PS5 regular cleaning vs repair — which is actually cheaper?

Cleaning a PS5 is far cheaper than repairing one, and not because repairs are overpriced. The APU — the single chip that does both the CPU and the GPU work — is soldered to the motherboard. If heat damages it, there is no small part to swap: it becomes a motherboard-level fault, and every realistic way out of that costs several times what a clean does. A clean with fresh liquid metal is the cheap end of owning a PS5. A board fault is the expensive end.

Below is the honest version of that comparison: what a clean does and doesn't fix, what the alternatives cost where a price can actually be checked, and the signs that tell you which side of the line your console is on. If your PS5 is already switching itself off mid-game, read why a PS5 overheats and shuts down alongside this.

Why a PS5 isn't repaired chip by chip

Because the part heat hurts most — the APU — is soldered directly to the motherboard, a heat-damaged PS5 is a board problem, not a part swap. There is no socket and no module to pull out, the way there is with a fan or a controller stick.

The APU is a single AMD chip that combines the processor and the graphics. It sits under a large heatsink with heat pipes, cooled by a 120 mm fan that draws air in from both sides, and Sony uses liquid metal as the thermal interface between the chip and the heatsink. Sony has kept liquid metal on later PS5 models, the Pro included.

That cooling stack is serviceable: the dust comes out, the liquid metal gets replaced, the fan gets cleaned. The chip underneath is not a serviceable part. Reworking a soldered processor is microsoldering on the board itself, with specialist equipment, and it is not something MopsiHuolto offers. Whoever does it prices it as board-level repair — and if the board can't be saved, what's left is Sony's own repair route or a new console.

What a PS5 clean fixes — and what it can't

A clean fixes heat problems that come from the cooling path: dust in the fan and heatsink, and a worn thermal interface between the chip and the heatsink. It doesn't fix a chip, a memory module or a power stage that has already failed.

• —The console comes fully apart; dust comes out of the fan, the heatsink fins and the air channels — the places a vacuum can't reach through the vents
• —The old liquid metal is removed from the APU and the heatsink, and fresh liquid metal goes on
• —The foam dam that keeps the liquid metal in place is checked, and replaced if it's damaged
• —On the higher tier (from €109) the thermal pads are replaced as well
• —Faults in our work fixed free

What that buys is a cooling system that works as designed again: a quieter fan in the same game, no heat warnings, no shutdowns caused by heat. What it doesn't buy is a repair. If a console shows picture artefacts, or crashes that carry on after a clean, the fault is somewhere a clean can't reach.

The work is done on site — Andrei comes to your home or office and cleans the console at your table, so it never leaves the house. If you'd rather bring it to him, that works too.

Cost: a clean against the alternatives

A PS5 clean with fresh liquid metal costs from €89 at MopsiHuolto; a heat-damaged motherboard costs several times that, whichever route you take. How big the gap is depends on the route, and only some of those prices can be checked in advance.

The only firm numbers in that table are ours and Sony's list price. Sony set the disc PS5 at €649.99 in Europe from 2 April 2026 — several cleans' worth before you've moved a single save. Anything that ends in a new console costs more than years of cleaning.

The guarantee matters too. Sony's manufacturer's guarantee in the EEA runs for one year, and inside it a faulty console goes to Sony first. Sony's page on PS5 power issues sends owners of a console that turns off while playing, or won't turn on, to the PlayStation Repairs diagnostic tool, which also tells you whether the console is covered.

Signs that show which side of the line you're on

Noise, heat warnings and heat shutdowns with a normal picture point to the cooling — that's cleaning territory. Artefacts on screen, crashes in every game, or a console that won't start point to a possible hardware fault that needs diagnosing first.

Signs a clean is the right job:

• —The fan is louder than it used to be in the same game. Sony says the fan can run louder in some games — that's normal. Louder over the months is not.
• —The console shows the "Your PS5 is too hot" message.
• —It switches off mid-game, and on the next start says it wasn't turned off properly.
• —The dust comes back in the vents within weeks of vacuuming them.

Signs to get it diagnosed before anyone talks about cleaning:

• —Artefacts on screen — flickering blocks, broken textures — in different games
• —Crashes and freezes across many games, not just one
• —The console won't power on, or cuts out seconds after starting — see PS5 won't turn on

One error code often gets misread here. CE-108255-1 is not a heat or hardware code: Sony describes it as an error with the game or application and suggests updating the game. One game crashing with that code says nothing about the APU.

There is no temperature readout in the PS5 menus, and the PS5 doesn't quietly slow its chip down when it runs hot — its clocks follow power draw, not temperature. So heat shows up as noise, warnings and shutdowns, not as lower frame rates. Those are the readings you have.

When a clean is no longer enough

A clean stops being the answer once the fault is in the electronics rather than in the cooling path: artefacts or crashes that continue with a clean heatsink and fresh liquid metal, or a console that doesn't start at all.

That's why diagnostics come first, and they're free. If the console turns on and runs, a check shows whether the cooling is the problem. If it points to a board fault, you hear that straight away — and since board-level repair isn't something we do, you'll know it's time to talk to Sony or a microsoldering shop, or to price a replacement, before paying for a clean that won't help.

The practical line: a console that is loud, hot or shutting down but still gives a normal picture is worth cleaning now, not after another few months of shutdowns. A heat shutdown is the console protecting itself. There's no reason to make it do that every evening.

Home care between cleans

Between full cleans, the useful home job is airflow: where the console stands and the dust catchers under its covers. Neither needs the console opened.

• —Leave at least 10 cm of free space on every side, keep it out of closed cabinets and off long-pile rugs — that's Sony's own guidance
• —Unplug it and go over the vents with a low-powered vacuum
• —Take the side covers off and vacuum the two dust catchers — iFixit has a step-by-step guide that needs no screwdriver inside the console
• —Don't lift the heatsink yourself. Under it is liquid metal, which conducts electricity; spilled onto the board it can short components

None of this replaces a full clean — the heatsink fins sit behind the fan, out of reach of any vacuum — but it slows the build-up. The noise side of the story is in why a PS5 fan gets loud.