On Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:30:09 -0500
Steve Litt <slitt@???> wrote:

.... snip...........

> A very common cause of intermittent mice and keyboards is fretting
> corrosion. Please read the following document:
>
> http://troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200310/200310.htm
>
> Lubricate the contacts of your mouse usb, your keyboard PS, and the
> adapter's usb. I suggest you lubricate all your USB ports. Doing so
> costs you 20 minutes and can save you days of diagnosing
> intermittents.

VOC's. Volatile Organic Compounds. Your environment is leaking them and
you are breathing them in. At least open a window as much as you can.

I first came across them when a 'contract' I had, moved into a newly
built and fitted out multi-storey tower and started rolling out a new
ACER 486 desktop PC. It was a wonderful fully plastic case that if you
dropped it on a corner, then everything (case parts, mother board,
panels and cards) spewed out across the floor and you had the joy of
putting it all back together.

These new PCs started failing and IT people were struggling to
understand why it was happening. I chanced upon the action of basically
'working'(removing and reinserting a number of times) any card,
followed by a basic 'working' test, which they all passed and went
happily back to the waiting user, never to return. The mystery of why
unsolved, but it fixed the problem.

It was a a few years later when New Scientist had an article on VOCs in
new office environments and the full explanation became clear. New
concrete tower building, new carpets, complete office fitout of open
plan with desks , partitions and walls composed of various
constructions of composed of wood and glue. So all these VOCs chemicals
are flooding out into the environment coating everything leading to
intermitents.

IME, actual corrosion, which you typically first see on fan meshing,
takes a few years. YMMV.

If you are into 'lubricating' stuff, then something like kerosene is a
far easier to acquire and use oil product, rather than a moisture
replacement agent like WD40.