How to safely clean GPU fan?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sushubh
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 26
  • Views Views 6,145

Sushubh

Admin
Staff member
Messages
406,792
Location
Gurgaon
ISP
Excitel
Airtel
great. so many years have passed by and i am still looking for a compressed air can to clean the GPU fan which is making so much noise that it is driving me insane. someone guide me please?
i have a feeling i have asked this question before. :
 
I just use a blower.
 
Ah, some dust which matches my setup.
I do the following
1). open cpu, u did that already, remove power, take out GPU
2). use some cloth, or soft plastic to prevent fan from moving,
Use vacuum cleaner, first suction mode, then blower mode to remove the dust
do not use vacuum cleaner more than a minute or two, as air would get hot once VC motor get hot.
3). move fan by hand and using ear cleaning buds(Doesn't needs to be Johnsons one he he he) clean the tips of the fan blades.
4). insert it back into system and make sure to fasten the screws.
Another advanced option to drastically improve performance would need heat-sink compound (usually comes in syringe)
unscrew the housing of GPU Card then find out which screws are holding the heat-sink to the GPU, unscrew then, now you have fan and heat-sink in your hand and card separately,
Clean it in details, and most important, remove existing heat-sink compound from GPU, clean surface with soft cloth, NO WATER or solvent should be used, re-apply fresh heat-sink compound and re-assemble the heat-sink fins and fan.
double check all the screws are fastened and re-insert the card.
 
Do not have a vacuum cleaner at my place 🙁 Also, my recent history with opening up computer parts has always ended up damaging the part being messed around with. 🙁
i do not have overheating issues from what i understand. it is all about noise. i just want the fan noise to calm down a bit... it is not a big deal in summers as fan takes care of the noise. but nowadays, it is driving me nuts.
also why do i have to take out cpu? 😛 cpu is not making any noise and is far away from the gpu. i have a coolermaster fan on the cpu. even after so many years, it makes no noise. gpu fan on the other hand... insane.
 


I miss-typed cpu instead of GPU, Sorry for this
Are you sure its GPU fan which is making noise ???
in my case both fans were culprit, dust area, open cpu required cleaning of CPU+GPU heat-sinks
can you check its temp using any software, aha Google my friend just gave me this for you.
if you do not want to take apart, Ear Cleaning Buds are the best possible way to deal with it.
Edit: Please mention which card you are using, Looks cool, mine one has horrible, stone aged looks.
 
hehe ok. i have not shut it down for months now. i had opened it to replace RAM. system did not boot the first time after the install. took some attempts to get it working. once it worked, i decided not to touch the CPU 😀
man. i should really ditch this desktop and move to a laptop. would solve so many more issues (power cuts for one) but add a bunch as well. 🙁
i am pretty sure that the gpu fan is the one making all the noise because i have checked by stopping it with my finger. entire CPU becomes silent 😀
i wanted to know these pressurized air cans do not help with dust removal? i mean buds can remove the dust from the blades. but what about the dust that is settled in the joint areas. last time i had a similar problem, i went through tons of youtube videos. almost every video suggested taking apart the gpu fan, open the fan and oil the rotating bit (machine oil). i am not sure i am comfortable doing that. :
 
full cleaning would need you to dis-assemble it, if you are not sure, don't do it.
clean using cotton buds to lessen the noise for time being, remove from fan, it would help for sure.
alternative can be take a thin pipe, 1 meter long, like one we use in petrol lines of bike, or even the one used in aquarium air pumps and put one end inside the GPU Fan, blow your Lungs off into other end, and it should throw up some dust.
Please do this with dry pipe and System disconnected to power, if pipe is struck in running fan, card would be cooked by the time
you think of shutdown.
OIL I've never used in last 10 years however changed like a dozen cards till now.
 
^^ That's some nice temp to deal with
I doubt the readings Admin got on his system, Noise should not be beyond tolerance at 40ish temp.
 

Top