Tech Support
Help, how can I prevent my sweat from eating away at my laptop's casing?
Around 6 months ago I bought a new gaming laptop to replace my older one. As you can see at the first picture, I think my sweat ate away a bit from the laptop's casing, that happened after 5 years of usage and is wierd af. My newer laptop (right picture) is starting to show the same stain in the same spot with the same shape as the previous laptop and it only has been 6 months :(
Please I need some help to prevent it from happening again, I tried being more careful while using my laptop and even placed a fabric between my hand and the laptop everytime I use it, but I don't think its working.
To clarify, yes, I use this laptop A LOT since I work, do college tasks and play games on it.
P.D: I live in a really hot country so even after bathing I keep sweating, I hope that answers other questions.
P.D2: Srry guys I can't help but sweat all over my R6 ranked matches.
Problem is they’d need to be pulled up a lot, the part of the hand the wears out that location on laptops is the bottom right part of the left hand palm
No legit the cheapest pair of basic fingerless gloves on amazon. You dont want anything bulky just a layer to allow sweat to dry and prevent direct contact
Keep in mind youll want to wash these. Its like wearing socks. Get a couple pairs
Yes, but if it is hot you should look specifically for SUN Gloves - very light and meant for hot weather to protect your hands from sunburn. I need to wear them all summer or I get horrible rashes on my hands.
Or something like kayaking gloves that are made of neoprene, simply because neoprene feels ok, not disgusting, when wet or soaked.
Cotton gloves for handling archival papers and photos with the tips cut off might be comfortable too.
All these would be better than “regular” gloves where regular=designed for warms or wind protection.
Actually cutting off your fingers is a highly effective solution to preventing your natural skin oils from damaging the plastics of your laptop or other device. #Themoreyouknow
Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.
We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first less sweaty man. OP will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster!
If you do that, the surface underneath will be overly clean compared to the surrounding laptop surface and will stick out like a sore thumb in a few years time. OP should honestly just wear gloves lmao
The other comment it right. You can use Rufus and set u a bypassed win11 image (CPU, RAM and TPM2.0)
Or you can use a vanilla install and use some regedits in order to bypass. (Including local user set up)
What? Do you just toss it out after a few years? I have and still use mine from 2012, works perfectly for emulation and when I want to play league of legends when not at home or on trips. If you aren't repurposing your old gaming rigs/laptops for less intensive things you are doing something wrong
I bought a dell - Alienware laptop in 2019 (like almost 2020, in December or something ) and to this day I use it , I’m playing forza horizon 6 with high (albeit not extreme) settings , a big thing I made sure of was to get a laptop that wasn’t paper thin, it was the only gaming laptop I found that wasn’t paper thin and had a solid metal casing , and the only one I found with no reviews of it catching fire lol
Hard ? LOL you buy external keyboard and mouse. 90%-98% of the time it is probably in the same spot at his house so use in other places without them won't do much damage.
Some people have more acidic sweat than others. I know guitar players often call it 'toxic sweat'. Granted, we're talking chemical reactions with metals there, but it wouldn't surprise me if it can also do this to plastic.
While I would always recommend getting a dedicated keyboard you can just buy stickers.
Just a plain sticker that fills the space if you don't want to decorate it. Would also mean not having the concern while out and about without the keyboard.
If you are worried about looks then just buy a film (not glass) screen protector. They are designed to have your fingers all over them after all. Quite cheap to pick up too.
Just... be careful, if its not too big, OP will discolor the area next to it and some time in the future, OP will chabge that sticker only to find whats basically a tattoo on his laptop.
OP either gets a big sticker and accept the eventual "tattoo", or gets a nice whole-palmrest sticker, but he may not like that look.
Or... a dedicated keyboard, but then why a laptop? Lol
Honestly upon reading OPs post again (or maybe the edit wasn't there before) a keyboard may actually be a good shout for OP.
I'm assuming R6 is Rainbow Six Siege so a good mechanical keyboard will be beneficial there, they also said they work off their laptop, can't go wrong with a proper keyboard to type with.
They could always try etci to see if they can find a full body skin for the laptop.
I'm not sure what makes these specific stickers so special but I've had this one on here for about 2 years at this point, exactly where my palm rests and it hasn't even faded slightly. My meds cause me to sweat a lot so I'm genuinely impressed with it! They're also more papery and they're matt instead of shiny and plastic-ey, which honestly makes less sense to me xD
If you want a premade option and they have one for your particular laptop... otherwise you can just get some vinyl wrap for fairly cheap and cut it out to suit your laptops shape.
