Have you just bought a used Sony PlayStation 4? Does the fan run so fast that your PS4 will soon take flight? Is the PS4 Pro too noisy? Well, let me tell you one thing: it's not normal. Thankfully, the solution is quite simple. You have to clean the Sony PlayStation 4 console and change the thermal paste of the CPU. In this first article, let's see how to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro. In the second article, we will see how to change the thermal paste of the CPU with the Night NT-H1, how to change the battery and how to clean the heatsink and fan. Finally, in the third and last article, we will see how to reassemble the PS4 Pro.
It is necessary to clean all Sony PlayStation4, even the Slim. In this article we see how to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro, but it is evident you will have to carry out the cleaning on all the consoles used.
In all, the operation of disassembly, cleaning and reassembly can take about 4 hours, as long as you already have the tools and thermal paste. Read on to find out what you need.
Problems Sony Playstation console used, dirty
If you notice that the PS4 fan is spinning too fast, even if you're not playing games, the console is most likely dirty. Does the PlayStation 4 make too much noise?
I recommend cleaning the Sony Playstation console even if you bought it new, but it's been a while. There is no precise deadline. You can think about cleaning it every two years, or you can consider cleaning it only when you notice that the fan is spinning too fast.
By reading these three articles, you will understand if you are able to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro without making a mess. Then… you also have to reassemble it! For this reason I advise you, if you do not have good manual skills, to contact a professional.
The necessary tools are quite common, reading these articles, you will realize it.
How to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro
Let's start with a couple of precautions:
- Try your PlayStation before you open it, especially if the work was commissioned by a friend. In this way, if there is something wrong, you will find out before disassembling it and being accused of damage!
- Disconnect the power cord! Before opening any electrical equipment, you must disconnect all cables, in particular, the power supply one.
Let's see how to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro. Turn it upside down and detach the back door of the hard disk.
At this point you can reach the hard disk of the PS4. We unscrew the screw that holds it fixed to the support.
We can remove the hard disk from the PlayStation 4 Pro. In this PS4, the hard disk is 1TB, but there are also different models: with 500GB hard disk or even 2TB. The hard drive that comes with this Sony PlayStation 4 is a regular 2.5" mechanical HDD, SATA, 1TB.
Remove the bottom panel of the PS4: how to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro
You disconnected all the connectors, didn't you? Especially the feeding one? Continue! Let's see how to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro.
We remove the bottom panel. There are 3 torx T9 screws to unscrew. The first is located just to the right of the hard disk compartment.
The other 2 screws are located a little further to the right, behind the warranty labels. The labels come off quite smoothly, without breaking. These 2 screws are also torx T9.
This operation is quite delicate: you have to lift the bottom cover, but without breaking it! Pull up the part of the lid just to the left of the hard disk. Continuing to the right, there are clips to be released in the center, where we unscrewed the torx screws. Lift the lid to unhook them.
Finally, the right side of the lid must also be lifted.
To remove the bottom panel, even on the other side, it is enough to push it backwards. Or rather, since we were lifting the panel from the back of the PS4, when it lifted, we have to push it towards the front of the console. The panel slides and unhooks completely, effortlessly.
At this point we can see the inside of the PlayStation 4 Pro, which is protected by a metal shielding foil. We can also notice the first puffs of dust, but… it is nothing compared to what we will see next!
Let's start to give a dusting, although we will see how to clean the PlayStation 4 Pro in the second article. Always in the second article, we will see how to change the thermal paste of the CPU and how to replace the CR2032 battery of the clock.
Disconnect the cables from the Sony PS4 Pro motherboard
Before removing the protective sheet, we must disconnect all cables. There are cables of all kinds and on different sides of the mainboard. We begin to disconnect the smaller flat cables: it is enough to pull them, taking them from the blue side, in the opposite direction to the connector, to the outside of the motherboard.
The widest cable, the one with multiple poles coming from the CD, DVD, Blue Ray player, should not be pulled immediately. First you have to open the connector, lifting the dark plastic tab. Next, we can move the flat cable away, towards the outside of the motherboard.
We also disconnect the three-pole cable of the fan, on the opposite side of the motherboard. In addition, there is another small flat cable, near the fan connector.
Now let's deal with the three coaxial cables with U.FL connectors. We disconnect them from the WiFi and Bluetooth card simply by pulling the connectors upwards (towards the sky, to be clear!), without bending them.
Disassemble the bottom metal casing of the PS4 console
When the cables are all disconnected, move them away slightly so that they do not get in the way of the metal screen. We can unscrew all the screws of the shielding. There are two types: torx T9, steel-colored, and also cross-shaped, black. Let's start with the torx T9 screws.
We put the screws aside, so as to remind us that they are part of the metal shielding.
Let's now unscrew the small black star screws. These too... are quite a few. Near each screw there is a small arrow, which will help us during reassembly.
Detach the thin coaxial cable from both the plastic chassis clips and the guides on the metal shield.
Let's continue the maintenance: how to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro.
Paying attention not to tear any cable, without making force, we can move the metal sheet away from the motherboard. In the photo, we see the free shielding, front and back.
