Fix Vizio Smart TV Keeps Freezing, Lagging, Freezing, Restarts

When it comes to American smart TV brands with the cheaper price tag and better value for money, you might think about Vizio. The smart TVs from Vizio are well-priced, offer great picture quality, and have some other features. Although their OS isn’t refined yet, there is nothing you can expect more at their price segment. Obviously, bugs and issues might overcome the ‘affordable’ word in most cases due to some reasons. Vizio Smart TV Keeps Freezing and Shutting Off is one of them.

Having a smart TV in your home or office is a big leap if we think about the streaming or entertainment needs from old-school TVs to mobile screens. The bigger screen means better binge-watching and better accessibility to additional features. These days smart TV users also prefer in playing games for an immersive experience. If we talk about the Vizio-branded smart TVs, they are almost good in quality and performance except for occasional stutters and freezes.

Well, it might be an issue for plenty of users who doesn’t prefer such things to happen occasionally with their smart TVs. But a quick reboot should fix the freezing issue in most scenarios. However, not everyone seems lucky enough or geek enough to handle the same repeated issue again and again. And not every time simple restart can fix the freezing issue or crashing issue.

Fix Vizio Smart TV Keeps Freezing, Lagging, Freezing, Restarts

If we take a quick look at a couple of online forums, Vizio smart TVs do freeze randomly without any kind of specific reason. Obviously, there are so many reasons applicable to such an issue that we need to discuss further.

It includes an outdated system firmware version, a slow internet connection, issues with the remote control, Bluetooth connectivity glitches, lack of sufficient power delivery, outdated applications on the system, memory or storage full, and more.

Fortunately, you can check all the steps below to perform manually on your Vizio smart TV to easily fix freezing and shutting down issues.

1. Reboot the Vizio Smart TV

Before getting into other troubleshooting, it’s recommended to simply reboot the Vizio smart TV by pressing following the steps below.

• Press the Menu button on your Vizio smart TV remote.
• Now, use the navigation keys to go to System.
• Select Reset & Admin.
• Choose the Soft Power Cycle option.
• Wait for the reboot to complete.

2. Power Cycle the Vizio Smart TV

There is nothing fancy here to perform a power cycle method on your smart TV because most of us have done this before. If you haven’t done a power cycle on your Vizio smart TV yet, check out the steps below. It basically refreshes the TV system and clears potential cache data which might affect you in using the TV or running any applications.

• Turn OFF your Vizio Smart TV and then unplug the adapter from the power socket.
• Now, wait for around a couple of minutes.
• Then press and hold the Power button on the TV/remote for about a minute or so.
• Make sure to repeat the same steps a few times to release static charges from the TV.
• Once done, plug back the Power cable & Turn ON the Vizio Smart TV again.

You might also perform the following steps to soft power cycle on your Vizio smart TV.

• Press the Menu button on the remote control to open the Setting option.
• Select the System menu and choose Reset & Admin.
• Now, choose the Soft Power Cycle option.
• Select Yes to confirm.
• Wait for the process to complete and then re-check the issue.

3. Check the Power Connection Properly

Sometimes issues with the power connectivity or the loose power adapter plugin to the socket might also cause Vizio Smart TV Keeps Freezing and Shutting Off. If in case, the power cable isn’t properly connected to the power outlet then you might experience such issues. Make sure to disconnect the power cable and reconnect it to another socket/outlet to check the issue.

4. Check the Internet Connection

If you have Vizio’s latest smart TV (SmartCast UI) or any other Smart TV from Vizio, conflicts with the internet connection might also trouble you a lot. It can affect the performance of the TV during startup or streaming content up to some extent. Sometimes issues with the internet connection can cause stream buffering or lower-resolution playback which is quite common.

Additionally, unstable internet connectivity might also cause freezes with the system running or content playback if background downloads or syncing are in progress. You’ll require a minimum data limit as follows.

• SD (below 720p) requires a minimum 3 Mbps data speed
• HD (720p) requires a minimum 8 Mbps data speed
• Full HD (1080p) requires a minimum 8 Mbps data speed
• Live TV requires at least 10+ Mbps data speed
• 4K needs at least 16+ Mbps data speed

You can check your current data speed from the Vizio smart TV by following the steps below.

• Press the Menu button on the remote control.
• Select the Network option.
• Choose the Test connection option to run the connectivity test on the TV.

If you’re getting a message “Download not available” on the screen that means you have an internet-related issue. Make sure to reboot the networking device like a Wi-Fi router or modem to refresh the networking glitches.

Otherwise, try unplugging the Router/Modem’s power cable from the outlet and wait for a couple of minutes. Then press and hold the Power button on the router for a minute. Finally, connect the power cable again, and turn on the router.

5. Try Switching to a Higher Wi-Fi Channel or Bandwidth

The traditional or mostly used 2.4GHz single-band Wi-Fi is suitable for almost everyone. However, sometimes the dual-band 5GHz Wi-Fi connection might be helpful in several cases to download bigger file-sized content or play games, stream 4K content, etc.

