HELP - Sound Bar Won't Power Back On

[dragone7e]

Hi guys. I have a Vizio sound bar that's doing weird things, and hope you could help me figure out what's wrong with it.
So in order to power it on, I have to unplug it from the outlet, press on the power button for 5 seconds to do a reset. It works fine after I turn it on like that.
But the thing is if I turn it off, it won't turn back on whatsoever, unless I do the unplug power reset again.
This is driving me crazy! So I hope you could help me figure out what's wrong with it.
All help is much appreciated!!!

 

[shrtrnd]

It would probably help if you gave us the Model Number of your unit.

 

[dragone7e]

It would probably help if you gave us the Model Number of your unit.

It's Vizio sb362an-f6.
Update: it turns out the only way to turn the device on is to unplug the power CABLE and then plug in back in. (I can still turn the power off with power BUTTON.)
That let me to believe it has something to do with the power switch mechanism, but I don't know exactly what.

 

[Martaine2005]

Sounds like a firmware issue if you have to keep unplugging and resetting.
Having said that, it could be a component fault not keeping settings.
Open it up and take some pictures. Upload them here.

Martin

 

[dragone7e]

Sounds like a firmware issue if you have to keep unplugging and resetting.
Having said that, it could be a component fault not keeping settings.
Open it up and take some pictures. Upload them here.

Martin

Per your suggestion, I opened up the sound bar and below are a couple of pictures of the control board.
I don't know how to add picture directly, so I just use links.
https://ibb.co/x5VrWP4
https://ibb.co/PQ5BN49
I also did some more testing, and found that I don't need to reset it in order to power it on, just unplug and plug it back in to the outlet

 

[Martaine2005]

Can you also get photos of the power supply board please.
I doubt the tactile switches are faulty, but possible. You can put your multimeter across each switch in continuity mode and press the switches to check them.

Martin

 

[Harald Kapp]

Maybe an issue with the standby power supply. When the sound bar is turned off it goes, I think, into standby mode to be awakened by the press of a button or by remote control. If standby power doesn't work, it will not turn on when the button is pressed.
Likely culprits are the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply. Look for bulging or leaked capacitors. Also photos will help us.

 

[dragone7e]

Thanks guys for all your help and guiding me through this! Here are some more pictures.
Layout: https://ibb.co/y4zQyR2
Main board: https://ibb.co/F804WTp
Not sure what this is: https://ibb.co/SssqytJ

Maybe an issue with the standby power supply. When the sound bar is turned off it goes, I think, into standby mode to be awakened by the press of a button or by remote control. If standby power doesn't work, it will not turn on when the button is pressed.
Likely culprits are the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply. Look for bulging or leaked capacitors. Also photos will help us.

I think this sounds like a very possible cause.
Could you tell which is the electrolytic capacitors from the photos?

 

[Harald Kapp]

"Not sure what this is" is the power supply.
The electrolytics are these:

From the photo I see no visible damage. How old is the soundbar? If less than ~ 5 years the electrolytics are probably not the cause.

 

[dragone7e]

It is less than 5 years old.
Sigh... Seems like it's really hard to pin point the cause of the problem. I guess I'll just take it to a repair shop and see if they can fix it.
Thanks again for all the help! You guys rock!

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir dragone7e . . . . . . . .

How about holding off on spending any of your money to a shop as of just yet.
Phenomenal photos ! . . . .and that's being spelled with three phenos !
KNOW WHAT ? . . . . Looks like Vizio has done a complete turn around from their earlier designs, that had their power supply divided into both a standby power section and a main audio power supply which had to be switched on by the standby supply.
On this one, I ONLY see AC power input into a switch mode power supply that then outputs ONLY the HEAVY RED and Black wired connection into the right front bottom white connector into the main board.

How about monitoring those two pins for their DC voltage level presence.
With the main power switch both on and off.( Giving time for it to decay when turned off. )
Does it switch off ?
On the main board, fully 80% of its parts population is being related to the analog to digital to Class D amps and its 6 FET power outputs along with use of a bit of the top right corner for a small wireless module.

Yes, that is being your perceived IR wireless receiver board, with its pwr-gnd-signal wiring from the main board.

If we have another standby supply level on that board, it seems that it would appear to be in the 2 inch component area, just surrounding that DC input connector and its 2 black E-caps..
OR . . . it could be off on some minor board circuitry tied into that white 6 pin connector above the power connector.
OR . . . . the board or display being associated with the top left corners white 10 pin connecctor.

Now . . .let that info be coming forth.

73's de Edd . . . . . .


I choked on a carrot today and then all that I could think of was . . . . . . . I bet that a Pizza wouldn't have done this to me.


.

 

[dragone7e]

Sir dragone7e . . . . . . . .

How about holding off on spending any of your money to a shop as of just yet.
Phenomenal photos ! . . . .and that's being spelled with three phenos !
KNOW WHAT ? . . . . Looks like Vizio has done a complete turn around from their earlier designs, that had their power supply divided into both a standby power section and a main audio power supply which had to be switched on by the standby supply.
On this one, I ONLY see AC power input into a switch mode power supply that then outputs ONLY the HEAVY RED and Black wired connection into the right front bottom white connector into the main board.

How about monitoring those two pins for their DC voltage level presence.
With the main power switch both on and off.( Giving time for it to decay when turned off. )
Does it switch off ?
On the main board, fully 80% of its parts population is being related to the analog to digital to Class D amps and its 6 FET power outputs along with use of a bit of the top right corner for a small wireless module.

Yes, that is being your perceived IR wireless receiver board, with its pwr-gnd-signal wiring from the main board.

If we have another standby supply level on that board, it seems that it would appear to be in the 2 inch component area, just surrounding that DC input connector and its 2 black E-caps..
OR . . . it could be off on some minor board circuitry tied into that white 6 pin connector above the power connector.
OR . . . . the board or display being associated with the top left corners white 10 pin connecctor.

Now . . .let that info be coming forth.

73's de Edd . . . . . .


I choked on a carrot today and then all that I could think of was . . . . . . . I bet that a Pizza wouldn't have done this to me.


.

Thank you for the reply! Although I'm not an engineer and what you said is like a foreign language to me lol
I did call a repair shop today and the guy told me to not waste money repairing it since it's cheaper to just get a new one.

 

[Harald Kapp]

You could install an additional mains switch into the soundbar that disconnects the soundbar from mains when off and connects it when on.
Cheaper than a new soundbar.

 

[dragone7e]

You could install an additional mains switch into the soundbar that disconnects the soundbar from mains when off and connects it when on.
Cheaper than a new soundbar.

That's a great ideal. Let me see if I could do that.

 

[nathandan1]

If the issue still persist, you can try resetting your Vizio soundbar and it will fix the issue for sure.