So what's up with the PS5's noisy and erratic disc drive?

[ScOULaris]

I've had my PS5 for about two years now, I think, and I've always been generally happy with how quiet it tends to be while in operation. It was one of the biggest improvements over the dumpster fire that was the PS4 Pro with its jet-engine fan noise, as the PS5's fan and coil whine are pretty much silent in my experience.

It's not always like that, however. Whenever a disc is inserted into my PS5, all bets are off. It's different depending on which disc it is, but the disc drive tends to be worryingly loud and odd sounding whenever a disc is spinning inside. Usually the disc will spin loudly for the first five minutes or so of booting up my system before mercifully stopping and letting me play whatever game I'm on in sweet silence. But with some discs (like Hogwarts Legacy for example) the disc will just spin indefinitely and very loudly.

Does my unit have some kind of one-off issue with its disc drive, or are others experiencing the same thing? I mean this thing might even give the Dreamcast's infamously noisy optical drive a run for its money.

 

[Rimkrak]

At least your disc drive keeps playing ps5 discs.
My day one ps5 decided it was above doing so around a month ago and now only accepts reading ps4 discs :(

 

[Kunka Kid]

Yep, it's crazy loud for the first minute or so when you have a disc in. Then it quiets down.

 

[Scheris]

On startup and for a minute or so, it goes off like a jet engine when my KH HD 1.5+2.5 disc is in there.

Generally is quiet after that, but randomly will spin up every so often.

 

[QuigleyMcShine]

Psy-ops to get you to go all digital.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

There's a stupid bad design flaw in the way the removable outer shell touches the top of the optical drive case inside. If you press gently on the right spot while the drive is spinning, it stops rattling the shell. Depending on manufacturing variances, some systems quiet down when vertical.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Mine is loud for about 30 seconds when I put a disc in then it's silent, but I have a buddy who can hear his for long long periods of time.

 

[IDreamOfHime]

It's the random spin ups it does that annoys me. I'm watching Twitch, why are you spinning up for a few seconds?!

 

[cursed knowledge]

Psy-ops to get you to go all digital.

Click to shrink...

unironically this

 

[Jedi2016]

Mine only spins while it's doing its "verification check" on the disc, then it spins down and it's dead quiet for the rest of the time.

My only gripe is that it spins up the disc even when you're starting a completely different, digital game. It spins it up when you insert the disc or boot the system with the disc already inserted, from there it should just "know" what disc is present and never have to spin it again (even for that game) unless you swap it for another disc.

 

[Lump]

I'm convinced it was on purpose to make us want to go all digital. The noise is wild.

When I first got it I just left PS4's FF7Remake in there so I could just boot the PS5 version whenever I needed. I was so happy when it came out on PSN and then later I just got it as part of the Rebirth Twin pack.

 

[Cassius Bright]

My Series X disc drive is just as bad.

 

[Duxxy3]

Why does a disk check take so frickin long to do? It's not like the games are run from the disks themselves anymore.

 

[Lampa]

Oh you don't want to know how loud it was on launch.

I'm installing a game as I type this and it is very audible, but whenever I actually play it's fine. Most annoying part is how loudly it spins when you boot up the console.

 

[behOemoth]

I recently found a 52x CD Drive at work. That's a jet engine! The PS5 is some vibrating loud mess in comparison.

 

[Linus815]

my launch day ps5 genuinely sounds like its broken when i install something. "luckily" 90% of my library is digital, but still

 

[BourbonJungle]

I almost started a thread about this the other day!

I'd love to use my PS5 as a Blu Ray movie player but regardless of what type of disc I put in the system, if I don't eject it immediately once I stop playing the disc it will get stuck in the PS5 requiring a reboot in safe mode to eject.

I'm mostly fine going digital for gaming, but I have a bunch of movies and TV shows i'd love to watch on the system, but after having upgraded the hard drive I really didn't want to send it in for repair, and am now probably way outside warranty.

Hoping the PS5 Pro has a more functional disc drive and i'll transition over mostly to play UHD blu rays I've never watched.

 

[Cassius Africanus]

Ha! Disc Drive? My PS5 disc drive is in mint condition. Never been used.

 

[denpanosekai]

It's not only loud but also vibrating as hell

I put my ps5 on some cork pad (used to put hot pots on) and it sort of reduces the vibration.

Mine is horizontal. Is vertical just as bad?

 

[fadedbones]

Regret my launch PS5 with how damn noisy it is. If it isn't the constant clunking and vibrating when a disc is in, even when using media apps, then it's the outrageous coil whine. Bleh.