I Bought 13 BROKEN PS5's - But Can I Fix Them?! By TronicsFix

This video is sponsored by fixity. I bought 13 broken ps5s to see if I could fix them, because I'm an idiot and because I make bad decisions but either way it's time to see. If I can fix them, and I'll be answering your questions along the way, but first I need to test them and see what's all wrong. So here we go with PS5 number one. I first need to check the ports, see if there's anything wrong there, and everything here looks good HDMI ports. Good USB ports are good.

So now I'm going to plug it in and see if it turns on and see if the disk drive works, and here we go with PS5 number one. Let's see if it powers on okay, all good. So far. Next I'm going to test the disk drive then we'll get it all set up and see if all the software works all sounds good so far and once again so far, everything's working fine, I have a disc inside installing horizon zero dawn and so far it's installing fine. I have it fully updated.

I'm signed in to PSN, so I know it's not blocked. So everything on PS5 number one is working fine, which brings me to my first question that I get all the time. How is it that I buy salvage broken items, and they end up working just fine, so I buy my salvage items from online liquidation websites if you just type in liquidation websites and google you'll find a whole list of them, and that's where I buy my items now. The stuff that I usually buy has not been taken apart by anyone. It's just been tested and for some reason, they've decided that it's faulty now in some cases, and we'll see how many out of this lot are not broken at all, but in some cases there's nothing actually wrong.

Maybe they just thought there was something wrong and there actually wasn't. Maybe they didn't even have time to test it. I don't really know why, but for some reason they put working items into salvage lots. Now that sounds great and all, but the problem with that from a buyer's perspective is the items are very expensive for things that are salvaged, because a lot of these ps5s are most likely going to be broken and take some repair and the ones that take repair. I'm not going to have any parts for a lot of them.

I might not even be able to fix, because I have nowhere to get parts for them. How much did I pay for these ps5s I'll get into that in just a minute right now, I'm going to finish testing PS5 number one and see if there's anything that ends up being wrong with it. So while this game is installing on PS5 number one, I'm actually gonna start checking out PS5 number two and just let this one install, and I already see what's wrong with PS5 number two: we got a bad HDMI port that one's easy to figure out. Let's move on to PS5 number three and the port on PS5 number three looks fine, so I'm going to plug it in and see what it does. PS5 number one is still installing the game, and I'm getting the update installed on PS5 number three and PlayStation number three is all set up.

Let's test the disk drive here, takes it in shows up here, spins up, and it shows up on the screen. I'm going to get this installed and test it out. Then we'll check out number one and see if we can play the game there. So another question I want to answer is why I would do this and my simple answer is, I believe, in repair and I enjoy repair and I enjoy making videos for you guys to watch. I think that it's way better to fix the things we have rather than go out and just buy new stuff and throw the old stuff away.

That's ultimately why I started this channel and why I buy stuff like this, even though on paper. Sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense on this particular lot. I think it makes a lot of sense because I think I will still make money, even though some of these are going to be broken, and I'm going to have to try and fix them, and probably some of them won't be fixable at all. So it looks like this one's already to try. I did install a small game onto this one because I don't want to install huge games on all of them because that will take quite a while.

So I'm going to test it on a smaller game, so number three seems to work perfectly. I see no problems at all now. Obviously I haven't tested this long term and I don't plan on testing each one of these long term that would take hours and hours and hours so instead, what I'm going to do is when I list these for sale, I'm just going to say that I haven't tested these long term I'll list out the things I know about it and the things I don't know about it. That way the buyer knows exactly what's been tested and what hasn't, and then they can spend accordingly. Now that I'm done testing this one, I'm going to get it reset to factory settings, so it's already for the new owner.

It sounds like number one is done installing. So, let's check the game on number one: okay, and we do have a problem with number one. It just freezes on the game and there are no inputs, like the controller. Just can't do anything with the controller, and it's just stuck on the screen, see what happens. If I take the disk out.

Okay, the disc is coming out. Oh, here we go something went wrong with this game or app, so I'm going to save number one for later, we'll try and install a different game right now. Let's move on to number four, while the software is updating on number four. Let's talk about price, I paid 550 for each of these PlayStation 5s, and they don't even come with a controller. That's what I was talking about prices being high for this type of salvage merchandise, because even though there are some that are broken and probably a lot of them, there will be some of these that aren't broken at all and, like I said the other advantages, these have not been taken apart in most cases unless they were taken apart by the person that bought it.

