Technology has no doubt come a long way over the years and continues to advance rapidly. Of course, it is far from perfect and there are a number of things that can go wrong with any given household appliance or gadget. There are some very impressive televisions on the market these days. Vizio, for example, offers an array of LCD, LED, and plasma models in all sizes. Any of these common Vizio TV problems may arise at any time throughout the life of the set.
Watch Related Repair Videos:
- Faulty Power Supply on a Vizio SV420XVT1a LCD Flat Screen
- $1 Fix for a Vizio E601i-A3 E-Series 60” Razor LED Smart TV
- Vizio E550i-B2 or M550i-B2 Issue: Has sound but no pictures
- How to Fix the Notorious Vizio Black Screen of Death
- Vizio Main Board Symptoms
Perhaps the most common complaint regarding Vizio TVs is the appearance of a blank black screen even when the set is switched on and the indicator light is glowing. The screen may still light up in some instances, but in either case the screen remains blank. This issue is usually corrected by replacing the power board, but there are several other things that could be the culprit, like the backlight converter, the T-con board, or even just a faulty screen itself. If a repair shop does not have all of the LCD TV parts that could possibly be causing the problem readily available, they may need to order them all in order to single out the guilty part, which can get rather pricey.
Faulty remotes are another common issue. This is one of the much easier and inexpensive Vizio TV problems to fix. Usually this is due to a bad IR sensor or a loose wire and the parts can generally be found online for less than 20 bucks. If the cause is unknown, just replacing the remote altogether is also fairly easy and of course less expensive than dealing with a problem with the TV itself.
Commonly reported Vizio TV problems also include sound-related issues. This may be a matter of faulty speakers or disconnected wires, which are both easily remedied. If it is an issue with the main unit, then it will be a little more difficult and expensive to fix.
There are many shops offering LCD TV repair services. Purchasing an extended warranty is usually advised to cover the cost of potential expensive repairs and replacements but you will need to rely on your judgment on whether the price of the extended warranty will truly be worth it (most of them are quite pricey).
Sources:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/home_electronics/vizio.html
http://www.amazon.com/forum/vizio/Tx1D1GJG19EOP3Q
‘Size wide screen’ just popped up on my Vizio 42″ LCD. Tried remote options but can’t get rid of it. Any suggestions?
My 48 in screen Vizio lasted 11/2 yr pd over 800.00.Stopped completely no power what so ever.Called company there reply I should have bought the extended warranty.I do not recommend buying one .model #M3D460SR / TlTMAKSAM3152325
My Vizio Model: E480i-B2 turns itself ON after power failures. The TV is one month old. I have logged 3 tickets with Vizio in which they say, RESET the TV, and then they promptly close the ticket with a status of resolved. Resetting the TV does nothing to fix it.
Has anyone else had this problem and figured out how to fix it. I am having to unplug the TV at night and when I go to work.
For anybody and everybody with a little electronics knowledge or willing to learn: unplug TV, carefully remove back cover, look for swollen or popped capacitors; if you see one you might as well replace them all. My Element Tv’s I think was only 7 or 8, my Polaroid took 15. Replacement capacitor kits can be had on ebay for your particular brand & model. They (tv mfg’s)have been using substandard capacitors for years.
No I am not in the business of buying, selling or repairing. I simply work on my own stuff. Amazing what you can learn on the internet.
My screen is white i can see the vizio symbol but its like a washed out white can u help me
I’m not getting what I paid for. The screen has narrowed the picture, by this I mean
there is a four inch black line on each side thus making the picture a thirty two inch
insteed of a forty plus . Can anyone explain this?
My 42″ T.V will not switch on either by the power switch or the remote . The VIZIO sign is in yellow so there is power to the T.V . Contacted Vizio and was told they could give me an offer on a new one … Cant somebody tell me how to fix this PLEASE
Most likely capacitor repair kit (ebay) and repair yourself if you know how to desolder & solder, if not find somebody that can do it for you.
We have a Visio 55 inch TV purchased a year ago. Just out of warranty it starts turning off and back on. This happens after its been on for 20-30 minutes. Best Buy says we should have purchased an extended warranty – no help there. Called Visio support and no help – they can tells us where to take it for repair. I think that taking it to E-waste is a better option. Has anyone had this problem? Could it be a power board?
