Hands down, a Vizio TV that freezes and won’t show a single sign of life can be the most unwelcome surprise to cap your day. It can cause you to boil over, especially if you’ve just come in from work and want to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Usually, a Vizio TV freezes due to an internet connectivity issue. Therefore, you must troubleshoot your internet connection and update your Vizio TV software to prevent its screen from freezing while watching movies.
But that’s the short version of it. In this post, we’ll quickly walk you through six tried-and-tested solutions to address the Vizio TV screen freezing issue when streaming your favorite digital content — so better read up!
How To Fix a Frozen Vizio TV
The solutions below have been tried and tested as the most effective ways to troubleshoot a frozen Vizio TV screen. But a warning: Some workarounds can only be used if your Vizio TV isn’t completely unresponsive.
Fix 1. Power-cycle the TV
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 1 minute and 10 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Vizio smart TV A working power cable A working power outlet |
When your Vizio TV freezes, you can perform a power cycle to drain any residual electrical charges it stores on its capacitors. This action is essential because residual energy is often associated with various performance issues on many Vizio TVs.
One of these performance issues includes a frozen and unresponsive screen, lag, or input delay when running an app. As such, we strongly recommend draining them all from your Vizio TV to facilitate better performance and improve its processing speed.
Power cycling is excellent for dealing with laggy performance and recurring freezing apps. It also helps when your Vizio TV often goes idle and doesn’t register any inputs from your button clicks on its remote control.
What’s best about this solution is that you can perform it without a Vizio TV remote control. Since remote control inputs won’t register on a frozen and unresponsive Vizio TV, any troubleshooting method that doesn’t require them is invaluable.
Step 1: Shut it down and unplug its power cable from the wall outlet. Note: Unplugging your Vizio TV forces it to shut down, so you can skip turning it off manually. It’s ideal when the Vizio TV screen is stuck, frozen, and unresponsive to all button inputs from the remote control. |
Step 2: Hold the device’s physical power button for 60 seconds to drain all residual electrical charges stored in your Vizio TV’s capacitors. Note: You don’t have to hold its power button, but you must leave the Vizio TV unplugged for at least thirty minutes to achieve similar results. However, holding the power button is preferable since it helps speed up the discharge process. |
Step 3: Reintroduce electricity to your Vizio TV system by plugging it back into the wall outlet. |
| Step 4: Press its physical power button if your Vizio TV doesn’t turn back on automatically. Note: You can also use the remote control’s power button to test if the Vizio TV is no longer unresponsive. It’s unnecessary on other Vizio TVs that turn on automatically after you plug them into a power source. |
Fix 2. Check its internet connection
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 1 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 30 to 60 seconds |
| Things Needed | A PC or smartphone A working internet connection |
Faulty apps are among the most common reasons your Vizio TV keeps freezing during use. Often, it will be due to software-related bugs and glitches, though it could also happen when your Vizio TV’s internet connection is problematic or sluggish.
When this happens, the apps on your Vizio TV won’t work or keep lagging and freezing because the terrible connection prevents them from communicating with their servers.
So, you must check whether or not your current internet connection is up to the task.
To do this, you must perform a speed test to determine your WiFi speed.
While this step is not a fix, it’s essential to know your internet speed to see if that is what’s causing the issue. This is because some apps have a minimum requirement to ensure that using their platform won’t cause lag and buffering.
Based on the speed test result, your options when using your Vizio TV apps will be limited to ensure decent performance. You need at least 5 Mbps to watch Disney+ shows at high definition and up to 25Mbps or more for 4K UHD quality content.
If the internet connection is slower than usual, you can troubleshoot your WiFi router or modem using the bonus solutions below. Alternatively, we suggest contacting your internet service provider if troubleshooting your WiFi connection is unsuccessful.
