How To Hard Reset Your Vizio TV

Smart TV’s have been around for quite some time now, and increasing in popularity because of great features it can offer. Vizio TVs is another great entertainment appliance providing great entertainment and a service for a good price. However, just like with other electronic appliances, there are instances when problems and issues can occur. Although there are potential solutions that you can do to fix issues with your Vizio TV but if none of the solutions worked then you would opt to just hard reset your Vizio Smart TV. In here, let us go through the steps on how to hard reset Vizio TV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard Reset Your Vizio TV

Vizio TV and other smart TVs encounters some of the following issues and most of the time a factory reset is needed to fix it. Issues such as: Display on the television is not working, TV randomly turns on and off, TV is not turning ON, TV is flashing different colors on the screen, or perhaps that smart function on Smart TVs suddenly stops working. Whatever the type of issue your TV is experiencing, you can always do a Factory reset.

There are two types of Factory reset options: soft reset and hard reset. Let us first talk about each of these reset options before we proceed to the steps to reset a Vizio TV

Soft Reset

Soft Reset is similar to power cycle. When a soft reset is performed on your Vizio TV, the memory will be cleared and basically restarts the TV. Although most of the time, a soft reset should be done first before performing the hard reset process in case the issue persists.

Soft resetting a television is easy and simple, all you need to do is to turn the TV off and turning it back on after a few seconds.

Here’s how to perform a soft reset on Vizio TV:

1. Unplug TV power cord from wall outlet
2. Remove the power cord of Vizio TV. Power cord is located at the back of the TV.
3. Press and hold power button either on the TV or TV’s remote control for about 5 seconds.
4. Plug TV power cord back to the wall outlet.
5. Turn on Television.

Power cycle using an old Vizio TV is different:

1. Press the Menu button on TV remote
2. Select system
3. Select Reset
4. Select Admin
5. Select Soft Power cycle

Hard Reset

Hard reset is a more serious procedure that you can do on your Vizio TV because it does only do what a soft reset does but also reset the TVs configurations settings, reset TV’s firmware and wipes data, log in information, Wi-Fi network connection and installed apps. A hard reset simply brings the TV to factory defaults. This is from the time you first purchased the TV, having to go through the setup process again.

If Vizio TV is experiencing issue, a simple soft reset should fix most simple issues however if a soft reset could not fix the issue and also after doing all potential fixes, a hard factory reset is your last resort.

Hard Reset should be done when you are experiencing issues such as:

• Apps are inaccessible
• SmartCast apps crashing such as Hulu, Netflix and a lot more.
• Issues with the TVs playback as well as Audio issues
• Issues with options on your Smart TV.
• Connectivity issues
• TV won’t turn ON
• Black Screen issue
• TV is lagging or running slow
• Different colors not displayed on TV screen

How to Hard Reset Vizio Smart TV

Hard resetting a Vizio Smart tv is very simple, but make sure to have the Vizio remote control on hand since it will be used to perform the hard factory reset.

To hard reset a Vizio Smart tv, follow the steps below:

1. Unplug Router from power source.
2. On Vizio Remote control, press the home button.
3. Go to System and select OK option.
4. Select Reset & Admin option and select OK option.
5. Select Reset TV to Factory defaults and select OK option.
6. Device prompts to enter Parental Lock Code. If you did not change the code, use the default parental lock code of 0000.
7. Choose Reset option and then select OK. Wait for reset process to complete and the TV will turn off.
8. After TV completely reboots, the setup screen will appear.
9. Plug router back to its power source
10. Do the setup process of Vizio Smart tv again.
11. Reconnect to your wireless network (Wi fi network)

Although hard resetting requires the use of a remote, if at some point you do have access to the original remote such as the remote is lost or damaged you can use an RCA universal TV remote. You can also purchase a replacement remote.

An alternative way to hard factory reset TV is by doing the following steps below, this is a more complicated and harder way to factory reset as compared to the standard way mentioned above.

1. Turn OFF TV. Make sure it is still plugged and not unplug from power source.
2. Press and hold buttons CH + and CH- on Vizio TVs remote control.
3. Press and release Power button on the remote.
4. Release pressing both the CH + and CH- buttons.
5. Press the menu button, menu options will appear on the TV screen.
6. You will see and F at the bottom right corner of the screen. The F indicates that you are in the factory setup screen.
7. Press Menu button to allow the service menu to appear on the TV screen. On the service menu, factory reset options will be displayed.

Contact Vizio Support

Since, hard factory reset is usually the last resort when all other solutions fail to fix the problem that your Vizio TV is experiencing, you may need at this time contact Vizio Support and book an appointment with an authorized or professional Technician. They might have ways on how to fix issues with your Vizio smart tv.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final thoughts

If your Vizio TV suddenly acts strange and starting to experience issues, resetting might actually fix whatever problem the TV has. However, a soft reset is recommended first before actually performing a hard reset. Only if the soft reset is not able to fix the problem, and you’ve already exhausted all possible solutions then it’s time you reset your Vizio smart tv.