The Death of a Joystick: MS FF2 is melting

[TteFAboB]

Today I discovered that my old Microsoft ForceFeedback 2 joystick is "melting" (at least the rubber of the stick proper). As any of you who have ever kept rubber for many long years will know some old rubber tends to disintegrate and turn to goo, given enough time.

And so my joystick is now sticky to the touch, as if it had been covered with a thin layer of bubblegum.

The worst part is that this is all my fault, I am sure, for a mere couple of months ago all was fine as ever, but then I disconnected the stick from the USB and power for the first time in many years because I actually wanted to preserve it from unecessary wear since I wasn't using it very much anymore. The Joystick obviously felt retired in the best case and rejected in the worst, and decided to let go. And now it's dying in my hands.

This stick has been with me for a long, long time. It's my fourth joystick ever, though I only bought it a few months before Microsoft discontinued them. It has been a great stick. It never lost precision or became loose on the center or lost force, and all the buttons and the little throttle work as good as new. This proven veteran has taken me far and wide, to all the corners of this planet and beyond into outer space and galaxies far, far away. It has taken me deep down as well, and served in the place of a wheel for race and tank. Above all, it has not even once let me down. What a great piece of hardware this was, and I will not pull the plug on it again without one last fight.

I've heard Windex may help, and I shall try that, and many other things (suggestions welcome), until I find something that works or ruins the joystick once and for all as a too invasive procedure.

For what is a simmer, without his old joy companion, like a rifle to a soldier, or a dog to a hunter? What good are those gimmicky toys from logitech and saitek, colorful and gay - most likely inspired by lollipops and designed for the defense of Teletubbies? Oh, how I will miss you, my real piece of military hardware...