Joking aside, get a prescription for Drysol from your doc. You can put it on your hands to prevent sweating from your hands. Useful if you’re on stimulants that increase sweating
There are stickers/skins/wraps for most laptop models that would cover that part. You can google for some options. Those would protect the casing from your oils.
Also I’m not sure but I think your laptop temps are worse when you put it on such a loose fabric instead of a desk.
I second this, though I would go for some vinyl stickers like you would get if you were getting a skin for the whole laptop. They'll leave less residue then most tape that you would try. With that amount of wear, chances are you'll be replacing the stickers eventually.
India Pale Ale is a terrible choice for cleaning a laptop. You're essentially giving your hardware an artisanal bath. Within minutes your cooling fans will be working overtime to exhaust the aroma of hops, and your keyboard will turn into a sticky mess. By day two, the residual malt sugars will have caramelized inside your ports, leaving you with a machine that no longer boots, but still attracts every fruit fly in a three-mile radius.
When was a teenager my sweat literally bleached the underarms of my clothes. As an adult, through what I am sure is pure force of will that has stopped.
It is not the casing but the coating that either reacts with your sweat, or the mechanical friction of rubbing your palms on it.
Maybe check the internet for laptop palm protection stickers. They are made of vinyl and sometimes for more common laptops they offer precise cuts or some to selfcut.
I've heard that some people just have more acidic sweat that others and it can affect your laptop.
My first thought would be to put on some helicopter tape / 3m ppf. It's clear tape that you would wrap a car with to protect it against dings. You could create a simple template using printer paper then cut and apply it to your laptop. If you rounded the corners it shouldn't come off easily at all. Mine has held up on my mountain bike absolutely beautifully.
The other thing you could try is to just use it regularly and wipe it off with a slightly damp cloth to remove the acidic sweat so it's not left to corrode and build up over time.
To a certain extent it will probably happen no matter what, I think the only sure fire way to fix it would be to move to a separate keyboard and mouse for you're longer sessions where your more likely to sweat. They make some really low profile Bluetooth keyboards that you could carry with you easily.
Edit: The don't sweat suggestions are silly, your resting your arm on a warm non porous surface. You will sweat a bit nearly no matter what.
I have a cloth from an old pair of glasses that I just drape over the top. Been using it for a few years and it works pretty well. (sorry for the bad English)
Your newer one is not painted but aluminum. So it won't have the same effect. But you can always buy a sheet of plastic from arts and craft store to cover and replace it when needed.
I put a vinyl wrap on mine. Which I dont have the “acidic sweat” issue, I just work a lot. But then it doesnt depreciate the laptop, and you can just peel it off whenever you sell it for a new one or hand it down or whatever.
My last laptop skin I got from dBrand. But my new one doesnt have a dedicated option. So I just got some of the “car vinyl” from amazon, cut out a chunk, and put it on the hand-rest area only. Easy enough, took maybe 10 mins, and I dont have any special skill/trade that would give me any particular edge at doing that.
3M vinyl was like $25 for the roll (used maybe 1/6th of it), and the Xacto knife was like $15 at most (but you can just use a razor blade or whatever - I just needed one anyway).
U dont. The oils in ur hand combined with ur skin works sort of like a polish and itll buff the matte texture away. Ppl think its a stain but its not.. Wiping it after use slows it down cause the oil wont get absorted into the plastic as fast but itll still happen.
Only way is to get a skin. M2skins or armorsuit. I used both and theyre both good. U can get one that is the same exact color as the laptop if u want to keep it looking original. Some of them dont leave fingerprints, some have a matte texture feel, some dont. It says in the description which is which.
I always carry one of my 60% keyboards when traveling becuase I don't like how how my laptop gets. Its smaller than the laptop and easily fits in the laptop bag.
You can get clear adhesive protective stuff. Its like a screen protector but for other things. They make them for cars. I would use something like that (maybe after repainting it)
I have extremely sweaty hands. This started happening to my laptop. I took an old screen protector and put it in the area where my palm would rest. That fixed it for me.
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u/Ok-Dimension-5429 Jun 26 '26
I think it's the oils from your skin that destroys the plastic rather than your sweat. Hard to avoid.