In most cases, these haven't been taken apart by a repair person and repairs have not been attempted so because of those things, prices are super high for this type of device, even though a lot of them are actually broken, and the last question everyone has about these ps5s is: where can they buy one from me, I'll get into that here in just a minute, this one's almost updated? So let's finish testing it and PS5 number four also seems to be working great, so I'm going to get it reset and then start on PS5 number, five, so number five is still installing the disc PS5 number six has kind of like uh, it's kind of like glitching it'll, it'll. The display will just blink for just a second at a time. It's not really doing it right now. It could be just a dirty, HDMI port, so I'll clean that out, while I'm testing it, but number six could be a problem. So number five is also working.

Fine, I see no problems with it. So let's move on and keep testing PS5 number six. So now you can see PS5 number six is having some major graphical issues. I think this is probably a major problem. I'm guessing it's probably even a GPU issue.

Furthermore, I'm going to put a game in and see if it gets worse or see if it stays the same, and now the screen has totally blacked out. It's got report a problem, but you can't even read it. So I think this is probably bad news for PS5 number. Six. Let's move on to PS5 number seven, so PS5 number eight beeps, but doesn't actually turn all the way on.

So I'm going to be looking at that. One later number seven should be almost done installing the disc. So we can test the game on that one and see if it's fully working and number seven is also had a pro having a problem with the game or app, so I'll be taking a look at that one later, let's take a look at PS5 number nine, and we have yet another one. That's freezing when I'm trying to play the game so PS5 number 10 is doing that same thing that the other two ps5s are doing. So we'll take a look at that later.

Let's move on to PS5 number 11. And for number 12. We also have major graphics problems. You can see there's little artifacts showing up on the screen, but nothing on the screen other than this black screen. So number 12 is going to need some work.

Number 11, I'm just testing the game. So, let's get to the last one number 13. , and here we have number 13. This is already loose. It's already missing some screws, I'm going to turn it on and see what it does.

Okay, number 13 will beep once, but it doesn't actually power on number 11 over here all seems to be working normally number 13 definitely needs some work. Let's take a look at the numbers and see how many already work and how many we need to repair so out of these 13 ps5s that I have four of them already work. Fine and the rest of these have various issues. I think the first one I'm going to tackle is the one where it shows that something went wrong with the game or app, because that's a problem with three of these ps5s now I know you're, probably wondering where am I going to be selling these well? As of the publishing date of this video, I've already sold several to my channel members and my patrons over on Patreon. As far as the rest of these ps5s go, I'm going to sell more over on Patreon and also for my channel members.

I'll probably keep some around here just so I can experiment on, and then I also might throw one or two up one bay just to see how they do one bay. Now, without all being said, let's start the repairs. So let's start the repairs with number one number, seven and number ten, since they all have similar problems. Also, I did notice that I miscounted the ones where there are no problems found. We have one two three four five that have no problems.

So, let's start with number one and then go to these others that are all having the same problem and see if we can figure out a fix to that problem. So the first thing I'm going to try and do is rebuild the database, so I'm going to push the power button until it beeps the second time, that'll bring up safe mode. Then I'll rebuild the database and test it again now, while PS5 number one is installing the game. Again, let's move on to PS5 number seven that has a very similar problem. Okay in PS5 number seven is done reinstalling the game first, so let's try this one.

Actually, I'm going to go ahead and let it do the update file and then see if that'll help. Oh, that didn't take long, the game fully updated, and before it even started. It gave me this same error. So the next thing I'm going to try is starting this game with the Wi-Fi turned off. Okay still gives me the error: let's go back to PS5 number one and see if that one will work now, oh no, we didn't even get to the same spot.

It was last time, so it looks like PS5 number one PS5 number, seven and PS5 number 10 all have the same problem and as of right now I know nothing that can fix it. It's a software issue somewhere in the software of the PS5. I'm going to put these aside and either do another video on them. I probably will take a look at them off camera a little and I will update you if I find a fix for them, but for now, let's move on to the next PS5 PS5 number two needs the HDMI port replaced. This should be a fairly straightforward and easy repair, but you never know, let's open it up and find out I'll, be using the fixity manta precision bit set.

It's got all of these bits and the two drivers, one of my favorite things about this set- is the large driver. This works great for screws that are really in tight. I also love that fixity tool kits at least most of them come with magnets right on the top and bottom case, so they just snap together. You can also use this top case as a screw tray. The manta precision bit set has pretty much any bit you're going to need to get into any device.

