

[Mal-2]

I had the same problem with a game controller. The cable was wrapped around it and it sat in a drawer for a couple of years, leaving sticky channels with raised edges much like yours, only worse (because the cable was pulled tight). It's also worse because the damage is right there in my hands.

[Chyros]

Oh dear! This is good to know. I don't usually wrap my cables around my cases anyway, but now I sure as hell won't ever at all!

[Findecanor]

I have folded all cables into empty tissue paper rolls to avoid this. I heard the idea first from fohat.digs on Geekhack.
Dirt cheap solution and it makes the cables easier to manage.

[XMIT]

Hmm. Most of the keyboards in the garage are stored this way. Time to break out the zip ties.