A hard drive issue has prompted NVIDIA to issue a SHIELD Pro Android TV recall. The manufacturer did say that only a small number of units are affected by the recall and promised to ship replacements quickly.
"Less than 1 percent of SHIELD Pro units have been diagnosed as having a hard drive issue that can worsen over time," NVIDIA's Manuel Guzman said in the company's forums.
Symptoms of the issue are seen in one of two ways. First, seeing a fastboot menu appear during the SHIELD Pro's Upgrade 1.4 even if the device recovers. Second, affected units will show severe and persistent pixilation on the top row of the Android TV home screen.
Owners who encountered these problems are encouraged to contact NVIDIA for a replacement. The tech firm said a replacement unit will be shipped as soon as the RMA is approved - no need to wait for them to receive the affected unit.
"NVIDIA will even send these outside the USA, so long as they have the needed certifications to ship to your specific country," Android Authority said.
The NVIDIA SHIELD Pro Android TV recall affects only units with 500GB of internal storage. SHIELD units with 16GB of flash memory are not part of the recall.
"The recall comes at an awkward time, as NVIDIA's busy telling the world how superior the SHIELD TV is to the new Apple TV," PC World said.
What's more is that the company is still fresh from issuing a recall for the SHIELD Tablet for an overheating battery that could be a fire hazard affecting 88,000 units sold in North America. NVIDIA has even sent out emails to owners of the affected unit saying they could be delays in shipping replacement units.
Still, this shouldn't mean buyers should steer clear of the NVIDIA SHIELD Pro Android TV. As PC world noted, it's still "the best solution available if you want cutting-edge features like 4K video support and the ability to stream full-blown PC games to your TV.
