Here's What Happens If You Mod a Disc Drive In PS5 Digital Edition

PS5 Digital doesn't come with a disc drive but what if you tried to mod one into it? Someone was crazy enough to try it and share their findings on YouTube.

[bestofyou]

Save yourself some time, it doesn't work.

[darthv72]

Did you see where he kept putting the disc in upside down? There were lots of comments to that affect.

[bestofyou]

I thought maybe he was inserting it upside down but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought maybe that drive was installed the right way.

[Eonjay]

Even if he was putting it in the right way it still shouldn't work. We know this because there are videos on YouTube from a while back were people tried and it failed. I believe it fails even on the Disc PS5.

[Seraphim]

I watched this the other day. If I recall in the first comment he says that he realized the disc was being inserted upside down and tried the right way w/o any change. As someone else mentioned, this video is from several months back as well. Regardless, that was a lot of hassle, imo, to even try getting a disc drive to register. For those who haven't watched he had to remove a few pieces from the donor board onto the digitals board. So even if possible this isn't something easily done by anyone not well versed in soldering and working on boards.

[dumahim]

Yeah, I think someone tried this right after it launched and found it didn't work. This isn't new.

[Orchard]

It's obvious that this wouldn't work...

[darthv72]

I have a feeling that it would but usually the optical drives are paired with the motherboard via fw. Physically it fits and he can get the disc to spin but the motherboard wont see it because it lacks the fw to support it (let alone pair with it).

[Orchard]

Yeah... the motherboard pairing is also a fundamental part of anti-piracy, so it would be a huge oversight on Sony's part if this actually worked - with an official or unofficial drive.

[StoneyYoshi]

I think if he reinstalled the FW it could potentially work. The installation process probably goes through a component verification process so once it detects the disk drive then maybe it would allow disk use. Its a lot of trouble to figure it out but since this guy already did the hard part, he should also give that a try.

[darthv72]

If he could dump the fw from the original motherboard that the drive came from and then flash it to the digital board... it might work. As then the optical drive fw would see the matching flag in the motherboard fw.

[Orchard]

Probably not. Disk drives have been per-unit paired to motherboards since the PS3/360 days, the out of box setup on a console isn't like a Windows installer where it detects and installs drivers for anything you have attached.

You'd need a FW mod, like people used to do with the 360.

[anast]

There is an huge divide between gamers and entertainers. Most gamers can't even find a PS5 and entertainers are taking sledge hammers to them.

[b3l0kk]

of course it would not work.... why would you even try?!?!

[darthv72]

Thing is... it will work, but there is more that needs to be done to achieve it. Namely the firmware that both the board and drive use to see each other. That is still missing from the equation.

[Hawk198666]

I wonder how much interest Sony would get if they brought out a disc drive for it. Or allowed some to be compatible.

[DJStotty]

Probably criticism more so than interest if they allowed plug and play external BD drives, because then what is the point of a digital edition?

[blackblades]

Speaking of disk drive, just hopped on ps3 after so long. Now my diss drive isnt working so good. I think if I put in a disc in it'll get stuck. Makes me wanna take back that I'm for both physical and digital and go all digital.

[dbcoops]

Really thought they were going to say it opens a rift in the time space continuum,oh well.

[ScootaKuH]

It wasn't crazy, it was stupid. Of course it wasn't going to work