Our 50″ Vizio smart TV just over a year old that started going on and off randomly, as time goes on it is more often, off for a few seconds to a few minutes and then comes back on. For a while it was the HDMI input that was cutting out and back on. Cable co said to change the old style AV connections, which did stop that problem, but now it just goes off and on. Sounds like this is a common problem. We’ve been blaming it on cable co…after reading this I think it may be the TV itself. Lesson learned.
Whenever I turn my 32″ Vizio flat screen on it has no sound and the mute function is not on. I have to turn the mute on and then off to get sound. I have tried reprogramming the sound under the menu function and it doesn’t help. I think that kids playing with the buttons on the control has caused this but not sure. Is there a series of commands with the control that can remedy this?
I purchased a 47 inch vizio led tv. Right now I am waiting to see picture on screen. I have waited a total of 2 hours and the screen is completely black. I only hear sound. Makes me want to throw something at the screen!!!
My Vizio E series 39’s coaxil input broke off up in the tv!
purchased a 70 inch 2-14 have ablack spot on the bottom going to the top about 8 inches what the f*%$ is that all about
I have a 42 ” VIZIO and it has a lot of red patches on it.
We just purchased one VIZIO 55 inch LED from Sam’s and out of box the flickering and dark patch on the screen were there. We are returning the item back the the warehouse today hopefully we can get an other one and test it in the store. Otherwise I will go for a Samsung hopefully better made
I have 4 Vizio tvs and just now had a problem with my 37 in working then just half a black screen it is a smart tv any help would be appreciated .
VIZIO TVs, especially their Smart TVs with Yahoo! platform, are JUNK! I’m not going to write an incredibly long discussion about why because a simple google search will reveal more than enough that has been said about the quality of TVs VIZIO produces. Most likely every bad comment you read is true because these are problems I have had with my VIZIO, which I thought was my bad luck. These problems are constantly recurring amongst hundreds of consumers and VIZIO does not have any care or response worth reading about their junk TVs. BASICALLY, I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER VIZIO TV NOR PRODUCT EVER AGAIN! I advise purchasing an LG, Samsung, or Sony TV. It’s better to spend the extra money than having to deal with the slew of hardware and software problems that come with VIZIO TVs.
1 year old Vizio 47″ lost external sound, basically 35 mins remaining on warranty; was able to talk to Vizio tech with 10 mins to go. Had me do a power reset and things worked fine for 1 week then gone again. unable to fix with power reset, emailed Vizio their reply was to do a audio factory default which I did. Did not work. Vizio running on internal speaker only. Have Samsung 50″, just today did the exact same thing, am also now running on internal speaker only; rear panel looks almost identical to Vizio so maybe best to not recommend Samsung. Tv mfgs have been using substandard capacitors for years now that causes picture problems and appears that they have no intentions of changing as most people will go out and buy a new TV. They are not held to the same standards as car manufacturers. As for me in the last 8 months I have bought capacitor (quality) repair kits, roughly $14.00, for 3 different TV’s and repaired them.
How do you do a power reset?
Cannot connect to netflix, what’s up?
Have only had this 60-inch E-series for 6 months, maybe 3 months ago it started randomly opening the menu, open and close, open and close… Now it’s constant , every two seconds. No other IR interference. WTF?
I have a 42 inch 3-D Vizio that when I first turn the TV on all I get is an inch of picture on the top of the screen the rest of the screen is black after warms up for 10 minutes the whole picture comes in what is the problem
i pressed the power button repeatedly untill the screen turned on… then proceeded to fix the door i broke in anger
Lmao! I’m glad I’m not the only one…
i got a vizio (39”) about two months ago. everytime i close my door the tv flickers. i know i dont have a faulty outlet because the old tv works fine. and now whenever i turn the tv off it stays black when i turn it on. i dont have the money to fix it, nor do i have a warranty.
What works for me: unplug the tv, plug it in and when the power light turns off press power and it should work.
its starting to work less and less and i just need a simple diy fix
Our Vizio 60″ TV was bought last DEC. 2013. 1 YEAR WARRANTY . We called due to capacitors popping about 3 months after we bought it. We heard it do the same thing 2 other times, the last time I called to report it, they had me reboot it.. Our contract would be up in 5 more months, so instead of the hassel, we decided to get the extended warranty for 119.00 dollars just to be on the safe side, cause you never know if the Vizio Co would honor the t.v. After the 1 year warranty.