Restart the internet router or modem
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 6 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 2 minutes and 20 seconds |
| Things Needed | A WiFi router and modem Working LAN cables Working power cords A working power outlet |
Restarting your internet router and modem is the simplest way to troubleshoot a faulty WiFi connection. Doing so will refresh the connection to correct the errors that cause the internet speed to slow down significantly.
Step 1: Unplug your internet modem’s LAN and power cables. |
Step 2: Unplug your internet router’s LAN and power cables. |
| Step 3: Keep the cables unplugged for around 2 minutes so the internet router and modem can shut down completely. |
Step 4: Plug in the internet modem’s LAN and power cables. |
Step 5: Plug in the internet router’s LAN and power cables. Note: Ensure all cables are tight and secure to prevent other connectivity issues due to a loose connection. |
Step 6: Watch your internet router or modem reboot and check if their LED indicators turn on. Note: Globe icons on both devices should appear green or white if they can connect to the Internet. Also, a solid green light should appear on both devices’ WiFi icons to indicate your Vizio TV can connect to the WiFi network without problems. |
Restore the internet router or modem to their factory settings
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 3 minutes |
| Things Needed | A WiFi router or modem A SIM ejector pin A working ethernet cable |
Sometimes, you’ll fail to troubleshoot your internet router and modem by only performing a simple restart. It’s best to conduct a factory reset to revert them to their default configuration and fix the device errors causing the connection problem.
Step 1: Unplug your internet modem and router’s LAN cables. Note: Keep the power cable of both devices intact, as they must be running to perform the factory reset. |
Step 2: Use a smartphone’s SIM ejector pin to press the reset button in the pinhole behind both devices for 10 seconds. Note: Other long and thin objects, such as paper clips and toothpicks, will also work. |
Step 3: Wait for both devices to reset their system and restart. Note: An orange blinking light will indicate that both devices are undergoing a factory reset. |
| Step 4: Plug in the LAN cables of both devices once they turn back on. Note: Reconnect the Vizio TV to the internet router or modem and check if your apps are working again without problems. |
Fix 3. Update Vizio TV software
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 10 minutes |
| Things Needed | A Vizio smart TV A Vizio TV remote control A working internet connection |
To combat software-related problems on your Vizio TV, it’s advisable to conduct a system update to patch the bugs and errors on its previous version.
Unfortunately, this method requires access to the system settings menu, so you must skip this troubleshooting method if your Vizio TV keeps freezing during use.
But you can do a system update if your Vizio TV can remain working long enough to download the update before its screen freezes. Afterwards, you’ll find that recurring bugs and errors are eliminated on the outdated version, improving the TV’s performance.
However, note that updates may take longer, depending on the download size. If your Vizio TV freezes every few minutes, you must have a high-speed internet connection to complete the update before it becomes unresponsive.
Step 1: Go to the TV settings menu using the Vizio remote’s Menu button. |
Step 2: Go to System. |
Step 3: Go to Check for Updates and click Yes to authorize this action on the tiny confirmation screen. Note: Once confirmed, your Vizio TV will automatically connect to the Internet and look for the latest system updates. |
| Step 4: Click Yes again to authorize downloading and installing the system update on the Vizio TV. Note: You must always ensure the Vizio TV’s storage space has enough room for the update to prevent software problems. Software problems caused by a failed installation can result in devastating damage. |
Fix 4. Clear the cache on your Vizio TV
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Vizio smart TV A Vizio TV remote control |
Another method of handling misbehaving apps involves clearing the temporary data and files on the cache of your Vizio TV.
While the cache helps speed up your Vizio TV, it may have the opposite effect if its temporary data and files become corrupted. It can cause various issues, which include your Vizio TV freezing.
Unfortunately, the SmartCast platform newer Vizio TVs use makes apps work differently than other TV brands. As such, you can’t clear the cached storage for each preinstalled app on your Vizio TV.
Your only option, then, is to reboot your Vizio TV to refresh its system memory, which should automatically delete all the temporary data.
