Most people know that smoking can do a lot of damage to a person's lungs, but based on a series of images, smoking can have devastating effects on a PlayStation 4. The console, when taken apart, revealed just how much harm smoke can do to the internals of a game console.
While the PS4 was a very popular game console, many players have reported over the years having their exhaust fans become very loud, and sometimes the consoles overheating as a result. While certainly not all of them are smokers, there's a good chance that smokers who own PS4s have increased the risk of fan or even hardware failures.
Redditor Polak5677 shared images of the PS4 in question on the PlayStation subreddit, simply stating that the console was owned by a smoker. As it turns out, Polak5677 was asked to clean up the console for the smoker, and they were stunned by what they found inside. The images show that the fan, vents, and even some of the internals are covered in orangey-brown dust and grime that looks stuck-on in some places. According to Polak5677, it didn't require much more to clean than an average dirty game console, but the system had a strong cigarette stench, indicating where the grime most likely originated from.
Additional images can be seen in the original post.
Users in the comments were quick to point out how smoking can often lead to walls and furniture becoming covered in similar tar-like material. Unfortunately, this kind of grunge has a way of permeating everything inside the home the smoke originated in, and several users pointed out that it's also part of why smoking is so hard on a person's lungs, as this same grunge is being breathed into their body. Needless to say, frequent smoking indoors around PCs or other technology could have detrimental effects on the internal components and their ability to vent, which could lead to consoles like the PS4 overheating.
Smoking can be a difficult habit to give up, but for avid gamers, seeing the damage that can be done to a gaming system might be the push they need to try quitting. At the very least, those who smoke may want to consider heading outside to do it in order to help protect their computers and gaming systems. Those who have already smoked around their units might want to seek out someone like Polak5677 to clean their game consoles or learn to do it themselves before any built-up residue ends up having an impact on the system's performance or overall functionality.