Video Games Are Exposing A Major Weakness Of LG OLED TVs — Here's How
PC gaming has many advantages — for instance, you can outfit your rig with graphics cards that are more powerful than those in modern consoles. However, building computers is now far costlier than it used to be. Not only are consoles cheaper than gaming PCs at the outset, but they're also generally consistent with their performance across different titles (not to mention the appeal of exclusives). Their graphics don't quite measure up to high-end PC graphics, but at least you don't have to worry about frying your GPU when you play games on console. You may, however, need to worry about games that can power cycle your TV, believe it or not.
On February 27, Capcom released the latest entry in the "Resident Evil" franchise: "Resident Evil: Requiem." Critics and players alike praised the game as another standout survival horror title from the company that essentially popularized the genre with the first installment of the franchise. However, a small percentage of players encountered a strange issue: Firing the Requiem — a powerful magnum assault revolver in the game — made their OLED television sets restart. One of the first people to catalog this issue was Reddit user yorgo332 on r/LGOLED, who encountered the power cycling glitch on their LG C1 OLED TV.
Unfortunately, this issue isn't limited to that specific TV set — or even to a single game. Another user on r/LGOLED, RandomGamer414, posted videos of their LG G5 OLED power cycling while playing "Cronos: The New Dawn." Only this time, instead of a white-hot muzzle flash causing the monitor restart, it was a fiery explosion that took up a large part of the screen.
Nobody really knows what's causing the problem, but people have ideas
At the time of writing, LG has not acknowledged or made any announcements about this issue. Instead, r/LGOLED commenters have been collectively sussing out the most likely explanation. Many people have narrowed it down to one of two possible causes, although there's seemingly no universally applicable solution.
Some commenters blamed the TV's power supply. Since the Requiem produces an intense muzzle flash across the screen — and rendering bright white light consumes more energy on OLED screens — the train of thought backing the hypothesis was that the gunfire animation tried to draw more energy than the TV's power supply could handle. Several other users corroborated this theory, claiming they ran into the same issue with LG G5 OLEDs, although one person allegedly fixed the problem by plugging the device into a separate power strip. Others claimed their G5 TVs did not suffer from the power cycling problem, however. The other most likely explanation was that the extreme muzzle flash produced a massive voltage spike (again, because of the energy needed to produce the effect), so the TV protected itself by restarting.
Reddit user yorgo332 was among the first to document the problem occurring with "Resident Evil: Requiem." But in a separate post on r/LGOLED, fellow Reddit user RandomGamer414 alleges that LG has known about the defect for years and has done nothing about it. RandomGamer414 also amassed links to numerous posts made by other gamers who have encountered the LG power cycling fault while playing other games, including "Borderlands 3," "Halo: The Master Chief Collection," and "Rocket League." So, if you're a gamer planning on buying an OLED TV in 2026, you may want to think twice about purchasing models in LG's lineup for the time being.