Vizio GV42L HDTV was given to me by my daughter. The screen goes to blue and It is asking for a password. My daughter says there shouldn’t be a password on it. How can I reset it…also told to get a firmware update, how do I do this
37″, why can I only get channles3 thru 17, and then #70. We have cable but its not hooked up to the box, just the cable comming in. Other, older TV”s get all the way up to the 60″s hooked up this way. ??????
Our Vizio TV has stopped working???Black Screen!!!!! We probably haven’t had it on in all over 25 to 30 hours…Heard a lot of complaints about Vizio after this happened to ours… Will never buy Vizio again..
Sounds like we are all in the same bucket. My problem is I can shut it off and walk away. It starts back up by itself. Is this or could this be a fire hazard?
I have a 32″ Visio TV. The sound has stopped working on it when I turn it on. The tv is only a year and half old. Any fixes to this?
I have two Vizio tv’s one located in seperate rooms and every time I turn on one they both come on and if one is off and I turn the other off the other will come on. What can I do to help with this.
Gene
might have answer to that problem i read on vizio site that remotes have builtin wifi signal , same as using wifi on tv so remote doesnt have to be pointed directly at tv just around area to get signal , i have mine in my bedroom, hooked up to wireless wifi i went into my kitchen, other side of house,) passed my personal bathroom,another bedroom ,frontroo,.dinningroom then kitchen, then used remote to test to see if it would change channel or turn tv off it did, i was able to control tv from 5 rooms away, i only had one of there tvs so with you having two that might be why you can control both tvs at once your remote has the built in ability same as wifi signal, just be careful what you watch if little kids in home. i had friend who has two of these try this she was able to do as i just explained, we tried to see if both tvs could be contoled by same remote , first in kids room we turned on cartoons, then in her bedroom turn on different channel, both tvs would turn on and off but not change channel to show on same channel, then i thought what about if we take kids remote out of there room maybe remotes fighting eachothers signal for channel but not power, we removed kids remote , out of room, channels still not same so we took batteries out, we went in her room turned on different channel to see if it would change to be seen on both tvs and it did, kids tv turned from cartoons to her channel so she has to either get different brand of tv for one room or remove kids remoted battoes if her and her husband watch adult channel, or kids will see something they shouldnt, actually kind of fun ina way, during married fights or if wanting other activities, me and my husbands kids are all grown and moved out so i didnt tell him about this at first, got big one for frontrrom, when im mad at him , and hes watch football i can be in anywoom and turn the channel, or one night i was feeling frisky and turned his tv to naughty channel then back to his orginal channel back and forth until he FINALLY got the message,now we use this as a game to let hte other know, or use it to piss the other off, but i bet thats whats happening to yours. power can respond to either remote,channel to nearest,
tv is garbage 47 in sound gets very loud then set turns off then turns back on n is ok for awhile also once in awhile sound goes off n u have to change channel back n forth to get sound back
Surprise, surprise , surprise. Wait until the picture turns upside down there is no sound, the wording on the screen is backwards and the TV jumps from English to French. What a Nightmare.
We purchased a 42 or 46 inch Vizio for our Living room. a couple months later, we bought 3 of the 32 or 36 inch ones for our bedrooms. Our daughter recently moved out, tv was in original box during the move. All of a sudden, when she would turn tv on, she would get a white screen and tv turned itself off. Has anyone had problems with tv turning off immediately and a white screen? Thank you for your help!
Only half of the screen works!! Other half is stripes! Sometimes after it warms up for 30 minutes to an hour it MIGHT straighten up!
Leslie H,
Mine is doing the same thing. Just took it out of the box 15 mins ago. Did you find a solution?!
55 INCH VIZIO LED TV COMES FOR ABOUT 5 SECONDS THEN TURNS OFF
I had the same issue last night. Unplugged power plug on everything and let sit for a hour and replaced remote batteries. Turned back on and everything is fine.
55 INCH VIZIO LED TV COMES FOR ABOUT 5 SECONDS THEN TURNS OFF
65 Inch VIZIO Smart LED comes for 5 seconds shuts off ????
Just bought a 50 inch smart TV. My problem is the sound goes up ( really loud) then goes so low you can not hear it. Anyone else have this problem. Just bought it on Wednesday and had the problem right out of the box.
I just bought a 42″ Visio and I set the volume then the TV goes low then back to the setting. Then keeps doing this periodically. I tried all the sound options but it does it on all of the options.
