PS5 liquid metal gate: Turns out, no orientation is safe

There have been numerous cases of the PS5’s liquid metal leaking out, but they’ve been mostly associated with the console being placed in its vertical orientation. That’s what we thought till now, but as it turns out, neither orientation is safe.

Polish console and controller technician Modyfikator89 posted an update following up on his previous post from a couple of days ago (August 11). He described that the most frequent issues encountered by his repair shop are overheating and liquid metal failures, regardless of the orientation. Specifically, in the previous post where he described the Gallium diffusion issue, Modyfikator89 shared that the console was kept horizontally for five years, ever since it was purchased. That said, the technician did not specify what the ratio was for liquid metal issues based on the orientation.

Over time, the liquid metal that Sony used as a thermal interface can leak, causing overheating issues and crashes, though it was believed that only vertically placed PS5s were subject to this issue. Notably, it became a common problem with PS5 models up until the PS5 Pro. With the Pro variant, Sony added grooves that help keep the liquid metal in place.

It should also be noted that not all PS5 consoles are affected by the issue. There are many users who have had their console for years without this happening. Of course, usage is a major factor, but it's hard to establish what the threshold for the breakdown is.