I always love having the tool on hand when I need it, as that makes repairs much faster to disassemble this PS5, I'm going to start out with the torn tr8 wow, there's already some dust built up into this PS5. So it's good we're taking this apart. It looks like it could already use a good cleaning, so you can see, we've got already a decent amount of dust buildup right in here. So this is just a reminder. Make sure that your PS5 is off the floor and in a very well ventilated area and around as little hair and dust as you can possibly put it, and also these heat sinks right here are also starting to get plugged up with dust.

This is one of the main things that will cause overheating, so it's super important to make sure these don't get too plugged. Now we can get the motherboard loose there. We go and here's the liquid metal on the PS5. We need to be careful with this, make sure it doesn't run all over this part of the heat sink and also that it doesn't run all over this part of the APU. Luckily, there's not too much on the APU side and the motherboard is the part we need to work on, so that shouldn't really be an issue.

So this I'm just going to set aside and keep it nice and flat. Then, when we go to put this all back together, I'll kind of just move the liquid metal over to the center, then squish the motherboard down on top of it. So the first thing I need to do is remove this old port, so I'm going to be using my hot air station to heat up these large pins on the edge and then also the small pens down on the back of the port on the other side of the board. Once that's done, we can install one of these brand new PS5 HDMI ports, and this will go right up into these same mounting holes and then the little pins will get soldered back onto the motherboard. So we have our port mounted in here very nicely.

We need to add a little of solder here and a little of solder here then we need to solder on all of these small pins. So that's what we're going to do next, I'm going to add some flux, then get my micro soldering pencil in here and solder, each one of these down to the pad on the motherboard so and there we go. Each of these pins is soldered on very solidly. We also got some extra solder down in the holes along these mounting posts, so this HDMI port is on here very solidly. Now there are a couple of things on this port that I probably could have done a little better, but it's gonna work just fine, and it's not going anywhere.

Let me know down in the comment section the things you see that I could have done better: let's get this motherboard back in and test it, so this liquid metal, I want more sort of in the center of this heat sink. So let me show you how easily this moves around. So you can see just with me lifting it up, it's very, very liquid, just going to make a little trail for it there we go all right and that's more where we want it now. I can get the motherboard installed down on it and get this thing all put back in the chassis. So now we can clean the heat sinks on this PS5, and that is looking much better.

Now we need to address all the dust inside this mid-frame and there we go all clean. I don't have to worry too much about it being perfect, as it is just the inside of the PS5. I just don't want all this dust blowing around in the system and getting caught up in those heat sinks. Now, let's get the motherboard sandwich back in, and then we can clean up the fan. Now, let's see if this PS5 will turn on and if it shows something up on the screen.

So was I successful on my first ever PS5 HDMI repair, let's find out yes success. We have this PS5 up and working. That's PS5 number, two. Let's move on to the next PS5, and I'll get this all tested off. Camera number two has been fixed.

I was able to test it fully off camera and everything worked good that I tested. So next we're going to move on to number six. The screen is blinking quickly and then major graphics problems. So I've done a little of research for fixing PS5 number six, and I think really probably the best bet is installing the PS5 full system software. So I'm going to go into safe mode and reinstall the software and see if that helps us out any so.

I've got the system software installed from an USB stick, and unfortunately I can already see the screen blinking. So I think number six probably has a faulty APU, unfortunately, which is not replaceable. So this one I'll use for parts, and we'll move on to the next PS5. We have two of them that beat but have no power number eight and number 13. , I'm going to save those.

For last. Let's move to number 12. It has a black screen with artifacts. I think I already know what I'm going to find out here, but let's check it out anyway. So now number 12 doesn't have any of the artifacts, and it doesn't have a black screen.

It's actually doing a software update. I was kind of wondering when I first tested this. I almost felt like maybe the HDMI cable wasn't plugged in all the way, or it was dirty or something, but for whatever reason it does seem to be working now. So that's great news. I am going to have to test this several more times and make sure that problem doesn't come back, but right now I'm going to get it all set up and make sure everything else works.

Oh, I had it all started up, and then we get the exact same thing: black screen with a bunch of glitches. Unfortunately, PS5 number 12 is not gonna, be fixable, I'm pretty sure it's another one with a graphics issue, probably from the APU, but luckily we do need parts for the next two, I'm gonna look at the two that beep, but don't power on I'm guessing we're going to need a power supply. So I'm going to get the one out of this one and use it on those to test them. I have my known good harvested power supply. Now I need to get number eight and number 13 taken apart, so we can test them with a good power supply, and here we are with number eight.

This one has obviously been taken apart. The warranty sticker has been obviously removed. It's also missing some screws. Who knows what we're going to find inside this one got a connector. That's messed up the power supply in this one, maybe just disconnected or something and here's that disk drive connector that was smashed in there.

