Ps5 fat problem

[mustibursa19]

PS5 CFI-1216 - Position-Dependent Crashes & Overheating Issue

Hi everyone,

I have a PS5 Fat (CFI-1216) with a disc drive and I'm experiencing a very strange issue that changes depending on the console's position. I'd love to hear if anyone has had similar experiences.

**My Setup & History:**
- PS5 Fat CFI-1216, barely used (almost like new)
- The problem existed from the very beginning, since I first got it
- Recently had liquid metal replaced at a private repair shop, but the problem got worse after the repair
- All software solutions have been tried: full reinstall via recovery mode from 3 different USB drives and 3 different ports, database rebuild, complete storage wipe (done 3 times)

**The Problem by Position:**
- Standard vertical (upright normal) → crashes with CE-108255-1 error, fan does NOT speed up before crash
- Standard horizontal (flat normal) → crashes with CE-108255-1 error, fan does NOT speed up before crash
- Inverted vertical (upside down) → fan speeds up very quickly and console shuts down with temperature warning almost immediately
- Inverted horizontal → fan speeds up and shuts down with temperature warning, but takes a bit longer

**Game Behavior:**
- PS4 games → mostly fine, occasional crash after hours of gameplay (tested Cyberpunk PS4 version via USB 3.0 external drive)
- Spider-Man 2 (PS5) → crashes relatively quickly
- God of War Ragnarok (PS5) → mostly fine
- Last of Us Part 2 Remastered (PS5) → can play around 1 hour without issues
- Astro's Playroom → no crashes at all

**Key Observations:**
- Before the liquid metal replacement, the console was cooler and crashes took longer to occur
- After the liquid metal replacement, the console runs hotter, crashes happen faster, and inverted vertical now shuts down almost instantly
- After the repair, I can hear a faint rattling/clicking sound from the fan
- When I shake the console horizontally or vertically, the fan blade moves up and down, suggesting the fan bearing is damaged or the fan is not properly seated
- The fan does NOT speed up in standard positions before crashing, suggesting the thermal sensor may not be reading correctly in those positions
- In inverted positions, the fan does speed up but the console overheats almost immediately anyway

**My Theory:**
The liquid metal appears to migrate depending on gravity and console orientation. In standard positions, the liquid metal may be pooling unevenly, causing poor thermal contact without triggering the fan. In inverted positions, the liquid metal loses contact entirely, causing immediate overheating. This behavior is consistent with known liquid metal migration issues in CFI-1216 models.

Additionally, I suspect the repair shop may have damaged the fan during the liquid metal replacement, as the rattling sound and fan blade movement were not present before the repair.

**My Questions:**
1. Has anyone experienced position-dependent crashes like this with CFI-1216?
2. Could this be a factory defect in the liquid metal application?
3. Could a damaged fan bearing cause this kind of crash behavior?
4. Is there any way to diagnose APU, RAM (GDDR6), SSD, or power supply issues at home before taking it to a repair shop?
5. Has anyone had success with UART code reading to diagnose similar issues?

Any help or similar experie
nces would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Someone who works in a repair shop here:

1) This happens with all PS5 models, not specific to one model. Yes, even the new Slims/Pros with the grooved heatsinks and "improved cooling". We've already seen a few of those new Slims and one Pro with this issue, same problem every time.

2) It's not a "factory defect", it's a consequence of using liquid metal to compensate for bad cooling design. The liquid metal eventually degrades and produces a dry spot on the die/heatsink from oxidation. The severity of the dry spot depends on orientation of the console; if standing vertical the liquid metal typically pools to the bottom of the die and the top will dry out over time at a quick pace. If horizontal, it'll take longer to dry out but still does so and is in the middle of the die. This is not to say there isn't enough liquid metal and thus part of the die isn't being cooled correctly, there is way more than enough on the die from factory and it makes proper contact even when vertical, it's just once oxidation sets in that portion of the die cannot be correctly cooled as there is now a layer between the die, liquid metal, and heatsink so "poor" (not necessarily none) contact is being made.

3) If there's a constant rattling sound while the fan is running, even slowly, it could be a bad bearing.

4) Without using UART, not really. You could take it apart to try a PSU, but otherwise without UART there's no good way to differiante between any other issue.

5) You don't need to use UART to diagnose this issue. The most common complaints I see that's a result of this specific dry spot issue is PS4 games run fine for extended periods, PS5 games typically full crash the system after anywhere between 10-30 minutes of gameplay, and the fans won't noticeably rev up at all in any case. This is because the thermal sensors on the PS5 (for whatever reason) can't correctly sense the heat coming from the very localized dry spot on the die, so fans don't rev up as the system thinks it's cooler than it is and then because that localized spot on the die gets so hot the APU will activate thermal protection and shut the whole system down.

I suspect your initial issue is the extremely common dry spot issue on the die. The repair shop you took it to probably didn't clean the dry spot correctly, or didn't reapply enough liquid metal, and thus system runs hotter. We typically don't even have to apply more, we suck up what's on the die, scrub the dry spot with 99% isopropyl alcohol and a q tip (or for the worst ones, sometimes a light rub with 3000-5000 grit sandpaper is required), and simply reapply whatever liquid metal was pulled from the die. I've done probably a thousand+ of these fixes, and they never come back (well, until the liquid metal produces another dry spot after another few years ).

The fan noise you're hearing could be because the shop bent the metal grill on the fan when pulling it off, or maybe didn't tighten the screws holding the fan in all the way. I would pop the cover off and just see if the grill looks bent or if the screws are loose. You can always pull the fan itself out and spin it to see if it makes the noise outside of the housing, if it doesn't then it's not a fan problem, if it does it could be.

My guess is there's still a dry spot.