A wind of panic blew at the beginning of the week when the site Wololo.net wanted to highlight a so-called manufacturing (or design) defect for the PS5with the support of experts on the subject. The article in question reported that placing your PS5 uprightas many do to save space (and the console is even presented like this by Sony), could end up being dangerous because of a liquid metal located in the CPU which could escape more easily this way and affect other compounds. But it could be that this whole story actually starts from a stupid mistake.
Much Ado About Nothing
Here goes nothing:
There was a critical misunderstanding on our end when we thought TheCod3r said the Liquid Metal problem happened on unopened, in-box PS5s. What he said (and meant) was PS5s that had not been opened (the actual console!) by other repair shops prior to him.
(1/2)— Wololo (@frwololo) January 9, 2023
Faced with several testimonials from experts who expressed doubts about this manufacturing problem, the Wololo site has since updated its article which has gone around the web. This was based mainly on a video from the YouTuber TheCod3rusing a PS5 he had in his hands to illustrate his point, but which obviously misunderstood an essential point of his analysis.
When breaking down the issue in question, TheCod3r hinted that this problem could affect all consoles that had not yet been opened. Wololo then understood that this meant that new PS5 consoles, not yet out of the box, could therefore be subject to this. Which is not the case, since after this misunderstanding, TheCod3r published an update concerning his remarks. He specifies thathe was taking here the case of a PS5 which had not yet been opened by other repairers, in other words a PS5 whose cover had not been opened (and therefore, not a new console).
Wololo still maintains that the problem does exist, but has no way of proving that it is a generalized defect. potentially affecting a large number of consoles.
In other words, placing your PS5 upright does not a priori present any major danger. We will obviously wait for the opinion of more knowledgeable experts on the question to conclude on the subject, but the proof is that we must always take these shocking articles with a little perspective before sharing them.