How to Disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro

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Have you just bought a used Sony PlayStation 4? Is the fan spinning so fast that your PS4 sounds ready to take off? Is your PS4 Pro too noisy? Let me tell you one thing: that is not normal. Fortunately, the solution is fairly simple. The Sony PlayStation 4 needs to be cleaned, and the CPU thermal paste needs to be replaced. In this first article, we'll see how to disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro. In the second article, we'll see how to replace the CPU thermal paste with Noctua NT-H1, how to replace the battery, and how to clean the heatsink and fan. Finally, in the third and last article, we'll see how to reassemble the PS4 Pro.

All Sony PlayStation 4 models need cleaning, including the Slim. In this article, we'll see how to disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro, but the same type of cleaning should be considered for any used console.

Overall, the complete disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly can take about 4 hours, provided that you already have the necessary tools and thermal paste. Keep reading to find out what you need.

Problems with a Used, Dirty Sony PlayStation

If the PS4 fan spins too fast even when you are not playing, the console is most likely dirty. Is your PlayStation 4 making too much noise?

I recommend cleaning the Sony PlayStation even if you bought it new but several years have passed. There is no fixed interval: you might clean it every two years, or simply when you notice the fan spinning unusually fast.

By reading these three articles, you can decide whether you are comfortable disassembling the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro without causing damage. Remember that you will also have to reassemble it! If you are not confident with this kind of hands-on work, I recommend contacting a professional.

The required tools are fairly common, as you will see throughout these articles.

How to Disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro

Let's start with a couple of precautions:

• Test the PlayStation before opening it, especially if you are doing the work for a friend. This way, if something is already wrong, you will discover it before disassembly and avoid being blamed for the damage.
• Disconnect the power cord! Before opening any electrical equipment, disconnect all cables, especially the power cord.

Let's see how to disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro. Turn it upside down and remove the rear hard-drive cover.

At this point, the PS4 hard drive is accessible. Remove the screw that secures it to the bracket.

We can now slide the hard drive out of the PlayStation 4 Pro. This PS4 has a 1 TB drive, but other versions are available with 500 GB or 2 TB drives. The drive fitted to this Sony PlayStation 4 is a standard 2.5-inch SATA 1 TB mechanical HDD.

Removing the PS4 Bottom Panel: How to Disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro

You have disconnected all the cables, right? Especially the power cord? Let's continue disassembling the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro.

Remove the bottom panel. There are three T9 Torx screws to undo. The first is just to the right of the hard-drive bay.

The other two screws are slightly farther to the right, behind the warranty labels. The labels can be removed fairly easily without tearing them. These two screws are also T9 Torx.

This step is fairly delicate: lift the bottom cover without breaking it. Pull upward on the section just to the left of the hard drive. Moving toward the right, release the clips in the center, near the Torx screws you removed. Lift the cover to disengage them.

Finally, lift the right side of the cover as well.

To release the bottom panel from the opposite side, slide it toward the front of the console once the rear edge has been lifted. The panel will slide free and disengage completely without force.

At this point, we can see the inside of the PlayStation 4 Pro, protected by a metal shielding plate. We can already see the first clumps of dust, but... that is nothing compared with what we will see later!

Let's start by removing some of the dust, although we'll cover the full PlayStation 4 Pro cleaning procedure in the second article. In the second article, we'll also see how to replace the CPU thermal paste and the CR2032 clock battery.

Disconnecting the Cables from the Sony PS4 Pro Motherboard

Before removing the shielding plate, we need to disconnect all the cables. There are several types of cables on different sides of the motherboard. Start with the smaller ribbon cables: grip them by the blue tab and pull them straight out, away from the connector and toward the edge of the motherboard.

Do not pull the wider multi-pin ribbon cable from the CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive immediately. First open the connector by lifting the dark plastic locking tab. Then slide the ribbon cable out toward the edge of the motherboard.

Disconnect the fan's three-pin cable on the opposite side of the motherboard. There is also another small ribbon cable near the fan connector.

Now disconnect the three coaxial cables with U.FL connectors from the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth board. Pull each connector straight upward without bending it.

Removing the Lower Metal Shield from the PS4

Once all the cables are disconnected, move them slightly out of the way of the metal shield. We can now remove all the shield screws. There are two types: steel-colored T9 Torx screws and black Phillips screws. Start with the T9 Torx screws.

Set the screws aside separately so you remember that they belong to the metal shield.

Now remove the small black Phillips screws. There are quite a few of them. A small arrow next to each screw position will help during reassembly.

Release the thin coaxial cable from both the plastic chassis clips and the guides on the metal shield.

Let's continue the maintenance procedure and disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro further.

