Vizio TV Won’t Turn On Unless I Unplug It? Here’s How To Fix It

Technology can be confusing sometimes, it’s so complicated that we get frustrated from trying to figure out something on our own, like how to find an option or turn off another, Vizio TVs have been around for some time now and people tend to buy them due to their low price and good quality compared to bigger brands like LG or Samsung.

One noticeable downside of Vizio TVs is their OS or operating system, a poorly designed operating system could lead to software issues, lags, bugs… etc.

One of these bugs is that the Vizio TV doesn’t turn on unless you unplug it first.

In this article, I lay out several solutions that could help fix this issue so follow along.

Power cycle the TV

The Vizio support page recommends doing this if you have a similar issue, so try this fix if the one above didn’t work out for you.

• Unplug the power cord from the outlet or the wall.
• Hold down the power button on the side of the TV for 3-5 seconds (I guess this step discharges the capacitors on the main board because these capacitors store some power even after you turn off the TV).
• Plug the TV’s power cord back in, and power on the TV.

Some TVs also have an option to ‘Soft Power Cycle’ in the menu. To access this feature, press the menu button and choose System > Reset & Admin > Soft Power Cycle.

Another way to soft reset your TV is by unplugging it from the wall and waiting 60 seconds before turning it back on, an extra step is to hold and press the TV’s power button while it’s off to discharge the stored power inside it.

Check for software updates

It’s always recommended to check for new updates to avoid any future issues like this one, updating the TV software isn’t that hard at all, depending on what remote or TV model you have, look for the Check for Updates option, make sure to have a stable internet connection first before doing so.

Here are the steps needed to update your Vizio TV to the latest firmware update:

1. Press Menu or V button on the remote.
2. Go to the System menu.
3. Select the Check for Updates option.

If the method above doesn’t work you can update your TV’s software manually using the steps below:

P.S: Make sure that your TV model is listed on this page before proceeding with the steps below, if your TV model isn’t listed on that page contact customer service and ask them if there’s a new software update available for your model. 

1. Download the new update from this link.
2. After you’ve successfully downloaded the zip file, extract it and place the extracted files onto a USB flash drive, the USB flash drive should be FAT formatted, make sure there’s nothing else on the USB flash drive other than the extracted files.
3. Turn the TV on and choose a different input until you see a message that says “No Signal”.
4. Insert the USB flash drive into the USB port.
5. A banner will appear at the top of the TV screen indicating the installation of a software update.
6. The TV will then reboot.
7. When the TV powers back on it should show a progress bar. When the progress bar is full, the TV should reboot again.
8. To verify the new software has been installed, press the menu button on your VIZIO remote and select System, then System Information. The Version should match the version mentioned on this page.

Reset your VIZIO Smart TV

This is the last thing you will have to do before contacting the support team or asking for a replacement if it’s still covered by warranty, resetting your Vision TV to factory defaults will delete any settings you’ve set or changed before so think twice before proceeding with this step.

As the Vizio support page recommends, these are the required steps to reset your TV to factory defaults.

1. Using the VIZIO remote, press the Menu button.
2. Use the Arrow buttons on the remote to highlight System and press OK.
3. Highlight Reset & Admin and press OK.
4. Highlight Reset TV to Factory Defaults and press OK.
5. If you have not manually reset the parental code, please input 0 0 0 0 when it asks for the password.
6. Highlight Reset and press OK.
7. Wait for the TV to turn off.

The TV will turn back on and the Setup App process will begin.

SmartCast TVs may also be able to be reset by pressing and holding the input and volume down buttons on the side of the TV. After 10-15 seconds a banner will pop up saying to press and hold the input button to reset the TV to factory defaults.

Change the power outlet

Maybe the power outlet your TV is connected to is going bad, what I mean by that is it’s not supplying it with enough power to turn it on properly, a good way to test this theory is to try v vvvva different power outlet, or, you can take this a bit further and test the entire house’s voltage using a voltmeter, a voltmeter is a device which is used to measure the voltage of a power outlet or the voltage between two points, in your case, it’s going to measure the voltage difference between the outlet’s two points.

Try a different power cord and HDMI cables

If you have another power cord lying somewhere in your house you could test it to see if the existing power cords haven’t gone bad, someone mentioned that bad HDMI cables can cause this type of problem.

Also, make sure that all cables are connected properly and aren’t loose.

Change the power supply board

In some cases like this, the reason could be the power supply board has gone bad, someone mentioned that it’s cheaper to replace the board instead of calling someone in to fix it, if you’re a tech-savvy you could try repairing it yourself, or buying a new board, the best option would be to let someone else with more experience do it for you, you don’t want to risk damaging the rest of your TV.

The graphics card board could be damaged too and needs to be replaced, a good technician should be able to tell what needs to be changed.

Contact the support team

If nothing from the solutions mentioned above worked then you should contact the support team either by phone, text messaging, or using their email or chat service, if it’s a serious problem like a hardware issue then I guess you can do nothing about it but ask for a replacement if it’s available.

If your TV is still brand new and you just got it then a good idea is to ask customer service to get a new one.

Conclusion

In this article, we tried to list some solutions to why your Vizio TV won’t turn on unless you unplug it first and then plug it back in, a weird issue that could make you scratch your head not knowing the real reason behind it, here is a recap of the things you can try in order to fix this issue:

1. Power cycle the TV.
2. Check for software updates.
3. Reset your VIZIO Smart TV.
4. Change the power outlet.
5. Try a different power cord and HDMI cables.
6. Change the power supply board.
7. Contact the support team.

Check all the Vizio TV accessories here

If you more questions or concerns please never hesitate to leave them down below.