Is there an easy way to clean GPUs?
Kitsumo
Posts: 1,221
I don't mind taking my GPU apart to expose the fans and heat sink, but how do I get the dust out of the heat sink fins? I've tried using a toothbrush, but that doesn't work too well. And I don't have access to any compressed air. Any suggestions?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Besides using a hard bristled toothbrush there isn't really any other way that I'm familiar with. We use this . It has a small brush attachment. It is one of the best buys we ever made. Its quick and simple to use. I have an enclosed liquid cooling system and I have to clean off the radiator every 6 months or so and the brush attachment makes it a lot easier.
I bought a really cool air compressor from Bunnings (Australia) for about $100
it soon paid for itself after saving on those $20 cans of compressed air
and I can inflate my flat tyres and air mattress
Most wet vacs come with a blower port nowadays, like this one for $30: https://express.google.com/u/0/product/8263874304509763024_9076073073594895742_8175035
I open up the case, set the vac to blow air, and it does the job.
I figured as much. I guess I can't complain. I built my computer 3 or 4 years ago, and I haven't touched the inside of it until a couple of months ago when I bought a new GPU. There was a lot of dust in there. I think the main problem is that my PC sits on the floor, which is carpet. So it picks up all the dust and lint from the room. I have a pretty good vacuum cleaner, so I guess I'll try that.
Just take great care with potential ESD from your vacuum, Kitsumo. It can be the silent killer of electronics. Under no circumstances should the nozzle come into contact - the further away the better. My experience has been that compressed air can get rid of 90% of the dust, but there is always some stubborn stuff that really requires a brush if you want to be fastidious.
Just a question, but... if the dust is stuck so hard to a surface that it needs a hard brushing to get rid of it (and providing that it is not blocking airflow or posing a risk of electrical shorting), then why do you need to get rid of it?
I have a really stupid non-techie-person sort of question: For the first time my laptop is starting to run hotter than it used to, and I think it needs a good clean.
I've managed to keep my tower PC clean because it's easy to whip off the side and blow with plenty of space in there (I have a compressed air can) but I'm not sure how to clean the laptop - should I attempt to dismantle it or would blowing into the vents from the outside work OK? I really don't want to do any harm to it.
With a laptop, you pretty much need to open it up. Sometimes just getting the keyboard off is good enough.
Most times with laptops, there's only 1 exit direction for the exhaust, so if you are blowing in at that spot, the dust only has 1 direction to go, further into your machine.
To clean my tower I usually use one of them cleaning brushes that comes with electric razors and a vaccuum cleaner with the bristled attachment, or the long skinny attachment. Just be careful not to knock anything loose and make sure everything is tightly connected before closing it back up.
Thanks - I was afraid that I'd need to open it up. (I guessed blowing inwards was not a great idea - that's why I've left it alone till now!)
One important detail: your GPU might heat up not just because dust is getting caught in your fan blades. The heat from your graphic chips gets transfered to the heatsink on the video board, then is extracted by the fans. In order for that transfer from chip to heatsink to happen properly, some thermal paste was applied between the two of them during assembly at the factory. That paste *can* go stale in some cases and you might have to unscrew the heatsink from the board, clean up the paste and preplace it with some fresh paste instead. Also, bear in mind that all brands of video boards don't necessarily use good quality thermal paste.
I realize of course that not everybody is comfortable fooling around with these sorts of things. The bnest thing to do, should you experience any overheating in your system, is th proceed by ways of elimination. First, a good disting off of your video board fans a,d radiator (dust can get caught in the fins there). In order to do a real good job, you can remove the video board from the topwer, lay it on your desk and airspray it with a can of compressed air. That will allow you to dust off the fans blades better, too. Then, blow the inside of your tower *completely* and use a microfiber cloth to manually remove all of tthe dust that gets stuck on the inside surfaces. Blow also any fan your tower might have and if there are filters, clean them up too. Lots of dust can gather behind the frontal fans, in a tower. Don't forget your CPU's fan. Once this is alld one and good, put back your video board in there and reconnect all its power wires.
The last step is to prevent the dust from coming back: rather than putting your tower in the down-and-aside compartment of your desk, if it's one of those, or putting it on the floor, which is even worse especially if you have pets, consider setting up your rig aside from your monitor or on a small implement you will place aside the desk itself. Keep the room clean, vacuum it often.
If you feel you need advice on thermal paste and good ways to apply it, feel free to pm me.
Thanks everyone for all the replies
I don't think it's really stuck, but the brush bristles only go so deep into the heatsink fins. I don't know if that's the right word for them, but those thin plates that dissipate heat.
If you're going to take a laptop apart, you better be prepared to deal with a bunch of tiny screws. Get some kind of container to hold them (and hopefully separate them for identification). And have a good magnet ready. It comes in handy for picking up dropped screws. Also, if possible, use another computer or phone to load a Youtube video for disassembling that exact model. It'll save you lots of time.
To be honest, my cards aren't heating up, but they look terrible with all the dust accumulating. I'm actually pretty lucky considering my computer sits on the floor and I have carpet. Plus, I'm a pacer - someone who has to walk back and forth to help think, so I kick up a ton of dust. My monitor is almost as wide as my desk, so there's no chance of sitting it up there. I might find an extra table to sit my PC on. Here's a recent pic and I just cleaned my cards about 4 months ago, but I couldn't get everything. Long story short, the cards work fine, they just look awful. As far as removing the heatsink and reapplying with new paste, these cards aren't that important.
I never thought about that. Darn. When I was in the Army, we vacuumed our circuit cards, but that was a specially made electronics shop vac, probably. Anyway, I guess I'll try a can of compressed air next time I clean them. I'm not an old person, but I don't like the idea of paying good money for things like air or water. Maybe I am old. Lol.
Edit: Just to be clear, my main PC has 2 GPUs installed, those others are old cards I experiment with.
Thanks for all your hints and tips, very helpful. I still haven't taken the plunge because we're in the middle of a heatwave and I'm so hot and sticky and cross all the time (I am not a good hot-weather person) that I'm afraid I'd make a bad job of it. So at the moment I'm staying away from doing anything more taxing than forum and shop access and only for a short spell at a time, keeping an eye on how hot the laptop is getting! My tower PC is where I do most of my 3D work a and it's doing OK.
Yeah, tower PCs are pretty good at keeping cool even when they have a lot of dust and lint inside. I've seen some extreme cases where you could peel off the layer of lint like a little blanket. I mean it's not good for them to run like that, but they can survive a lot better than laptops. Good luck in the heat.
That milk crate had me scratching my head for a minute before I read your post, Kitsumo. I still can't figure out how it works, though. Are those PCIE slots dremeled off an old motherboard? How do you access the cards? The pieces of yardstick are a nice touch, BTW.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADSU6JW4319 They're made for cryptocoin mining rigs, but they work for GPU rendering also. Here's a pic with all the cables hooked up. I haven't gotten it working yet. My PC has other unrelated issues. Maybe this weekend I'll get it up and running.