A new design issue has come to light for the PlayStation 5, that the current owners need to pay attention to as it can brick their consoles.

Two years into the console’s life, there haven’t really been a lot of news or reports about PlayStation 5 faults. Back in 2020, there was a report of PlayStation 5 demo units overheating, but this was a totally isolated situation, and likely has nothing to do with this current issue. Instead, there had been more attention paid to how the DualSense had been experiencing stick drift, an issue that strangely hit the industry fairly recently.

Today things are different. It has now emerged from multiple sources who do PlayStation 5 repairs that there is a design flaw related to the liquid cooling solution used on the console’s CPU.

In theory, the liquid coolant should stay stuck to the CPU permanently, after Sony places a tightly bonded seal that keeps the liquid in place. However, these repair specialists have seen multiple cases where the seal has broken, causing the liquid to spill. In particular, when the liquid metal hits different parts of the motherboard, it can brick a console completely. This is because the liquid is conductive, and can cause a short circuit within the console.

Twitter user 68Logic, who owns a PlayStation repair shop, shared a picture of the liquid moving apart from the CPU. Ben Montana, a Frenchman who owns a repair shop called ILoveMyConsole, posted similar pictures of melted liquid spilling outside of the CPU on Facebook. Lastly, YouTuber TheCod3r shared a 20 plus minute video that actually demonstrates the issue and how he repaired it. We’ll share a screenshot from his video indicating the issue below.

These repair specialists are advising PlayStation 5 users not to position their consoles upright, because this increases the likelihood of the liquid spilling over to the motherboard and bricking. However, the design flaw exists and can affect PlayStation 5s even if they are only positioned horizontally. At least in these situations the issue ramps down. Instead of immediate bricking, a lack of proper heat management can degrade the performance and durability of your console.

Given Sony’s woes with manufacturing and distributing the console since its launch, it isn’t quite clear how widespread the issue is. It’s possible that if Sony had been successful in meeting market demand, we would have an issue the size of Xbox’s red ring of death right about now. As it is, the company is only now starting to really ramp up their sale of their console. Hopefully, Sony can identify and address this issue before it becomes something that affects most PlayStation 5 users.

You can see the YouTube demonstrating the issue below.

Source: YouTube, Wololo