Orig launch day PS4: Maybe time to do a teardown

[erayser]

Issue: A week ago, my 14 year old son came to me begging me to clean his fan because certain game titles kept giving him warnings of overheating, tells him to shutdown and wait for it to cool... it doesn't take long after for it to shutdown on it's own.

Found some vids on how to clean the fan, and most take go as far as the following pic, and blow and/or vacuum the dust off the fan...

I bought a new PS4 fan on Amazon because for $22, the fan comes with T8 and T9 Torx screwdrivers that works on the Security screws the PS4 uses. Since one of my hobbies is Building Gaming Rigs (link to one of my builds in sig), I decided to do a teardown of my son's PS4...

There is no way to clean the fins without taking it apart. This is how the heat sync fins looked like... before and after picture...

Pulling the heat sync plate off gave me a chance to look at the condition of the stock thermal paste. As you can see, the stock thermal paste was dry, cracking, and the spread was a little thin compared to pics I've seen of other PS4's.

I cleaned it up, and applied fresh Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound...

The stock thermal pads were in good shape on the memory chips, but I've always changed them out after a teardown of my gaming rigs GPU's to install waterblocks. I had some Fujipoly 11.0 W/mk... which is my thermal pad preference on my rigs... so I replaced the stock PS4 thermal pads.

Installed the new fan, applied fresh thermal paste and pads... and put it all back together dust free...

Taking the PS4 apart is pretty easy if you have the right tools. Helpful vids are the following:

• PS4 Teardown Tips & Tricks by TronicsFix
• PS4 Assembly Tips & Tricks by TronicsFix

Results after cleaning and applying fresh thermal paste and pads:
When I first turned the PS4... it was super quiet and I thought maybe I didn't connect the fan. When the fan finally kicked on, it wasn't even close to how loud it was before I cleaned it up. It's been a few days since I cleaned it up for my son. It's spring break for him so he plays a lot... and he isn't getting anymore overheating issues... and no more auto shutdowns.

The PS4 isn't a quiet console like our Xbox One... but the fan is a lot quieter than the jet engine it used to have. With the heat sync clogged with dust, and thin brittle thermal paste... no wonder my Son's PS4 was loud and overheating.

Conclusion:
There are a lot of videos on how to blow out dust and clean your PS4. After doing a tear down, there is no way you can fulling clean a PS4 without taking it all apart. If your PS4 is super loud and overheating, it would be a good idea to pull it apart, clean the dust in the heat sync fins and apply fresh thermal paste. The memory thermal pads might not need changing, but it's a habit of mine to replace them. The tear down process is easier than I thought... a lot easier than the rigs I build. Took me a few hours to do... but now that I did it once... I could probably tear down, blow and clean out the dust, apply fresh thermal paste... and have it all back together in less then an hour. The results is a PS4 that works like it worked on launch day... it was worth the effort.

 

[44267547]

I applaud your effort/skill level to disassemble the PS4 to fully clean it. One thing I want to note about a console is the location of where its located to achieve that much dust Build up.

Usually, if the PS4 is at ground level, it will pick up a lot of debris from carpets and other dander. Sometimes I think it's the environment that it's in or near that can cause that type of build up over time.

I actually read an interesting article about how Sony was recommending that their consoles be set at a higher platform and away from carpet, against walls, or at ground level. Assumingly, they're referring to the PS4 to be able to breathe efficiently and not gather build up. I think it's really important to consider the environment the console is in when you're using it, which is easily overlooked at times.

 

[0098386]

Hah! Y'know this was really interesting. I might do this to mine - it's a little loud so I'd be doing it deliberately to make it quieter. It's in a fairly dust free room BUT I know how stuff like that can just accumulate. I'm a frequent visitor to the inside of my iMac (upgrading various bits and pieces) and that thing is just a magnet for dust!

So yeah. This is tomorrow's project I'm going to try all this without replacing the fan since I don't have a replacement one yet!

Edit: Do you recommend any specific fans? Will any old fan do?

 

[Taustin Powers]

Great work!!

I could try this with my grey 20th anniversary edition PS4!

 

[gkarris]

This Videogame Collector applauds you!!!

I built a gaming computer and I see people who are building "scrapyard" PC's clean replace the paste on the CPU.

Do you use any special cleaner to clean off the old paste?

Thanks...

 

[erayser]

Edit: Do you recommend any specific fans? Will any old fan do?

Took the old fan out... but it seemed fine just cleaning. I bought the new fan just for required T9/T8 Torx screw to unscrew the security screws the PS4 uses. The way my son's fan sounded before cleaning... I felt better replacing with a new fan.

This is what I bought from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Internal-Cooling-KSB0912HE-CUH-10XXA-500GB/dp/B01H4RCLUI

Do you use any special cleaner to clean off the old paste?

Thanks...

I use 91% isopropyl alcohol to clean off thermal paste on CPU chips on my gaming rigs. The higher the percentage, the better. If you need to buy thermal paste, might as well get the Arctic Silver 5 w/ ArcticClean combo. This will take off all the old thermal paste and purify the surface.

https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-ArctiClean/dp/B002DILLMS

Hope this helps...