# Will My Old Crt Monitor explode?



## graveleather (Oct 6, 2007)

so i left my desktop pc which i got around 2002-2004( cant recall) outside on the balcony as a temporary solution( for around 2-3 months), completly forgot about it and i really need to use it now as it has important data stored on it.

now i believe that the desktop pc may have gotten wet from rain water or the cleaners that usually spray clean our balcony windows with hoses. If so is it still safe to plug the old crt monitor into the power outlet and start it up? 

I remember learning in IT class back in school that crt monitors could explode, i have no idea what would make one explode but just to be safe i wanted to ask on the forums first before i tried turning my old crt monitor up.

also last time i turned it on, everything was fine with the image output except that the entire screen was pink, still readable but entirely pink.

So would it be safe to turn on my crt monitor?


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

Actually, crt's do not explode. As they are a vaccuum tube, they will implode. I know, semantics, same effect. 

However, it will not do so from being wet. You would need to subject it to physical damage (ie: drop it, hit with a hammer, etc). 

In any case, if all you need is to retrieve the data, a better idea would be to remove the hard drive(s), mount them in another (known good) computer, and copy the data over to removable storage.


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