Placing Your PS5 Vertically Could Kill It, Unverified Claims Suggest

Controversial claims that positioning your PS5 vertically could break it have been making the rounds online over the past 24 hours. However, with so few examples of a fault being declared by a French repair shop, it’s highly unlikely that it’s anything to worry about. Along with another console repair shop, the two suggest that a design flaw in the PS5’s internals could cause liquid metal to leak out of its case and damage other components, thus breaking the system.

Used to cool the console, the claims cite a possible breach in the seal between the APU (accelerated processing unit) and its coolant, which would then leak liquid metal into pieces and other parts. The theory is that if your PS5 is placed horizontally, the substance won’t go anywhere – it’ll just stay put in its case. However, if the system is vertical, then there is a risk of liquid metal leakage.

Those who debate the claim suggest that much credibility is lost when there is even the possibility of liquid metal leaking from its case, “something bad” must happen to the seal protecting it. Buried within the PS5’s other components, the chances of that happening seem slim. The two repair shops warn that this defect will cause the system to overheat and damage the motherboard. But if you’re already moving your PS5 around so much and vandalizing it to the point where a small coating inside it is broken, then you may already have a bigger problem.

Collective Answer: I’m just warning, every PS5 I open, very often the liquid moves and sometimes it can damage the surface of the CPU. In some cases this affects the operation. I’m not the only techie to notice this. pic.twitter.com/XWJrtkwg0L — Console System (@68Logic) January 5, 2023

While both stores share evidence of liquid metal leaking from its case in tweets, it’s such a small sample size — and doesn’t mention the possibility of user-made damage elsewhere — that it’s nothing to worry about. here. The official line from Sony is that the system will work in both landscape and portrait orientations. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have designed it to have padding on the bottom to lay flat or shipped the system with a stand so it could lay upright.

If the situation changes or new evidence surfaces, we’ll be sure to update you with more information. Until then, however, claims of the PS5 breaking from such a small sample size cannot be taken as evidence of a wider problem that Sony overlooked. Have you, by any chance, encountered this problem at all? Tell us in the comments below.