Report: Keeping PlayStation 5 vertical can cause permanent damage

PlayStation 5 users are now advised by third-party repairers not to stand their console upright as this can cause permanent damage to the system's hardware. This is reportedly due to a design flaw related to the cooling system of the console's APU. According to Sony themselves, it shouldn't matter whether users have the console in a vertical or horizontal position, but two years into its lifecycle, tech repairers have other things to say about the whole thing.

"Do not put your PS5 upright, here is the result the liquid moves and freezes".

The liquid metal between the APU and the heat sink is prone to leaking if the console is left in an upright position for extended periods of time. This hampers the console's ability to handle the heat from the APU, which in turn damages the processor. The liquid metal can also damage and short-circuit other sensitive components in the event of a leak, and the fault is reported to exist on the 11xx as well as the 12xx version of the hardware.

Vlogger and hardware repairer TheCod3er offers a deep dive on the bug. For those of you wondering, the liquid metal in the PlayStation 5 is an alloy made of indium and gallium that combined has a very good ability to conduct heat. But because liquid metal also conducts electricity and can cause short circuits, it is almost never used in electronics.

It should be known however that this issue doesn't seem to affect brand-new, unopened PS5 consoles, and only pertains to devices that have previously been opened to expose their inner hardware (i.e. via screwdrivers), as Wololo clarifies.