PS5 that overheats and shuts down: liquid metal, the quiet fault
Fan blowing louder and louder, then a clean cut-out mid-game: before blaming the game or the update, look under the heatsink.
To cool the PS5's main chip, Sony didn't use classic thermal paste but liquid metal, a gallium-based alloy that conducts far better. Excellent as long as it stays put. The trouble is that it is liquid: with heat cycles, moves, a console stored upright and handled often, it ends up migrating to one edge. Part of the chip is then no longer in contact with the heatsink.
The symptoms
The console gets noisy long before it fails: the fan compensates. Then come the slowdowns, the cut-outs mid-game, sometimes an overheating message. On first-generation consoles it is common after a few years; we see it on Slims too.
The repair
The console has to be fully opened, the logic board removed, the old liquid metal cleaned off the chip and the heatsink, the thermal pads on the memory and power stage replaced, fresh liquid metal applied with a new foam barrier, and everything reassembled in the right tightening order. That is what the “overheating” repair on the prices page includes, full clean included. We use the opportunity to check the fan.
Prevention
Leave space around the console, avoid closed cabinets, dust the grilles. And if you move it often, prefer the horizontal position: not an absolute rule, but liquid metal doesn't like repeated tipping.
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