Liquid metal in Sony's PlayStation 5 (Pro) might cause more defects
A few years ago, first customers complained about defective PlayStation 5 consoles, which were attributed to the processor's liquid metal thermal paste. As iFixit's teardown shows, Sony uses liquid metal to transfer heat from the APU to the heatsink more efficiently. This thermal paste is held in place by a special type of seal.
However, when the console is positioned vertically, this seal may not be tight enough and could allow the liquid metal to flow from the processor onto the motherboard. This leads to two problems. First, the APU's heat can no longer be properly dissipated due to the reduced amount of thermal conductor, which can cause the chipset to overheat and the console to crash. Second, the electrically conductive liquid metal can lead to short circuits on the motherboard.
In a video published by Moore's Law is Dead, the founder of Alderon Games explains how more players are complaining about this problem over time. This issue primarily affects the launch model, but has also occasionally affects the PS5 Slim and PlayStation 5 Pro (from $699 on Amazon). While Sony has improved the design in these revisions, the risk persists as liquid metal is still being utilized in all these consoles.
For most users, the problem manifests as the console crashing when playing games for extended periods, which causes overheating. The more demanding the game, the faster the chipset overheats and shuts down due to the defective cooling system. According to a survey by the developer, this issue currently affects about 3% of Path of Titans players, up from only 2% a few months ago. It’s currently not possible to estimate how many consoles will be affected by this defect in the future.
