David Peters writes:

On 27 Mar 2006, wrote:

My PC monitor (17 inch glass tube) is about 4 years old and has
been used heavily. I took the cover off to fix a loose
connection because the picture was sometimes jumping.

Inside the circuit board was quite dusty and rather sooty. The
CRT tube and anything neary was very sooty.

Is there any merit in cleaning (hoovering or gently
wiping) this dirt?


Thank you all for your advice.

All this now makes me think that my TV (which uses a 19 inch glass
tube) would also show an improved oicture if it too had the dust
cleaned out of it.

Is this correct? Or does a TV differ in some way from a PC monitor
when it comes to getting visible improvements from dusting?

Let's take a survey.... How many of the professional techs, engineers,
and scientists who read this group actually do periodic cleaning of inside
of their monitors and TVs?

If you're obsessive-compulsive and have nothing better to do, by all
means clean the insides of your CRT equipment. But it's probably more
likely that something will get messed accidentally, than any significant
improvement in either performance or life span.

The high voltage area of modern CRT equipment is generally enclosed and
or sealed with HV grease or adhesive. It's not like old all-tube-type
TVs where everything collected an inch of dust if you turned your back.

Yes, dust does collect. And yes in principle that may affect something
eventually. But if there are no symptoms, leave it alone. It's not
likely that a gradually degradation in performance is dust related.
My approach about these things is that "if it ain't broke, don't
fix it". Seriously, if you're in a dusty dirty shop floor, then
there may be some benefit. But if it's a home or office environment,
don't you have better things to worry about than to clean the insides
of your 34,153 electronic gadgets????

For the record, I do not clean inside electronic equipment unless there is
a reason to go inside. My TV is 26 years old and I've repaired it twice
over that span due to defective chokes (probably a parts problem from the
supplier at the time of manufacture). Other TVs in the house are all more
than 15 years old and except one set of cracked solder joints, havne't
needed repair since I acquired them. I generally keep computer monitors
for 8 or 10 years without problems.

Let the flame wars begin... NOW! ;-)

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