I bought a 55 inch LED TV (6 months ago) and I will go and change the volume to only have the volume take off and get the loudest it can go…..only way to stop it is turn the TV off and turn it back on. Any replys to that problem?? Thanks.
We had the same thing happen with our 4 year old 47″ LED – just called Vizio and they said the IR sensor is bad. Not sure how expensive that is to replace – I think my husband will take it apart to see if he can fix it – probably not worth the price to have a repairman come out and fix it. Did you ever get yours fixed? If so, how much was it to fix it?
I have a 42″ LED Smart Visio and the screen will occasionally go black for a few seconds while in use. The audio remains on while losing the picture. Anyone having this same issue? The tv is less than a year old.
I’ve had this happen to two sets now, screen goes black with sound. The first one I bought was end of June 2012 and it was a 47 inch 3D set. Two months later I bought another 47 inch set and right away did the black screen. After several months of bartering with Customer Service they did replace, took three weeks to have truck deliver and pick up the one I had. The new set has worked well except for losing one HDMI outlet. Several months after non 3D set went bad the 3D set did the same thing. Reported to Customer Service and they blamed it on the HD boxes from Brighthouse. I have had them replaced three times and is not the boxes. My wife and I have had some major health issues and is now beyond warranty. Most fixes I have seen say the circuit board needs replaced. I am 72 and my wife 67 and do not have money to replace set now. The person who said they purchased two sets and no problems for two years is very fortunate, because I see many bad reports on Vizio. Should have checked when purchasing and on set says made in China. Need I say more.
Are you kidding me. The most common problem is that the screen goes blank and doesn’t come back on until you spend a ton of money to get a board or other parts replaced. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! On the market is a TV with known issues to the extent that it won’t last more than a few months without problems and IT’S ON THE MARKET ANYWAY. Ours is 6 months new and we have been fighting this blank screen issue for months. We cannot afford, can’t imagine who can afford to get this thing fixed. Now we have to go out and buy another TV for our Autistic, Mentally Challenged Son’s room. Is there no accountability for this. Is there a TV Lemon Law. This is crazy.
I have a 50″ LED that has this issue also. Video blinks on and off, but the sound is fine. The back light is working. I am 2 months out of warranty, so Visio will not help. Should I replace the mainboard or the T CON board?
I have the E500i-A1 (Vizio LED 50″). This weekend the screen went out, but you could still hear the sound. The screen will flicker on and off like someone is rapidly playing with the brightness adjustment. I did whatever research I could (limited on this subject on the internet for some reason) and I found that there are 3 Main Boards when you open up the back of a Vizio LED T.V. the one on the left is the LED Backlight board (I bought and replaced that one, no dice). The one at the bottom behind the aliminum shielding is the TCON board (basically controls the signal to the panel/screen), the last huge card in the middle is the power board, which you can easily tell because the power cable for the T.V. plugs directly into it. The power card is most likely the culprit at this point. There is a common flicker issue with flat panel t.v’s that is caused by a resistor or jumper on power cards. It goes bad, shorts out the signal and causes the flicker. You can look up videos on youtube to cut the jumper or buy a new card. Cheapest I have found for my t.v. is about $40. If you are looking for t.v. parts this is the cheapest I have found and they seem to carry all brands.
https://www.encompassparts.com
hopefully that helps someone out there!
Matt
EBay is a great source for new boards. These are from cracked screen new tv’s. Found ours at side of road $11 for T-con board. $10 for new remote. 50 inch for $21.
tv comes on goes off in 5 sec
Mine does the same thing: comes on for 5 seconds and then black screen! This was a gift that I wish I could return.
My screen sometimes goes completely blank dark while watching my Vizio flat screen, but other than that I’m satisfied with my TV.
Tv has a black strip in the middle of screem when it is on
tv dark spot toward middle of screen all the time
my screen flickers and can hear it flicker thru speakers too, what does that mean? please help
I read about the flickering tv …easy & inexpensive fix..tells where to get the parts ..cost and how to do it…type in…tom’sHardware…..for Vizio.
my screen flickers up to 15 minutes before it warms up and returns to normal sound and flickering stops
what can I do to correct this
have a 42 inch vizio when I turn it on it flicker then stops after 3 to 5 minutes is my tv going dead soon or is it something that’s worth repairing or better off buying a new one but different brand name. what brand name tv are best lg,sony panisonic.