Question Odd discoloration at the bottom of my screen

[Zloth]

I'm seeing something odd on my old monitor that wasn't there before I got my new computer. Along the bottom of the monitor, there's a band of discoloration. It looks a little like water damage does at the bottom of a wall. The discoloration is whatever the background color is but lighter: light green for a green background, light grey for a grey background, no visible problem if there's a white background. Actually, there's no problem if the background is set to black, too.

The marks are consistent, even if I shut the machine off over night and start up again the next day.

Monitor is a ROG PG278QR.

I've never seen anything like this before. The discoloration are really close to the bottom (the tallest one is about the height of my mouse pointer arrow) so it isn't really causing any issues, but I've got no idea how something like that happens!

 

[Colif]

can you take some photos so we know what you are seeing?

its not like this obviously as you say black is fine

link from https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/rog-swift-pg279q-discoloration.2496750/

Maybe its is the screen driver - https://rog.asus.com/au/monitors/27-to-31-5-inches/rog-swift-pg278qr-model/helpdesk_download

 

[Zloth]

I can sorta make a picture.

The shape is right but the brightness is WAY off in the picture, that's a dark grey background and the discoloration is light grey. You can see my mouse pointer a bit left of center to get a sense of scale.

It looks downright biological to me.

 

[Brian Boru]

It looks a little like water damage

It looks downright biological to me

Hmm. Do you run one of those aquarium-like screensavers? Obvious candidate to cause that, right?

If that's not it…

I assume you're running the screen at its recommended resolution—ie in Settings it says "(Recommended)" beside your choice.

What happens if you change the vertical number of the resolution? Say you're running 1920x1080, try the next lowest so you have a smaller number than 1080.

wasn't there before I got my new computer

What's different now from the way the monitor used to connect to your old PC? Cable, port, graphics card…

Can you attach it to another PC to see what you get? If no problem, note differences in connection.
On a similar vein, can you attach a different monitor to your new PC?

Soldiering on, change the ports the cable is using on the TV and on the graphics card—do this one at a time. Try a different cable.

It's all about trying to narrow down what isn't the problem.

The marks are consistent, even if I shut the machine off over night and start up again the next day

Are the marks there from switch on, or do they take some time to appear?

How old is the monitor? Anytime I've had artifacts appear on a screen, it got worse over time—so monitor slowly failing is my opening guess.

 

[Zloth]

Ahhhh! I changed resolution WAY down and the pattern didn't change in the slightest!

Post is all black so I can't tell for sure if it's happening then, but another affect (bits of green right on the bottom row) is happening.

I'll give big odds that it's the monitor failing in some way. That's kinda annoying, as I believe it's still only around five years old. It didn't get bumped around or anything, so I'm not sure why there's a problem, but there it is. I've never seen a monitor fail like that, but it's not like I've seen many monitors fail at all.

Thanks!

 

[Brian Boru]

I've never seen a monitor fail like that

I've only had a couple—one a TV—fail around the 5-7 year mark. Fairly quick demise once the artifacts started—in both cases, flashing lines in a section of the screen. Friends monitors have failed similarly in similar timeframes, while others have soldiered on for 10+years.

You're fine for now, it's a minor thing, but if it gets progressively worse, assume it's time is almost up.

 

[Colif]

tried a different cable?
tried it on another PC to see if its same?

i haven't had a monitor screen die on me yet. Only had to replace one screen due to damage and that was my fault. The power button stopped working so screen wouldn't turn on - silly me hated fact the standby light would flash all night in my room so I would turn it off. Last Samsung Monitor I just lived with it... current LG has its light off by default. Darkness at last.

All my non CRT screens had been Samsung until last year.. I know 1st was a Syncmaster in 2003 or something with a tiny screen (compared to what I have) and I may have had 2 or3 more in-between that and the 4k screen I replaced last year. I know I had used one for a long time until I got the 4k screen.

 

[Zloth]

You're fine for now, it's a minor thing, but if it gets progressively worse, assume it's time is almost up.

I am strong in the Force, I have no need for such crude things as monit.... OK, yeah I do.

tried a different cable?
tried it on another PC to see if its same?

Nah. The cable goes behind the cabinet and around through a rat's nest of wires. Moving it around or swapping cables takes some work. Given that resolution doesn't change anything and the shape, my guess is that heat or something has damaged the actual screen. If it gets worse and I have to buy a new one, I'll definitely double check before buying.

 

[Brian Boru]

swapping cables takes some work

Phew, that was close! Be thankful it isn't a cable going bad…

 

[Zloth]

The discoloration eventually covered the bottom of the screen and began growing upward. It started out with the peaks being about the size of my mouse pointer and grew to over twice the mouse pointer's height. Then, it vanished completely.

Oooookay? <shrug> Everything is fine now.

 

[Brian Boru]

Everything is fine now

Very weird. But woohoo

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

The discoloration eventually covered the bottom of the screen and began growing upward. It started out with the peaks being about the size of my mouse pointer and grew to over twice the mouse pointer's height. Then, it vanished completely.

Oooookay? <shrug> Everything is fine now.

IT HAS ESCAPED THE CAGE