Nvidia's clientele frowned when the technology company announced the recall of SHIELD tablets. Now, less than two months after the fire-hazard-tablet issue, Nvidia is also recalling a select version of the Shield Android TV Box.
Nvidia representative, Michael Guzman, announced that the company is recalling the 500GB model of the Android TV Box due to a hard drive issue, which is mainly characterized by the failure to properly update to software version1.4.
An RMA is also warranted if the Fastboot menu appeared during the update to 1.4. And even if the system recovers, Nvidia still advises that the unit be replaced. Severe and persistent pixelation and sluggishness are also grounds for a replacement.
Note that the recall will only be for the 500GB Shield Pro units and not the 16GB Shield ones, since there were no reports about the same issue on the latter. Those who bought the faulty units are advised to talk with Nvidia's customer care representatives for the RMA details to be documented and processed. Only then will Nvidia ship out the replacements.
The good news is that if the customer can present a copy of the receipt and photos of the serial number, which is located at the back of the device, Nvidia will send the replacement first before prompting the owner to send back the faulty one. The time it will take for the replacement to be delivered is heavily dependent on how far away the customer's designated location is from the Nvidia RMA headquarters, which is based in Texas.
Nvidia will also ship replacements to those who have an expired retailer RMA-window, such as Amazon's 30-day replacement policy. The bad news is, however, Nvidia has a list of countries it does not ship to due clearance issues.
"I lived in Taiwan, I bought Shield pro from Amazon, but your RMA team didn't accept my RMA since they cannot send it to Taiwan," wrote kick95, a member of the Nvidia GeForce forum.
"We are legally not able to ship the SHIELD Android TV to your country, even for RMA replacement. Only alternative is to work with your retailer or if you know someone in the USA who can work with you, you can ship the device to us and then have us send the device to a user in USA with USA address. Then you can work with that person to acquire the device back," Guzman responded.
On the proceeding posts, the aggrieved party from Taiwan, kick95, wrote that Amazon has agreed to take the TV box back and will process the refund. Those who are in Singapore will probably have to go through the same scenario because Nvidia also not able ship to the country.