Opens in a new tab

Refurbishing a PlayStation 4

Mar 2023

Complete disassembly
Complete disassembly
Dirty fan
Dirty fan
Clean fan
Clean fan
Dirty vents
Dirty vents
Dirty controller
Dirty controller
Gunk on eject sensor
Gunk on eject sensor
Cleaned eject sensor
Cleaned eject sensor
Broken ribbon cable
Broken ribbon cable
New ribbon cable
New ribbon cable
Fresh thermal paste
Fresh thermal paste
Voila!
Voila!

I picked up this 500GB black PlayStation 4 console and controller from an estate sale just a couple miles away from my house. It was in great condition except for the fact that it wouldn’t eject discs, and the warranty sticker had been removed, meaning somebody had unsuccessfully attempted to repair it. Surprisingly, the issue was just the fact that it was dirty! There was some gunk on the connection for the eject sensor that I was able to clean off with isopropyl alcohol. I took the entire console apart to individually clean each piece, fitted it with some new thermal paste, replaced the ribbon cable that I accidentally broke the tabs off of (my bad!), and gave it a nice polish.