TLDR: PS5 (CFA-1216A) started constantly crashing in games with CE-108255-1 error. After that It started happening in the main menu. I don’t have a warranty, so I am trying to find someone who can give me a clue on where the issue lies so I can either fix or replace something myself, or sell a kidney to take it to the shop and ask them to re-solder every component in hopes of fixing this.
Now, the whole story:
This ps5 was working fine for me for just over a month, then it started crashing in the game (once in 2 days or something, didn’t think much of it). After a few days it started crashing a few times per day, which is when I decided that maybe it needs an update. After the update it started crashing much more (2-3 times per hour). After a few more days it started crashing just when the game starts loading, and eventually it came down to crashing IN THE MAIN MENU. But after the black screen it loads back in and starts loops through this process. Fortunately, after a couple of reboots this issue dies out, but the games still do not open. But I have found that this is only true for ps5 games, ps4 games seem to be fine. After leaving it for a week (without the cord in), it crashed a few times and stopped for 5 days, after which the same symptoms appeared again. Sometimes crashes just give you an error (if it is a game) or restart the main menu, but sometimes it just freezes until you hard reboot.
What I have tried (none of these helped):
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Clearing cache and rebuilding the database
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Reinstalling the os (including the option with the usb and data deletion a few times)
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Cleaning it without removing (as much as I could without removing the warranty sticker. Why? because there is no way I am selling it even to a repair shop for parts without it, people have no trust). It was clean, but I did it just to make sure.
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Leaving it upside down for a few days. I used it horizontally because of the issues some people had with liquid metal pouring out, so I suspected that maybe something similar happened in this case as well and flipping it will kinda reverse it (don’t judge, I am desperate at this point :))
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Taking both side panels off and blasting two large fans in it. I did this to rule out overheating.
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Changing the HDMI cable, power cable, and even the controller to Dualshock 4. I have also tried two monitors (one of them is 4k, other 1080p) and a 1080p TV.
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Turning it on without HDMI plugged in, in case it is a problem with HDMI. I have checked that it still crashed by literally listening to the sounds of main menu through the controller’s headphone jack (when it crashes, the main menu sound stops and after a few seconds you hear the “opening the user” sound).
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Turning off WiFi, sleep mode and other bs that is recommended.
I think this problem is not related to overheating, as it does not sound like a jet engine and I never had any frame drops or accompanying messages. There were artifacts, but I would rather attribute them to ones which occur when the HDMI signal is suddenly lost, and not faulty GPU, because they are constant and freeze forever until you reboot. Also, an important thing to note is that neither graphical settings nor resolution affect the issue in any way, so I doubt that this has something to do with PS5 not being able to “Handle” more demanding tasks (yeah, like opening the main menu :))
What I think it might be:
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An issue with the OS install. Maybe some problematic files are not reinstalled when you install the OS even from USB and I need to wait for a full on update to install a newer version from USB. But when it will come out? IDK. Also, crashes seem to appear more frequently just when the notification appears on screen, which is kinda sus. In addition to that, I had no crashes in safe mode.
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Power supply issue. Maybe it just can’t supply enough wattage for the APU to work stably so it has to crash after some fatal miscalculations. But again, IN MAIN MANU in 1080p?
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RAM issue. Maybe one of the memory chips has a broken bit or something, which is fine when it is not used, but when PS5 tries to address it, it crashes. So when it is working fine, I am just very lucky I guess…
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WiFi issue. When reinstalling the OS I have noticed that it crashed when doing the initial setup on the step where you put the wifi password in. Maybe a coincidence, but skipping this step enabled me to finish adding the account. But I also could add wifi later. In addition, I had some crashes before the “choose user” screen appeared right when the “could not connect to your network” notification appeared. This was a 3 second lag before loading as normal.
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HDMI controller issue. Nothing to add, maybe it just needs to be changed.
I have contacted a local technician with this problem, and his response was “yep, this is a common problem, we use those for parts” 
. I have not found anyone online with such an issue, but maybe some of you saw something similar. Just give me an idea, that would be much appreciated. I don’t have a repair shop and at best can call myself an amateur, so I don’t have any fancy tools or donors lying around, so any bit of info will help.
I do have a video, but I can’t include links so DM me if you want them I guess
. And this controller is $50 here, not including the job that I obviously can’t do myself.