Since this method might not work on your first try, we recommend repeating it twice or thrice until you’re satisfied with the result. Like the system update, you can only perform the steps below if your Vizio TV screen doesn’t always stay frozen.
Step 1: Go to the TV settings menu using the Vizio remote’s Menu button. |
Step 2: Go to System. |
Step 3: Go to “Reset & Admin.” |
Step 4: Go to Reboot TV to shut it down and restart its system. Note: Your Vizio TV should clear its cache after restarting its system. |
If your Vizio TV is unresponsive to button controls, you can also unplug and replug it from the wall outlet. This action will soft reset your Vizio TV, allowing its system to refresh and clear its cached memory.
Fix 5. Delete and reinstall your TV apps
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 6 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 60 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Vizio smart TV (VIA Plus) A Vizio TV remote control |
If you’re using a Vizio TV from around 2017, it likely uses the VIA Plus platform instead of SmartCast. With this, you can freely remove and add apps on your Vizio TV since they’re not locked and permanent, unlike in newer SmartCast models.
However, you still can’t perform this method if your Vizio TV keeps freezing during use since you must access its app menu. Like the two previous solutions, we can only recommend this method if your Vizio TV freezes every few minutes.
With this fix, removing your faulty apps should fix the performance issues on your Vizio TV. After removing them, you can add them back and check if they won’t cause your Vizio TV screen to freeze and turn unresponsive.
It’s important to note that adding back a removed app may cause the same issue if its current version is faulty. After all, reinstalling an app only replaces the one you have on your Vizio TV—unless you have an outdated version that must be updated.
Step 1: Press the VIA button on the Vizio remote to open its main TV menu. |
Step 2: Select the My Apps tab and highlight an app. Note: If you have issues with the Disney+ app, select it. We’re only showing Netflix in this guide as an example since the process is practically the same. |
Step 3: Hold the OK button on the Vizio remote for 3 seconds to reveal some options, and press it again to remove the highlighted app. |
Step 4: Click Delete to confirm its removal. |
Step 5: Select Featured, Latest, or All Apps on the main menu panel and search for the app you removed. |
| Step 6: Highlight the app and click the OK button on the Vizio remote to add it back to your TV. |
Fix 6. Perform a Vizio TV factory reset
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 5 minutes |
| Things Needed | A Vizio smart TV |
If nothing has worked thus far, the last resort is to perform a factory reset to restore the device’s default settings. Although you usually need to access the TV system menu, you can do this troubleshooting method even if your Vizio TV keeps freezing.
| WARNING: A factory reset deletes your user data and files. Create a copy of key files and TV preferences before you do a factory reset to avoid losing everything in the process. Unfortunately, Vizio TVs don’t offer backup and restore options, unlike other TV brands and models. |
Step 1: Hold the Vizio TV’s input and volume-down keys simultaneously for 10 seconds to start an emergency factory reset. Note: We suggest checking the user manual since physical button locations may vary between Vizio TVs. Also, you can factory reset some Vizio TVs using the input button only. |
Step 2: Look for a “Memory is being cleared” message on the screen and wait while the Vizio TV resets. |
| Step 3: Follow the on-screen setup on the Vizio TV screen after it reboots. |
FAQs about Vizio TV Freezing
Why is my Vizio TV too slow and laggy?
Your Vizio TV may be slow and laggy due to an outdated software version or a sluggish internet connection. You must constantly update your Vizio TV and troubleshoot its WiFi network connection whenever its performance tanks.
Why is my Vizio TV always glitching?
Most Vizio TV glitches are software-related, so using an outdated system software is its leading cause. Once you update the software version, it should fix any glitches on its system.
If the glitches persist, you must contact Vizio Support for further assistance.
Why is the Vizio TV screen constantly flickering?
Loose cable connections are the most common cause of Vizio TV screen flickering. A terrible picture settings configuration and faulty input or video source can also cause your Vizio TV screen to flicker.
