How to Fix a Vizio TV that Turns Off By Itself

I need to know how to fix a Vizio TV that turns off by itself.

Make sure you didn't accidentally hit the power button trying to change the volume.

I couldn't make that mistake.

Make sure no one else has a remote and trying to turn it off when bored.

This isn't happening because of a remote control war.

It might be due to a fight over power.

I'll tell you now this isn't because someone is turning off the power strip the TV is plugged into in order to save electricity.

If you have a gaming console, DVR, cable box, Vizio TV and other stuff plugged into the power strip, it may not be able to handle the load. If the TV turns off when you turn something else on, that's a major sign of that problem.

And I thought the gaming console often shutting off when it was interfering with the surge protector in the power strip was bad.

You can get the same problem with the Vizio TV, and the solution is the same – plug it into the wall.

I can't plug everything into the wall, hence the power strip.

So try moving some things to other power outlets with extension cords in case you can lessen the demand on that particular power plug. After all, you don't want to trip a breaker.

I know demand isn't bad enough to trip breakers.

You could have a Vizio TV with an internal overload.

That would short the TV out.

Vizio TVs often have problems with overheating mechanisms, where it turns off when it thinks it is overheating, even when it isn't.

That requires someone else replacing the sensors, because I know it isn't due to overheating. Something else in that vicinity would give me red lights of death if that were true.

If you hear buzzing with periodic pops, and the TV turns off after the capacitor pops, that's why it turned off.

What other symptoms does that cause?

The screen may or may not get darker over time, but it will eventually fail to come on when the last capacitor blows.

If I wanted to open the back of the TV, I'd see that the capacitors were all big and puffy where they blew out.

You could have a TV turning off because of irregular power to the motherboard or the display board.

That will be expensive to replace.

Before you assume it is an expensive repair, do a hard reboot on the TV in case it is a software glitch.

How do you power cycle a TV?

Unplug it from the wall, wait five minutes, plug it back in.

Just like my gaming console, except minus the easy update option.

You can update the TV by going to system, system information, and you'll see the software version. If it doesn't match what the Visio website says is the latest and greatest, it should push to the TV.

You'd think it would have done that by now.

Then you can download the firmware off the Vizio website, copy to a USB stick and copy to the TV before power cycling to put it in place.