Without forcing anything and taking care not to tear any cables, lift the metal plate away from the motherboard. The photo shows the shield removed, from both sides.

We can now see the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro motherboard, which has another metal shield that must be removed.

This shield protects the underside of the PCB, below the PS4 CPU. Remove the black Phillips screws; small arrows next to the screws indicate their positions.

Lift off the small metal shield without using force. Underneath is the lower CPU support, the PS4's X-clamp.

Check the underside of the small metal shield you just removed. It carries eight thermal pads that transfer heat from the PS4's GDDR5 RAM. All eight pads must be present and aligned with the eight RAM chips. The PlayStation 4 has 8 GB of GDDR5 RAM in total.

Removing the PS4 CPU X-Clamp

The PS4 CPU is also referred to as the APU. It is an AMD integrated circuit customized for Sony.

It combines the CPU itself, an 8-core x86-64 AMD Jaguar processor, with the GPU, an AMD Radeon graphics engine rated at 4.20 TFLOPS.

The PS4 Pro graphics engine is more powerful than the one in the standard PS4: 4.20 TFLOPS versus 1.84 TFLOPS. One TFLOP represents one trillion floating-point operations per second.

Theory aside, remove the four Phillips screws from the X-clamp. Loosen them gradually in a cross pattern rather than fully removing one screw at a time.

Under the X-clamp is another support that can simply be lifted away. The underside of the motherboard does not expose the processor, which is on the opposite side; only a few filter capacitors are visible here.

How to Disassemble the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro: The Motherboard

There is an awkward way to remove the motherboard: some people simply lift it and disconnect the cable coming from the power supply. Since our goal is to clean the fan and heatsink on the opposite side, it is much easier to remove the power supply from the other side of the PS4 and disconnect the connectors there. Therefore, do not follow the method shown in the next image; continue with the procedure below instead.

Removing the Top Panel of the PlayStation 4 Pro

Turn the PS4 over and remove the upper plastic panel. Release it by pulling firmly upward, taking care not to break it. Start at the front edge, one section at a time, near the SONY and PS4 logos.

As with the bottom panel, once the front clips have been released, slide the panel toward the rear of the console to disengage it completely without forcing it.

From the top, the inside of the PS4 Pro shows the power supply unit (PSU), covered by a metal shield, and the cooling fan.

Let's continue disassembling the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro. As mentioned earlier, removing the power supply makes it much easier to take out the motherboard. There are five T9 Torx screws to remove.

Keep the screws and small protective metal plate separate from the other PS4 components removed earlier.

Lift the PlayStation power supply carefully without rotating it too far at first. Raise it by only about one centimeter, then tilt it toward you.

Behind the power supply you can see:

• the power contacts;
• another power connector.

From this side, the power connector can be disconnected from the PS4 motherboard very easily.

The PlayStation 4 motherboard is now free and can be lifted out of the case without force. When handling electronic components, avoid clothing that can generate static electricity, especially wool sweaters or fleece garments. Before touching cables or components, discharge yourself by touching a grounded metal object, such as a metal table leg or grounded metal surface. This reduces the risk of damaging components with electrostatic discharge from your body.

Finally, we can inspect the CPU. Here is one of the main causes of PlayStation 4 overheating: the thermal paste on the CPU has dried out. In the second article in the series, we'll see how to remove it. Dried thermal paste is also present on the heatsink.

And now you can see just how much dust has accumulated between the heatsink fins. With this much debris, airflow is severely restricted, so it is no surprise that the PS4 CPU overheats: the fan cannot push enough air through the heatsink.

After removing the metal plate with the heatsink, there is not much left to disassemble. The CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive is on the left and the cooling fan is on the right.

Continue disassembling the PS4 by removing the cooling fan. Only two Phillips screws need to be removed.

Here is the cooling fan. If it produced a smooth but very loud airflow noise, like a private jet, it probably only needs cleaning. If instead it sounded more like a helicopter or diesel engine, the fan may be worn or out of alignment and should be replaced.

Out of curiosity, we can also remove the CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive from the PS4 chassis. This can be useful if the drive needs replacement because it no longer reads discs, or if it is particularly dirty.

There are several Phillips screws to remove. Since they are different shapes and lengths, remember the exact positions where they must be reinstalled.

This is what the inside of the PlayStation 4 Pro CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive looks like. There is even a disc inside! This photo is included purely out of curiosity: as mentioned earlier, there is no need to disassemble the drive unless it has a specific problem.

To Be Continued...

Perfect! Now that the PS4 is fully disassembled and the components are organized so they do not get mixed up, we can clean everything. In the second article, we'll also see how to replace the CPU thermal paste and the clock backup battery.