NVIDIA Shield Android Tablets Recalled Due to Overheating Battery Hazard

dgstorm

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NVIDIA just issued a massive recall on their Shield Android Tablets due to a possible overheating fire-hazard in their batteries. The recall effects SHIELD™ 8-inch tablets that were sold between July 2014 and July 2015. NVIDIA will replace affect tablets at no charge to owners.

You can manually check to see if your tablet is covered under the recall. Just head to the Settings menu, click "About tablet," then "Status," and check out the "Battery" section. If your battery section reads "B01," then you are NOT affected by the recall and have nothing to worry about. If you see "Y01," then your tablet falls into the risk category and you should arrange for a replacement.

To take advantage of the recall program (and/or find out more info) you should visit www.nvidia.com/support/tabletrecall.

Source: Notice for NVIDIA Tablet Customers
 

doniago

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You could root, then use Titanium Backup or Helium...actually, I think you could use the latter without root, but I'm new to it. The recall website also contains a procedure for backing up your data.
 
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doniago

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Given I've got mine rooted and all, I'm just a little nervous about this whole process (i.e. at what point does my old tablet become a doorstop?) but hopefully the instructions will be pretty clear and there won't be any hiccups along the way.

Doesn't help that my Windows 10 upgrade fragged my desktop's SSD, which was, of course, also my boot drive. Hoping to get that all sorted out over the next few days. Been trying to recover the SSD, but I'm abandoning hope there, and most of the data was backed up in any case.
 

doniago

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Went well, mostly.
Got home to what appears to be a new Nvidia Shield in a box, with a piece of paper stating that activating the new Shield would essentially brick my old one, and that I will be required to return my old one at some point (shipping box arriving in a couple of weeks, apparently).
Nandroided and TiBu'ed my existing tablet, then powered up the new one. It needed to install the recent update, then I went ahead and unlocked the bootloader and rooted without any appreciable problems. Restored from TiBu and while there seem to have been a couple of oddities where data didn't restore as expected, doing a re-restore from TiBu has cleared those up.
On a lark I powered up my old tablet a few hours after I'd activated the new one, and it was still working fine. Strange? That said, since I'll apparently be expected to return it in a couple of weeks it's somewhat of a moot point.
So, no complaints here.
 

Narsil

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Preventing the disabling of your existing tablet is quite simple if you are rooted. nVidia is not requiring you to return your old tablet, only making it easy for you to do so. I have had my replacement for over a week and have yet to receive the box and shipping label to return my old tablet. If you'd like to keep your old tablet functioning, simply root it and delete the /system/app/TegraOTA directory. The other option is to wipe it and install a non-nVidia ROM such as Blisspop that does not contain the nVidia OTA update app.

The "kill switch" is the TegraOTA app. It essentially updates (without your knowledge or permission) your bootloader, recovery, and system files with corrupted files that have sections zeroed out. After it reboots from the update, you can't access fastboot or recovery. Instabrick.

Here's a thread on it from XDA with a flashable zip to delete the directory but you can also do it with any root-enabled file explorer. <Link>
 

doniago

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I received my return box on Friday and my tablet should be being shipped back today.

I don't know about nVidia not requiring that your old tablet be returned; I'd want to read the fine print attached to the claims process, and considering that they're playing well with us I'm not really inclined to, effectively, rip them off.
 

Narsil

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nVidia have made it abundantly clear on the nVidia forums that they do not want your old tablet back and that the "return" boxes are simply to provide the user with an environmentally friendly and easy way to dispose of your bricked tablet. I have yet to receive my return box but the ones reporting back so far have the ship to label listing an electronics recycling facility, not nVidia.

What does the ship to label on your box say? Is it going back to nVidia?

If nVidia stated that they actually wanted my old tablet, it would be a different story. Since they don't want it back, I'm not going to let them brick a perfectly working tablet simply as a legal liability CYA.
 

doniago

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That's not exactly the notice I got (at work so I can't post it right now, sorry). The one I got explicitly mentioned that I'd be receiving a box a couple of weeks later for the purposes of returning my old tablet.

I'm admittedly uncertain right now whether it was phrased to suggest that the return was a requirement or not.
 
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