cleaning old bits on a monitor

[hillbilly]

I was wondering if I could potentially damage old electronics by using one of those cans of air, the kind you can buy for your pc to get rid of dust.

Would this even help clean old monitors or pcb's?

If not is there a good safe way to keep things nice and clean or should i just leave well enough alone.

Also my monitor has a little problem with its convergence I have looked at many articles on arcade monitors and still am not sure on what could be the cause. I have an older WG 19" monitor and there are red lines on the white grid test pattern, it is not terrible but annoys me a bit. What could be the cause, it only effects the lower half of the screen by the way. I have the monitor in a vertically displayed cocktail config so the left half of my screen has a red drop shadow type effect. Any ideas on how to fix it? I have played with all the controls on the back and they don't correct it.

Thanks

[Ken Layton]

Those cans of air are perfectly fine to use on the monitor, but just be carefully on the glass neck of the picture tube as the sudden freezing of the propellant coming out of the can can shatter the glass from the quick freeze. I also use a common 1" paint brush to knock off the dust.

Sounds like one of the rubber wedges has fall off the picture tube where the yoke goes up against it. This is allowing part of the yoke to sag/droop causing your color problem. It's also possible your picture tube is becoming weak and needs to be put on a rejuvenator to zap some life into it.