One of the more frustrating PlayStation 5 firmware issues is how, when you have a disc inserted, it’ll spin it every hour and make a load of noise. While the console is generally very quiet during operation, its Blu-ray slot can be extremely loud; this is mostly fine when you’re installing something, but when it randomly kicks up during gameplay it can be distracting.
With the release of PS5’s new system software update, we’ve observed a change – although not an outright fix. The next-gen platform will still spin the disc, but the operation volume is much quieter. We’ve been able to corroborate this with other discussions around the web, so it doesn’t appear to be anecdotal or a placebo effect – the noise is definitely muted somewhat.
Obviously it would be better if this didn’t happen at all, but for now this tweak does appear to be an acknowledgement of the problem. In other news, we just deleted a couple of PS4 games and didn’t spot any annoying grey boxes left behind – we’ll continue to test this, but so far it’s looking like this problem has also been resolved.
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More good news
Is the drive as loud when watching a blu ray? Or does it just go mad when it's installing shed loads of data
Thank God. I feel like this went off every half hour whenever I played disc games.
@ralphdibny Irritatingly, my experience is that it'll spin every hour whenever you have a disc in, regardless of what you're doing on the console.
It's a nuts issue really, they still need to properly fix it. This is an improvement, but still not where it needs to be really.
@ralphdibny It is really random, I only notice it when a game disc is in but I have rarely used it to watch films so can't know for sure. It improved for me on the last patch in that it was less frequent. It does not seem to be related to any downloading just when a game disc is in the drive 🤔
Keen to confirm this is improved.
Ohhhh, is it every hour then? I did wonder why it was doing it.
Why are they removing features? 🤔
@munstre bizarrely after updating the controller it said I had no battery left despite it being 3 bars before the update! It does now have a nice little lightening sign when the battery is low instead of just flashing but I am hoping the charging issue has gone away as I now charge only via the back USB port which is bonkers!
I'll check this later, won't believe it till I don't hear it with my own ears.
Sounds like Sony make the PS5 check to make sure a legit game is in the console once an hour.
Must be a combat piracy thing.
Hmm mine still span noisily on the dashboard about 5 mins after updating. I'll obviously check this evening after work when playing. It would be great if this is the case!
I had just seen this article, I thought to myself, "Huh, I actually haven't heard it spin since the update," and then it started to spin.
@Shepherd_Tallon Was the spin any quieter?
"A lot of noise"? I mean, I noticed that the drive was reading the disc, but I would hardly say it's "a lot of noise".
The Dreamcast made a lot of noise, the PS5 isn't even close.
Making the unnecessary spinning more quiet doesn't sound like much of a fix to me.
I've never heard anything spinning.. ah wait I have Digital Edition.. =)
@get2sammyb It's odd - I was just coming on to edit my post to say it's spun again but it's significantly quieter. But then as I was typing this the speed and noise increased briefly before stopping.
I'm transferring some games to an external drive at the same time.
I always noticed my PS5 doing this right on the hour. Hopefully when I play P5S tonight it'll at least help with the noise, even though it only lasts about 10 or so seconds.
Yah it's loud. Those of us that experience the constant rev up of the disc drive and are honest with ourselves can admit it's a loud interruption. Louder than anything I've heard on any other console or pc. I'll test mine post update in a few and post experience in here.
@GamingFan4Lyf never had a dreamcast but when the disk in my ps5 spins it sounds like it’s just about to launch to outer space.
@get2sammyb ahh that's so annoying. I do wonder how much they can actually do in terms of making the drive quieter but at the very least they should only require a spin when the game boots up as the physical DRM check and get rid of all the willy nilly hourly spins. I'm sure the PS4 just boots you out of the game if you take the disc out anyway. Surely the process should just be Spin on Boot > Suspend game if eject button is pressed
@Mostik ah fair enough. It's a really weird problem. I am interested to know if the noise is as noticeable when it's spinning a movie disc for 2+ hours. I mean, if you can hear it over the speaker sound in a game once an hour then surely blu rays must be unwatchable if it's spinning constantly? So weird, hopefully they improve it more!
@Cheems Interesting. Maybe I got lucky with my console being quieter? I mean, I notice it accessing the drive, but it's no worse than anything else I own with a disc drive.
It is not a launch console (I got it about a month ago). Maybe that make a difference?
@Fatewalker
You stole my gag. You're right though the Digital Edition is pretty much silent constantly. Mines not a launch one though, I got mine about 4 weeks ago.
@munstre i use the front one to charge the headset and it’s fine. I’m nearly sure I’ve used it to charge PS4 controllers before as well.
I always play with a headset so I’ve never noticed this.
@Total_Weirdo
Microsoft spared no expense on their drive housing. The thing is supported on rubber bushings that would make a Jeep’s sway bar bushing blush.
