Sony’s PS5 is a great console, but we need to treat it right to ensure top performance and also to avoid unnecessary damage. In particular, there are several things that we should avoid doing if we want to extend the life of our console and accessories. Here’s what not to do with your new PS5 console…
1. Never leave our PS5 running without activating rest mode/turning it off
Have you noticed that the PS5 heats up when it is in operation? Indeed, it takes a lot of resources to give us these incredible gaming experiences that we can have with this console.
Thus, if we want to preserve it, it is necessary to never let our PS5 work when we are not using it. Especially if we have disabled the automatic rest mode which is there to protect our console.
If we let it work our console without entering rest mode or turning off our PS5, it could overheat, which would be catastrophic for our machine. This could eventually damage crucial components inside our PlayStation 5. This could have a ripple effect, potentially rendering our console inoperable if the damage is severe. Thus, we should always put our PS5 in rest mode when not in use.
2. Do not turn off your PS5 during an update
When our console is updated, it performs crucial tasks and should not suffer any interruption during this operation. Especially if this interruption involves cutting off the power to our machine by turning it off…
Performing a “hard shutdown” like this could irreparably damage our system memory, and in particular could corrupt all game saves on our console .
3. Refrain from disabling auto-update option
When our PS5 is in rest mode, one task it can perform is to download and install updates. However, for this to work, we need to leave the option enabled, which means we shouldn’t disable it unless we have a very good reason.
Automatic updating ensures that our console has the latest security patches and the latest firmware, so it protects our PS5 from all the vulnerabilities encountered by Sony and its team who take care of fixing all these problems.
It also means that we have all the latest features on our console. So unless we desperately need to turn off automatic updates, let them run.
4. Do not insert discs the wrong way round
It goes without saying that we should never insert a disc into our PS5 the wrong way round. This won’t necessarily damage our PS5 or our game disc, but it might cause confusion on our part when the console doesn’t recognize the disc and refuses to install anything.
Confusingly, Sony has changed tactics when it comes to inserting a disc into our PS5, compared to its predecessor. With the PS4, the disc came in with the label side on the right. However, the orientation of the PS5 disc has changed, which means that if we have our console in an upright position, the label must be facing left.
5. Avoid leaving an unused disc in the drive
Again, this won’t necessarily damage our PS5 if it’s idle and/or turned off. However, it can cause unnecessary wear and tear if our disc drive tries to read an unused disc all the time, while we are playing a digital copy of a game installed on our console.
Not only that, but the PS5 optical drive isn’t known for being the quietest of components – the drive’s sound sometimes sounds like a helipad with a disc inside . Also, if we leave a disc in the drive and move the console while the disc is spinning, we risk damaging our pickup or possibly the disc itself.
6. Not shutting down the PS5 the right way
When we turn off our console, we must do so appropriately. This means going to our power settings and selecting Turn off PS5 , then wait for the console to turn off completely.
We should NEVER turn off our console while it’s still powered on – including flipping the power strip switch to save energy at night. This could easily lead to save data corruption , especially if our console was writing said data when we suddenly removed the power source.
7. Don’t try to jailbreak or hack your PS5
The reason we should never try to jailbreak or hack our PS5 is that we could permanently damage our machine (so much so that it would be nothing more than a big piece of plastic on our TV stand).
So be aware of the risk before embarking on this kind of operation.
9. Don’t direct your anger at your PS5
Just because some cheaters used their jailbroken PS5s and an aimbot to blast our heads to pieces in Warzone doesn’t give us an excuse to get mad at our PS5s.
Yes, it’s frustrating, but it’s not our PlayStation’s fault, so let’s try to direct our anger elsewhere. And “elsewhere” doesn’t mean directing it to our DualSense controller instead; it won’t do our controller, our wallet, or even ourselves any good if we angrily bounce our controller against the wall. Remember that in the end it’s just a game, and there’s no point in getting so worked up that it damages our console or controller.
To conclude…
Aside from the obvious not to throw your PS5 against the wall, there’s a lot to consider here in terms of what we should avoid doing with our console.
Not all of them are obvious, so it is useful to know that some of our actions can sometimes present a risk; If you take into account all the points developed above, you should easily rule out a good part of the risk of damaging your console.
