Why does my CRT monitor emit odor and the top of the monitor is hot.?

Question

My Proview 17" CRT monitor emits an odor when it operates (I've had it for 2 days now). Also, the top of the CRT monitor is HOT. Is this normal or does it indicate a malfunction?

Thank you,
Stephen

NOTE: MY OTHER CRT MONITOR (FOR AROUND 5 YEARS) IS ALSO HOT ON THE TOP, BUT HAS NEVER MALFUNCTIONED (THE TEMPERATURE IS LIKE THE ONE OF MY NEW MONITOR).

Answer 1

A 17" CRT will pump out 70+W of energy. The top of the box should get warm, but not so hot that you can not comfortably hold your hand there.

Make sure you are not blocking any of the vents at the back, sides or underside of the monitor. Most CRT monitors use a chimney effect to help cool the components. If you block the holes at the bottom then cold air can not be drawn in through these as hit air rises out of the top.


A lot of monitor manufacturers (especially cheap ones) leave chemical residues form the manufacturing process, and/or use phenolic/paper PCBs. These can often produce a strong oder for the first few days of use. It should fade over time and should provide no health hazard. Since I do not know what is in a Proview monitor I can not be definite.

Answer 2

Because of how CRTs work, they generate a lot of heat. There's an electron gun in there firing at the phosphor in the front of the tube (the screen part). This all runs at a high voltage, much higher than the voltage at the outlet, so in addition to the electrons flying around there's also a power converter in there stepping up the voltage, this also generates heat.

The heat is very normal.

There's typically going to be a smell with a fresh monitor out of the box. Their manufacture is a smelly process, the parts are smelly to start with and then it's packaged up. It could easily take long enough to air out and mellow down that you'll even forget its there first. :-)

Answer 3

This is the smell of burning dust. Blow it out with a can of air monthly and it will help.