I feel Sony needed to reduce cost somewhere, and the disc drive is where they cheaped out at. It’s just as loud as my PS4’s drive was.
@gingerfrog Cool, congratz. I was lucky to get mine at launch day
The disc is spinning for like 10 seconds every hour, that means it's spinning 1/360 of the time
Don't get why people were complaining about that. Still nice that they reduced it ofc
@God_of_Nowt ahh fair enough. Good stuff yeah that explains it! Cheers for the detailed response!
Mine is still super loud, I might just send it in then to get a replacement. The disc spinning is so wierd though. Super quiet during watching blu-ray but when ever I install a DIGITAL game the disc drive sounds like my vacuum.
@mariomaster96 because it doesn't need to spin at all?
It’s is annoying and a stupid thing to be left of fixing properly, then again Sony are the same with updates on blu ray players and TVs.
Sometimes you don’t even get an update.
My switch has no disc issues 😂😂😂
@munstre I've never had a problem with that. Is it a common issue?
@Dislecksier That's true but I still think complaining about something that happens only for 10 seconds per hour is exaggerated, especially since it's not that loud imo
@GamingFan4Lyf I tried my Dreamcast recently, wow, that fan and the disc reader making that grinding sound... I forgot how noisey it was!
@munstre Good luck, mate!
@munstre - You have to make sure the Front USB ports are powered and that you got the correct charging cable. Same goes when updating Dualsenses
@Total_Weirdo - Its not, it very clunky
@The_New_Butler no doubt they will and by that time they will be readily available too 👍👍
@YeoSprings yes for sure this is definitely DRM checking imo
I wouldn't say it is extremely loud on my console, it is definitely noticeable but nowhere near load as my PS4 could get at times.
I find the PS5 loud not PS4 loud but annoying might be coil whine
My disc drive spun when I booted up but hasn’t spun again since I’ve turned it on and I’ve been playing Disco Elysium for a good couple of hours. Hoping this is fixed!
Wonder if it would be any different if I was playing a disc game?
Edit: classic timing. Posted this and then the disc spun. It is far far quieter than it was before however it did seem to spin for a good 30-40 seconds longer than it did before. This is utterly bizarre. Just stop it spinning altogether!
PS5 is so ugly I have mine wired up from a little comms / utilities cupboard. Upside of not wanting to see it has been hot hearing it. Although it makes playing from or swopping disks a bit of a pain its worth it until I have a better way of hiding it away.
You guys only get it every hour? Mine spins up like every 20 minutes. =[
@Total_Weirdo I feel after the whole 360 red ring of death. Microsoft was so terrified of that happen again. That ever since then their console design and quality have really stepped up,.
Reminds me of the Amiga doing it floppy disc 'chug' where it was checking to see if a disc had been inserted since last time. Think there was a little start-up utility that that you could add which stopped it clicking.
Mine still spins but as noted oddly it's a quieter spin..... It's still noisy at bootup or when in actual use.
@get2sammyb I ended up just taking the disc out (when I could) more often than not and assumed they were not so corralling us to an all digital future
@GamingFan4Lyf
I think there are a lot of variables here, most importantly where the PS5 is placed, and if its vertical or horizontal. I have mine placed on a "floating" (mounted to the wall) TV stand, horizontally; and it sounds like a Jet Engine when it spins up, its easily as loud as the Dreamcast if not louder. Using a stable TV stand (floor based) that can disperse the vibrations into the floor and putting it in vertical position where it's more stable and has less surface contact, would likely dramatically reduce the noise.
@get2sammyb
I think its placebo effect still. I have seen no noticeable reduction in the noise since the update.
I canNOT believe the b.s. we complain about now days, omg disc spinning Im distracted, GTFO soy boy
@thedevilsjester Mine is vertical and it's placed on the bottom most shelf of my entertainment center (the only place it can sit vertically after removing the shelf above it) - there is also a Series X next to it in the vertical position, so maybe that's helping to absorb some sound as well (i.e. the PS5 isn't practically sitting in an empty cave).
Whatever the reason, I am glad mine doesn't periodically sound like a jet engine. I am sorry that other's do, though and I hope the "disc read bug" get's addressed soon.
I must admit that really annoyed me a lot :-/ Not updated yet so hopefully it's better
@HuJack007
Yeah, if only we all only cared about the exact things you care about; and nothing more.
Its not just some small nit-picky thing. It can be extremely loud. It can easily drown out the sound in games, shows, and movies; and if you have your system set to auto update, it can easily wake you up in the middle of the night when the update reboots your system and decides to read the disc for no real reason (something I learned the hard way)
The worst part for me was that I usually use my PS5 to stream, either YouTube, Netflix etc. and when the loud disc spinning would kick in, it was really noticeable because I'm not playing a game but watching something that sometimes aren't quite that loud.
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