A plastic part on my HP laptop started melting

I retrieved the spare 2.5" drive caddy I had purchased for my HP ProBook laptop -- it cost me almost $30 including shipping from HP around three years ago -- because I wanted to research device drivers without disturbing the current operating system. I was planning on removing the current SSD and replacing it with a spare 2.5" hard drive I keep for laptop repairs. However, when I tried to remove the caddy from its plastic bag, I knew there was a problem because it stuck to the inside of the bag.

After I got it out, I saw that most of the edges of the black plastic were sticky, as if they had been converted to adhesive. As can be seen on the enclosed photo -- the sticky stuff mostly appears darker and/or shiny, with the apparent writing in the middle being adhesive which transferred via the pull-tab -- the caddy consists of an aluminum frame with flexible plastic covering the top and bottom of the drive. Over the last year or so, the edges of the plastic had changed.

After I disassembled the caddy regularly kept in the laptop, I saw that the plastic was sticky on a few edges, though not nearly as bad as the other one. Some of the sticky stuff had transferred to the exterior of the SSD and the section of the laptop under the caddy. I brought out my trusty bottle of Goo-Gone and proceeded to remove the sticky mess on the laptop and SSD. I realized that the plastic would only become worse with time, so I peeled it off both frames, necessitating more severe cleaning, this time of the adhesive used to mate the plastic and frame.

If I had let it go much longer, the SSD and/or laptop might have been permanently damaged.

The frame is usable as is because the drive screws into it and then the frame screws into the laptop. The only thing I'll miss is the pull-tab which made it easier to insert and remove the caddy.

I'm not a chemist, so I don't know how difficult it is to make flexible plastic, but I have German headphones which are well over 20 years old with non-sticky earpieces. All of my computers and parts are stored in a cool basement, so temperature was not a factor here.

HP saved a few cents with its low-bidder, Chinese plastic. The legacy of Carly Fiorina lives on.