In France we have alcool ménager (household alcohol) that is used as a general purpose cleaner/degreaser. Worked perfectly on the rubber parts of an old Microsoft webcam. Just wiped it with a few drops on a paper kitchen towel. The stickiness was only superficial and there was hard rubber underneath. My guess is that any alcohol would do - gin, vodka, anything you have to hand.
Sort of solved it . . . . . Get the left hand side located first and jiggle it about a bit and the palm rest will fit back neatly. But it isn’t immediately obvious how you shouls go about this.
I bought mine used on eBay. and upgraded the HDD and RAM and it is working perfectly. But I recently noticed that the palm rest is not perfectly seated at the front edge and is raised by roughly 2mm. (⅛in.) I have tried refitting the palm rest, but it hasn’t made any different. It is possible that it was like that before I fitted the RAM and I just hadn’t notice, so it could be the result of an earlier intervention. The machine still works OK and the lid closes, so it isn’t a big deal, but it is a bit annoying that such a well engineered device doesn’t go back together exactly as it should. Any suggestions?
The relevant screws are all marked with the same three pictograms alongside. These can be interpreted as indicating that they need to be removed to give access to touchpad, keyboard and memory.
With care, it is possible to remove or insert memory without releasing the touchpad cable.
