Last year Nvidia released a tablet that many of us here in Australia would have love to have purchased but most didn’t. It was an 8 inch tablet with some amazing specifications, definitely a handy successors to our 2013 Nexus 7’s. Unfortunately it failed to materialise in any kind of release in Australia forcing many to go off-shore to source one. The Shield was not a massive seller in the tablet world for some reason and now 12 months on Nvidia are voluntarily recalling almost 88,000 Shield tablets.
Any Nvidia Shield tablet sold between July of last year and July of this year has been recalled by Nvidia. The tablets are being recalled due to an issue with the battery where it may overheat due to the “thermal runaway” and potentially catch fire. While none have actually done so Nvidia are on the front foot with this and are replacing all the tablets purchased within this time. While there has only been four reports (yes, only 4) of overheating and two of damage to the flooring of the tablet it has been enough for Nvidia to recall the 83000 tablets sold in the US and 5000 sold in Canada. As well as the recall Shield owners are being encouraged to stop using the tablets immediately to prevent any possible issues from occurring.
While there are not many Aussies with this tablet we do know of a few people who purchased this through various means. If you are one and your model is P1761, P1761W or P1761WX with serial numbers of 0410215901781 through 0425214604018 then you should head over to the Nvidia recall website and register for your replacement tablet. You may need to use a mail forwarder to receive this replacement so keep that in mind.
Are you one of those affected by this recall? Will you get yours replaced? Will we start seeing other manufacturers start recalling products due to overheating?
yep, I’ve requested a replacement for my Shield to my Australian address. tempted to e-mail them asking for an LTE model, heh. also, am curious if I could keep my old one working by loading a custom ROM onto it. perhaps they’ll be disabled via Play Services though.
They’re recalling more than just US and Canadian devices… I’m in the UK and I’m just waiting for an email notifying me my replacement has been shipped.
Also, it didn’t explain very wilell how to check whether you’re affected. Simply update to the latest release and go into Settings, About Tablet and press battery. If it’s ‘Y01’ you will be taken to a ‘recall notice’ page which then explains how to be issued a replacement
Even if you’re sure you have a bad one, like you have one of the affected models and your serial number is in the affected range, you still need to upgrade to the latest software, which includes the hidden app you get to through the settings (as Jordan described) which generates a code you need to enter into the recall website. Not that I’d normally need an excuse to update to 5.1, though… actually I think they originally said that update was supposed to come out 2-3 weeks ago… could explain the delay. As for affecting more than just US… Read more »
Other than only letting you input two letters for a state (so I just put mine at the end of the suburb), the recall website seems to have no problem dealing with Australians. Hopefully that won’t change in the 2-4 weeks the email I got said it will take for my replacement tablet to ship.
Thanks for letting us know. Will you have to get it sent through a mail Forwarder?
What do you think of the shield tablet anyway?
The recall website let me put in my Australian address without complaint (as I said, except for the state), and when I submitted that I got an email saying my replacement tablet will ship in 2-4 weeks (and that when I first turn it on, it will automatically deactivate my current tablet), so hopefully I don’t need to worry about a forwarder. Obviously I can’t be sure until I have the replacement in my hot little hands, but looks good so far. It’s not made entirely clear whether I’ll have to send mine back when I get the replacement or… Read more »
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Same boat. But I shortened VICTORIA to Vi. Still says Melbourne Australia. Fingers crossed.