Is there any way to clean a graphics card fan?

[Foxfire6201]

My Geforce graphics card fan started running rough and now barely runs at all, causing it to overheat. I can't afford to replace the graphics card at this time so I was hoping I'd be able to clean it and get it running again. I've tried blowing it out but the dirt seems sticky. Is it a loss cause? Am I going to be forced to get a new graphics card? I'm kind of computer dumb so may need a lot of help, lol.

 

[enemy1g]

You can wipe it down with a microfiber cloth, or any other material that will pick up all the grime.

 

[giantbucket]

dust on the blades (which is dust you can easily remove) tends to have no effect on a fan's speed or slowdown. the dust that is most likely causing the fans to spin slowly or not at all is likely inside the fan motor, which is not easy to clean out.

what's the card? you might be able to simply remove the original fans and cover, and buy a $7 small fan (92mm or whatever size works) and ziptie it to the card's heatsink.

 

[DonnyTechMaster]

On most GPU's you can remove Heat sink from the card itself (be sure to dissipate any static electricity first). To do this you will need to remove the card from its slot and get a screwdriver. If your heat sink (the casing on the GPU) does not wrap around both side of the card, removing it will be simple. If you flip the card over to the side with no covering on it (should look flat with a bunch of lines on it) you should see 4 screws (there may be more). These screws are what hold the heat sink onto the GPU. If you unscrew each of them, making sure to do this in a diagonal pattern so as not to damage the card, the heat sink should come right off. You should then be able to get to any clumps of dust. Make sure to apply more thermal paste to the GPU before putting the heat sink back on, and you should be good to go.