The rumor that upright PS5s could be damaged beyond repair by a coolant-related defect has many gamers worried. Don’t panic: it was a misunderstanding.

The rumor that upright PS5s could be damaged beyond repair by a coolant-related defect has many gamers worried. Don’t panic: it was a misunderstanding.

The rumor had caused a wave of panic among PS5 owners – even if many remained skeptical –: installing the console vertically could irreparably damage it since the liquid metal used for cooling could escape from its container and put a hell of a mess in the components. Given the price of the PS5, there is something to worry about! The rumor started from an article by Wololo, which was based in particular on a video by the repairer and videographer TheCod3r, who had simply noted the problem, but had in no way concluded that putting his console “upright” caused the leak – Wololo misinterpreted the Youtubeur’s words, who has since clarified his remarks. The whole nuance is there: among the PS5s that are giving up the ghost that he had to repair, the leak of liquid metal on the processor could sometimes be the cause. But it could just as well be something else… And again, this problem would only concern one console out of 10, or even 20, out of the PS5s received in his workshop. Besides the false causation, the media misunderstood when TheCod3r claimed that the PS5s had never been opened. This does not mean that they had never been taken out of their box, but that they had never been physically opened by a repairman. Finally, all is well!

PS5: a conductive and cooling liquid metal that escapes

When it was released, the design of the PS5 surprised some – and even made many people laugh – the console having also given rise to numerous diversions on social networks. Very imposing, it was designed by Sony to be positioned both vertically and horizontally, which is practical for trying to save some space in the room. However, several repairers have warned on the Internet of the dangers that the “standing” position could represent, in particular because of a so-called design defect in the container of liquid metal that Sony uses to achieve the heat transfer between its APU – the central chip of the console, which combines the CPU, the processor, and the GPU, the graphics circuit – and its cooling system.

Unlike the PS4, the PS5 does not use thermal paste to cool its APU. For the first time, Sony has used liquid metal to conduct the heat released by the processor to the console’s fans while reducing the temperature. The Japanese manufacturer has also taken more than two years to industrialize the application of liquid metal on its Soc, which ensures more efficient heat dissipation than with thermal paste – which is also found in computers. However, the liquid metal is, as its name suggests, much more viscous and liquid and, if it were to escape, it would prove fatal for the console, since it is the best thermal conductor. possible. To put it simply, if the liquid metal escapes from its container, it causes a short circuit.

This is theoretically not possible because a seal isolates the APU and the liquid metal. However, professional technicians 68Logic and Ben Montanaas well as the videographer TheCor3r, would have alerted for several months to the fact that they were regularly dealing with PS5s, whether classic or digital versions, whose liquid metal had escaped from its compartment – ​​located above the GPU – following a deterioration of protection. However, in this case, if the console was vertical, the inevitable gravity had caused the liquid to spread on the motherboard. And there were two problems. First, too little liquid metal in contact with the CPU prevented proper heat dissipation, which caused the APU to overheat and reduce the PS5’s capabilities and performance. Then, as the liquid metal is a particularly conductive material, it could cause the other components on which it flowed to malfunction.

Whistleblowers claimed to have encountered this type of case many times in the course of their work, and TheCor3r said that they had actually discovered this problem on machines that had never been taken out of their box, especially in warehouses. . However, these elements were not enough to determine whether it was a real design defect or simply special cases among the more than 20 million consoles sold, especially since we did not know either the conditions under which had found the consoles – had there been shocks that damaged the protection? Were they opened according to the correct protocol? In the vast – if not overwhelming – majority, PS5 owners who have placed it vertically encounter no problem. So don’t panic, the expensive console is safe.