PS5 with no picture: why the HDMI port breaks, and how we replace it
White light, TV on “no signal”, controller that vibrates: the console is alive, but the picture never arrives. Since the workshop opened, this is the PS5 fault we see most often.
The HDMI connector of a PS5 is soldered straight onto the logic board through nineteen tiny pins and four anchor tabs. There is no intermediate part: every time a cable is pulled at an angle, the force goes into those solder joints. A console standing upright that tips over while plugged in, a cable trapped behind the cabinet, a child “helping”: a pin bends, a joint cracks, and one day the picture doesn't come back.
How to recognise the fault
The clearest sign: the picture comes back when you press on the plug or twist it slightly. Other symptoms are a flickering picture, one that turns black and white, or a console that boots into safe mode and offers to change the resolution. If you can see a bent pin by shining a torch into the port, there is no doubt left.
Why we don't replace the logic board
Many chains don't do micro-soldering: they then offer a logic-board swap, almost at the price of a second-hand console, or send the console to a distant centre. We desolder the connector with hot air, clean the pads, rebuild any torn traces, and fit a new connector. The console keeps its SSD, its system, your account and your saves.
And if it isn't the port?
In a minority of cases the chip that drives the HDMI (the “retimer”) is at fault, or the power supply. That is what the 49 € diagnosis tells us before we start, and those repairs are possible too. The HDMI port price is fixed and shown on the dedicated page, with a twelve-month warranty.
Also worth reading
Switch: the Joy-Con is no longer recognised when attached
A Joy-Con that works over Bluetooth but not once clipped on: that is the console rail, not the controller. Small part, repaired within the hour.
PS5 controller drifting: why it happens, and the Hall-effect stick option
DualSense stick drift isn't a manufacturing defect but mechanical wear. Classic stick or Hall-effect stick: what we fit, and for whom.
Joy-Con drift: repair instead of buying a new pair
Joy-Con drift is the best known of all. A new pair is expensive; a new stick fitted at the workshop, much less. How it goes.