If there are multiple devices connected to the same network, then your TV might get interrupted due to the slower network speed or frequent disconnections with higher latency.

• Go to the Wi-Fi Router’s admin panel via the web browser.
• Login to the admin dashboard using the default username and password (printed backside on the router).
• Then head over to the Menu tab and open the Network option.
• Now, select Wi-Fi then select the 5GHz band. (if supported)
• Enter the Wi-Fi Password to configure the connection.
• Once done, save changes, and connect your Vizio smart TV to the 5GHz Wi-Fi connection using the same password.

6. Check for System Software Updates

Next, you can easily check for pending system software updates on your Vizio smart TV by following the steps below. Using an electronic gadget that runs on the operating system can be tedious in terms of updating software. But it’s a necessary step that you shouldn’t avoid to reduce bugs or glitches as much as possible.

• Turn On the Vizio smart TV.
• Go to the Menu tab and open the System option.
• Select Check for Updates.
• If you have any updates pending, make sure to update the system software.
• Now, wait for the updating process to complete.
• Once done, you can reboot the Vizio smart TV.

7. Update All Outdated Applications

Vizio smart TVs do install applications with VIA which means ‘Vizio Internet Apps’. If you want to manually update outdated applications on a Vizio smart TV then make sure to follow the steps below.

• Press the V or VIA button on your remote control.
• Select the application that you want to update.
• Then select the yellow button on your remote control.
• If you see the Update option, select it.
  • If there is no update available, select Delete App and then OK.
• Now, confirm your selection by choosing Yes and pressing OK.
• Head over to the native App Store using your remote control.
• Then search for the app and locate it to update or reinstall.
• Press OK and select Install to complete.

8. Disable Auto Power Off Settings

Almost all modern Vizio smart TVs do have the auto power-off feature which should come in handy if the TV becomes inactive for around 10 minutes to shut it down. However, this kind of feature can cause some issues with the screen freezing. So, disabling the option should do the work.

• Turn On the Vizio smart TV and go to the Menu tab.
• Open the Timers option and Disable the Auto Power Off feature.
• You can also change the Sleep time feature to avoid sleep mode.
• Now, restart the TV to check the problem.

9. Change the Picture Mode

Try changing the picture mode of your Vizio smart TV as a possible workaround for the freezing issue. In some cases, changing the colour profile can fix visual stutters or glitches.

• Open the Vizio smart TV and go to the Menu tab.
• Open the Picture option and go to Picture Mode.
• Here you can toggle the different options to check for issues.
• Once done, reboot the TV to apply changes.

10. Disable CEC (Consumer Electronics Control)

Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) is a communication protocol that allows devices connected to the TV through an HDMI port by using a single universal remote.

• Power On the Vizio smart TV and then go to the Menu tab.
• Go to the System option.
• Select CEC and Turn Off this feature.
• Restart the TV and check for further issues.

11. Try Reinstalling Recently Installed Third-Party Apps

Vizio SmartCast TVs do support streaming apps which might go through several issues that need to be refreshed over time by uninstalling and reinstalling third-party applications to avoid bugs.

• Press the V button on the remote control to SmartCast Menu.
• Open View all apps and highlight the particular app.
• Then press the yellow button to open an options tab.
• Here you can find options to Uninstall the application.
• Once uninstalled, reboot the TV, and then reinstall the app from App Store.

12. Clear the Cache Data

Make sure to clear the cache data on your Vizio smart TV by following the steps below.

• Go to the main menu on your Vizio smart TV.
• Select Settings and choose General.
• Now, select Clear Cache and you’ll get a confirmation message.
• Choose OK to proceed and the cache will be cleared.
• Then restart the TV.

13. Factory Reset the Vizio Smart TV

You can try Factory Resetting your Vizio smart TV by following the steps below to reset all settings and configuration, storage, etc to the factory defaults. It basically helps the device to run freshly as a new one and mostly resolves the glitches or stutters.

• Run the Vizio TV and go to the Menu tab.
• Open the System menu and select the Reset and Admin option.
• Select Reset TV to Factory defaults.
• Now, enter the Parental control code (default 0000).
• Select OK to confirm and then wait for the factory reset to complete.
• Once done, your Vizio TV will automatically reboot.
• Wait for the TV to boot into the system again.
• Then manually set up the configuration.

If you’re using a SmartCast Vizio TV then you can reset the TV by using a combination button by following the steps below.

• Press and hold the Volume down + Input button for around 10 seconds on the remote control.
• Now, a popup message will appear on the TV screen instructing you to press and hold the Input button to reset the TV.
• Then press and hold the Input button to start the reset process.

Please Note: Do note that factory resetting can also wipe out all channels from the Vizio TV.

14. Contact Vizio Support

If none of the methods worked for you then make sure to contact Vizio Support for further assistance. It’s recommended to submit the report ticket with the required details to help the developers or support agents deep dive into it.

This is it for now. If you’ve any other questions about the same issue, feel free to comment below.

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