You can see the motherboard of the Sony Playstation 4 Pro, which has another metal shield to remove.
This shield protects the underside of the PCB, below the PS4 CPU. We unscrew the black star screws. There are small arrows next to the screws.
We lift the small metal screen, effortlessly. Here is the bottom support (X clamp) of the PS4 microprocessor.
Pay attention to the underside of the small metal shield that we have just removed. There are 8 thermal pads that serve to dissipate the heat generated by the PS4's GDDR5 RAM. These pads must all be present and must correspond to the positions of the 8 RAM. In all, the PlayStation 4 comes with 8GB of GDDR5 RAM.
Unscrew the X clamp of the PS4 CPU
The PS4's CPU is also called an APU. It is an integrated circuit of AMD, customized for Sony.
It is composed of the actual CPU (an AMD Jaguar x86-64 processor, 8 cores) and the GPU (the AMD Radeon graphics engine from 4.20 TFLOPS).
The graphics engine of the PS4 Pro is more powerful than that of the standard PS4, in fact it is fast 4.20 TFLOPS, against 1.84 TFLOPS of the standard PS4. TFLOP is a Tera FLOP, that is, a trillion floating-point operations per second.
Theory aside, let's unscrew the 4 star screws of the X clamp. Let's unscrew them by proceeding to X, so not making a complete turn.
Under the X clamp, there is another support, which is removed by simply lifting it. The bottom of the mainboard does not show the processor, which is on the other side. There are some filter capacitors.
How to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro: the motherboard
Now, to remove the motherboard there is an absolutely uncomfortable school of thought. There are those who remove it simply by lifting it and disconnecting the cable that comes from the power supply. In fact, our goal is to clean the fan and cooling fin that are on the opposite side. It is therefore more convenient to disassemble the power supply, on the other side of the PS4, disconnecting the connectors on that side. Therefore, avoid following the image that follows and proceed further.
Remove the top panel of your Playstation 4 Pro
Turn the PS4 to the other side and disassemble the top plastic panel. It is released by lifting it upwards (towards the sky!), decisively, but being careful not to break it. You have to lift it from the front side, one part at a time, where there are the inscriptions SONY and PS4.
As we did for the bottom panel, when you unhooked the front clips by lifting the panel, you can slide it back to the console, to unhook it completely, effortlessly.
The inside of the PS4 Pro, from the top, shows the power supply (PSU), covered by a metal screen, and the cooling fan.
Let's continue further, let's see how to disassemble the Sony Playstation 4 Pro. As I said before, to easily remove the printed circuit, you need to disassemble the power supply. There are 5 T9 torx screws to unscrew.
Put back the screws and the protective plate so as not to mix it with the other components of the PS4 that we have previously disassembled.
Paying attention not to rotate it too much, at least initially, you can lift the PlayStation's power supply. Don't raise it too much, just raise it an inch, then rotate it towards you.
Behind the power supply you can see:
- the power supply slats;
- another power connector.
From this side, it is very easy to unplug the power connector from the PS4 motherboard.
The PlayStation 4 mainboard is now free. It separates from the case easily, without any effort. When handling electronic components, remember not to wear electrostatic clothing. In particular, avoid woolen sweaters or fleece sweatshirts. Also, before touching electrical wiring or components, place your hand on a metal table leg, metal door, or other grounded object. In this way, you will avoid damaging the components with the electrostatic discharges of your body.
Finally we can also look at the CPU. Here's what's the first cause of the PlayStation 4 overheating: the thermal paste on the CPU is dry. In the second article in the series, we will see how to remove it. Dry thermal paste is also present on the cooling fin.
And now… you can also notice how much dust there is between the fins of the cooling fin! How can air pass, with all this dirt? It's normal for the PS4 CPU to overheat with this crap: the air from the fan can't pass.
After removing the sheet metal with the cooling fin, there isn't much left to disassemble on the PS4... We only see the CD, DVD, BD player on the left and the cooling fan on the right.
We continue to disassemble the PS4: we remove the cooling fan. There are only two Phillips screws to unscrew.
And here is the cooling fan. If it made a clean noise, like... a private jet, then the fan just needs cleaning. If, on the other hand, its noise was more like that of a helicopter, or that of a diesel engine, it is possible that the fan has become misaligned and you need to replace it.
Out of pure curiosity we also remove the CD, DVD, Blue Ray Disc player from the PS4 chassis. This operation can be useful if you need to replace it, because it does not read discs, or if you see it particularly dirty.
There are several Phillips screws to unscrew. Since they are of different shapes, you will have to remember the positions where they will be screwed back on.
This is what the CD, DVD, BD player of the PlayStation 4 Pro looks like inside. There is also a disc inside! This photo is purely out of curiosity: as I wrote before, it is not necessary to disassemble the reader if there are no particular problems concerning it.
Go on...
Perfect! Now that the PS4 is in pieces and you have organized all the components so as not to mix them, we can proceed to clean everything. In the second article, we will also see how to change the thermal paste of the CPU and how to replace the buffer battery of the watch.