My PS4 was running like a jet engine until I swapped one thermal pad

I finally got around to opening my launch PS4 last weekend after it kept shutting down mid-game. The thermal paste was totally dried out, but what really got me was the thermal pad on the RAM chips looked like a cracker. I replaced it with a $8 pad from Amazon and cleaned out three years of dust bunnies. Now it runs quiet as a mouse and hasn't crashed once. Has anyone else seen those stock pads turn into dust like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah9171mo ago

Yeah but nobody talks about the real issue which is the adhesive on those pads actually degrades over time and can leave a nasty residue on your chips. I used isopropyl alcohol to get it off but it took like 20 minutes of scrubbing. Also the stock pads vary by revision, my 2015 model had a blue one that was still fine but the later white ones crumbled instantly.

clairepark1mo ago

Wait, the white ones crumble instantly?? I had no idea they even changed the color, I thought all those thermal pads were basically the same thing! That's wild that they switched to a completely different material that just falls apart like that, what a mess.