PG27AQDM – OLED panel damage after firmware update / white haze and signal loss (post-warranty)

[Yandoro]

Hi everyone,

I'm encountering serious problems with my ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM – and they seem to be getting worse with the latest firmware.

About a month after my warranty expired, I woke up to find a white haze across the entire screen, with visible pixel artifacts and shadow-like burn-in – despite the monitor being turned off overnight. The issue came out of nowhere.

I’ve taken every precaution:

• I installed the latest firmware (MCM110)

• I run Pixel Cleaning regularly

• Burn-in prevention settings were always enabled (Logo Brightness, Screen Move, etc.)

Initially, Pixel Cleaning helped, but only for a short time. A few hours later, the issue came back. Even ASUS's own firmware update window left a burn-in-like shadow after just a few minutes – that should never happen.

To make things worse, I now experience random signal loss in fullscreen mode on MCM110. I had similar issues on the older firmware (MCM105), but it's disappointing that these bugs still persist.

Honestly, I love the panel’s image quality and would love to buy another ASUS OLED. But it’s frustrating to see this level of instability and panel degradation more than 2 years after release – especially right after the warranty runs out.

This feels like a deeper hardware or firmware-related issue, not typical OLED wear.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks in advance,

[Silent_Scone]

Hi @Yandoro 

Do you have any photos videos of the behaviour? I'm assuming running pixel cleaning manually a few times doesn't resolve this?

Not to interject with the "Works on my machine" achievement, but I've had the AQDM for well over 2 years now, and it's still going strong - I've never experienced any noticeable burn-in on my sample. It's been my only desktop OLED thus far for daily drive.

[Yandoro]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I do plan to upload a photo next time the issue appears. Last time, I didn’t manage to capture it because Pixel Cleaning (manually run) actually helped briefly – but only on the latest firmware (MCM110). On the older firmware (MCM105), Pixel Cleaning did not help at all.

The burn-in or retention-like effect seems more like sticky pixels than traditional OLED burn-in. It looked very similar to what another user posted here:
👉 https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-monitors/pg27aqdm-insane-image-retention/m-p/1019932?lightbox-m...

Additional problem with MCM110:

Since updating to MCM110, I’ve started getting serious alt-tab issues:

• When switching between fullscreen games and desktop (dual monitor setup), the PG27AQDM often goes black for several seconds

• Sometimes the screen doesn’t recover at all – I have to turn the monitor off and on to regain signal

• The message says “No signal from DisplayPort”, even though the PC is still running

This never happened on MCM104 or MCM105 to this extent.
MCM105 and before had some signal hiccups too, but it was less severe and at least the screen always came back. Ironically though, MCM105 gave me the image retention problem.

Actually, this problem has been present and worsening with every firmware update, including 105 and earlier versions as well as the latest ones. It’s disappointing that this never got fixed by firmware updates.

If I had known earlier that these issues were firmware-related and not hardware defects, I would have sent the monitor in for RMA much sooner. But since I thought ASUS would fix these problems with updates — and because the monitor was still relatively new — I held off.

At this point, I’m also unsure whether this is a hardware defect or a firmware/software issue.

[Silent_Scone]

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@Yandoro wrote:

Actually, this problem has been present and worsening with every firmware update, including 105 and earlier versions as well as the latest ones. It’s disappointing that this never got fixed by firmware updates.

If I had known earlier that these issues were firmware-related and not hardware defects, I would have sent the monitor in for RMA much sooner. But since I thought ASUS would fix these problems with updates — and because the monitor was still relatively new — I held off.

At this point, I’m also unsure whether this is a hardware defect or a firmware/software issue.

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If it was getting worse after every update, you should certainly have contacted service - I'm not sure there's any getting around that, unfortunately. I'd definitely upload a video and photos so service can see and comment on the behaviour, though.

[Wadeowen555]

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Firmware MCM110 introduced fullscreen signal loss for multiple users. Happens mostly during resolution switches or when launching games. Rolling back to MCM105 reduced the frequency, but didn't fully fix it.
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[PWN3D_]

Yeah for the signal lost issue, I think your are getting hit by the unfamous "stand-by" bug that was introduced with firmware MCM106. It's I believe a deep sleep/handshake issue between the GPU and monitor. Have been any update on it yet even though it has been reported on multiple occasions before : 
PG27AQDM Stand-by bug in MCM107 still persists - Republic of Gamers Forum - 1030278
Has the PG27AQDM been abandoned? - Republic of Gamers Forum - 1043977

@Silent_Scone can you please report this?

[Silent_Scone]

That isn't what the OP is seeing.

Could you link me to a post where you've reported this? It's possibly a replication issue from service side.

My system can go to sleep maybe upward of 10-15 times a day, depending on what I'm doing elsewhere. Only the PG27AQDM is connected as a display; I have never experienced any issues with the system waking from sleep.  

[PWN3D_]

Hi,

I've linked you on the previous post two full threads of users talking about it and all of them are seing a change in behaviors from this monitor when it is updated to MCM106 and up.

Re: Has the PG27AQDM been abandoned? - Page 10 - Republic of Gamers Forum - 1043977

[Silent_Scone]

Sorry, thought you had individual case info.

You can forward me any correspondence you've had with service if that's the case.

[Yandoro]

Just to update:
Since switching back to MCM103, all issues with the screen randomly going black (especially after alt-tabbing or switching between full screen and desktop) have completely disappeared. Everything is working as it should now. No more “No Signal” errors, no forced monitor reboots – it’s finally stable.

Unfortunately, by going back to MCM103 I’m now missing out on all the newer features introduced in later firmwares, like improved HDR tone mapping, G-Sync anti-flicker, and other performance updates.

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About the burn-in / sticky pixels:

The weird "burn-in-like" effect hasn't happened again since the last time. I’m honestly not sure whether it was temporary image retention, sticky pixels, or an early sign of panel degradation – but it's gone for now.
Still, this whole thing made me unsure whether it’s a hardware defect or just buggy firmware behavior.

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It’s a bit disappointing that these firmware issues are still present after almost 2.5 years of updates. I honestly thought they would get fixed eventually – that’s why I didn’t RMA the monitor while it was still under warranty.
But now I realize I might not be the only one dealing with this.

If ASUS wants to investigate further, I’d be more than happy to send videos or logs to help track this down.
It would be really great if future firmware updates could address these lingering problems without forcing users to choose between features and stability.

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Let me know if anyone else has found a good compromise firmware version – or if ASUS is already working on a fix.