I think we can just bend it back over yeah. That looks good. It's also bent a little here once we get that connector plugged in though that should be fine. This cable also, I don't know if they've messed this one up. Oh, that looks fine okay, so this cable is still fine.

That's good news and out with the old and in with the new, or I shouldn't say new in with the known good. Now, I'm just going to get this put back together and see if it works. Okay, it's back together enough to test. Is it gonna work? Okay, we got the eject button working. Let's try the power come on.

Oh, not gonna work! So, as you can see, I press the power button and nothing at all happens. So clearly the power supply isn't the issue. But what is the issue? I'm gonna need to take this all the way back apart and see if we can figure this one out. So I've been testing the motherboard on this to see if I can figure out why it's not getting power or why it will beep and then not power on now. I compared this good motherboard with this motherboard and there's just no problems on this main power.

Rail. All of it seems to be working perfectly. There are no shorts and there are no open circuits. So then, the next thing I did was go to my fleet thermal camera and look at them starting up on the flare. When I look at the known good motherboard, I can see the SSD controller light up, then the south bridge light up and then the APU light up on this bad motherboard.

I do see the SSD controller light up, then the south bridge light up, but I never see the APU light up. So I'm guessing it may be a problem with the south bridge, but that's just a guess, as it could be several other chips on this motherboard as well. Unfortunately, none of the big manufacturers published schematics for this type of motherboard. So there's just no way for me to track it down to the exact failure point because I just have nothing to go on the PS5 motherboard is very large and has multiple layers, so in a lot of cases, there's just no way to track stuff like this down, especially when it's all brand new, and I haven't had a chance to diagnose very much on them yet now, given that the PS4 did have quite a few problems with the south bridge, I think what I'm going to do on this one is tried to reflow the south bridge. If that works great, if it doesn't work, I'm just going to have to call this motherboard not fixable for now, but I will keep it around, and I will update you guys if I find the fix, but first, let's try reflowing this south bridge and see, if that happens, to get it working.

The south bridge has been fully reflowed. You saw near the end where I bumped it with my tweezers and saw that it did move just a little. So that's the way. I know that all the solder balls underneath are melted. Now I can try and turn it on and see what happens these LEDs over here? What I'm watching if they turn on that means, we might have fixed this one, let's find out, ah bummer, still nothing on those LEDs.

So at this point I suspect, maybe the APU is faulty. This was a big problem with the PlayStation 4, but it also could be some of these smaller chips around the board. I don't know where exactly the power flow is on this because, like I said there is no schematic, but as these age and repair people like me, figure them out, then I might have a chance to fix this one in the future. So we have one more PS5 left. It is PS5 number 13, and it has a very similar problem to this one.

Hopefully, this one's fixable I'd love to end it on a positive note, but let's find out- and here we have PS5 number 13- all torn down- I've got it hooked up to power. One of the things I noticed that number eight was missing. Was this gray piece right here, this uh thermal pad? So that tells me somebody obviously had been in it and had removed it for some reason. I don't know that that had anything to do with the main problem we were having, but it also is possible. These pads help these ram chips on the other side of the board stay cool, so that always is a possibility for something that might be wrong.

Now that I have number 13 hooked up to a known good power supply, let's see if it powers on. I hope this one powers on I'd love to get another one working, let's find out once again we're watching these LEDs over here, and here we go. Oh, and no LEDs. Okay, I'm going to hook up my thermal camera and see if this one does the same thing as number: eight. Okay and we got it all hooked up.

Let's see what happens with the temperatures when I try to power it on. So I'm seeing exactly the same thing as on number eight, the SSD controller gets warm. Then the south bridge gets warm, but nothing else on the entire board does so. Unfortunately, until I have more to go on number eight and number 13 PS5's are both going to be not fixable. For now, so out of 13 broken ps5s, we have one two, three, four five six that are working and several of the rest of these probably will be fixable at some point, but I just don't have enough information to fix them right now.

Obviously, a lot of you are probably wondering what I'm going to do with these. I've actually already sold several to my channel members and to my Patreon members. I've got a couple more I'm going to sell there. Furthermore, I might sell some one bay and then the rest of these I'm going to keep around and see if I can fix them in a future video. If you like this video you'll, probably like the one where I tried to fix eight broken PS5, dual sense controllers I'll put a link-up on the screen, so you can come, hang out with me over there and see if I can fix those.

Thank you to fixity for sponsoring this video I'll, put a link down in the description if you'd like to buy some of their tools. Thank you so much for watching, and I hope you have a good one.

Source : TronicsFix