Nvidia Shield Tablet bricked from update?

[LaboonTheWhale]

Hey guys 

 

So I bought an Nvidia Shield tablet off a friend and reformatted it as it had some of his info left on it. 

 

I booted it up after reformatting and it made me do the basic android set up like gmail and whatnot. 

 

But It said system update was available and so I did it. I saw it installing the update but now the screen is just black. I dont have any feedback from the screen and I have tried power button + vol down to try and go to recovery mode. 

 

When I plug it into the computer my computer recognizes it. When I hold the power button, the PC makes the "USB Disconnected" sound and when I hit the power button it makes the sound of USB connecting. 

 

Nvidia support has been useless. can anyone help me or am I SOL? 

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Is it an OG one or one of the new ones?  What system was it running before? (stock android or custom ROM)

[LaboonTheWhale]

4 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Is it an OG one or one of the new ones?  What system was it running before? (stock android or custom ROM)

Since I got it off of him I dont exactly know which model it is. has a stylus on the end. I reformatted it to factory settings when he gave it to me as he still had some information on. The update was applied to stock android

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8 hours ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

Since I got it off of him I dont exactly know which model it is. has a stylus on the end. I reformatted it to factory settings when he gave it to me as he still had some information on. The update was applied to stock android

Well I'll just explain my theory even though I have nothing to confirm or refute it at this point:

 

Remember the OG shield tablet battery recall?  Everyone with a certain number was given the option to enter their serial number into the recall site, which would cause Nvidia (if the number was in the right range of course) to send you a new tablet, no questions asked.  An update was then pushed to the old ones (I can't remember how this worked if it was at a certain date or upon activation of the new one, etc.) that would brick them so people would not keep using it.  However, if you installed a custom ROM that didn't get OTA updates from nvidia, this would never be installed and you could continue using it, basically just getting an extra tablet out of the whole affair.  If someone were ever to flash the old one back to stock after that point though, it would instantly install the bricking update and cease to function.

 

I wonder if that's what has happened here.  I would hope that if that was the case, your friend would have had the decency to mention to you that a) your battery has a slight chance of swelling up and dying (not note 7 style but still bad), and b) that if you ever flash back to stock you will kill it.

 

Like I said, idk if this is actually what happened but it's the first thing that crossed my mind.

[LaboonTheWhale]

6 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Well I'll just explain my theory even though I have nothing to confirm or refute it at this point:

 

Remember the OG shield tablet battery recall?  Everyone with a certain number was given the option to enter their serial number into the recall site, which would cause Nvidia (if the number was in the right range of course) to send you a new tablet, no questions asked.  An update was then pushed to the old ones (I can't remember how this worked if it was at a certain date or upon activation of the new one, etc.) that would brick them so people would not keep using it.  However, if you installed a custom ROM that didn't get OTA updates from nvidia, this would never be installed and you could continue using it, basically just getting an extra tablet out of the whole affair.  If someone were ever to flash the old one back to stock after that point though, it would instantly install the bricking update and cease to function.

 

I wonder if that's what has happened here.  I would hope that if that was the case, your friend would have had the decency to mention to you that a) your battery has a slight chance of swelling up and dying (not note 7 style but still bad), and b) that if you ever flash back to stock you will kill it.

 

Like I said, idk if this is actually what happened but it's the first thing that crossed my mind.

fantastic... he said he bought it for game design and hasnt used it since school. Granted he only wanted $50 for it so many that should have been a red flag? But I doubt he's also one to be in the know about this kind of news. I spoke to Nvidia and they had no mention of this. Great...

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Just now, LaboonTheWhale said:

fantastic... he said he bought it for game design and hasnt used it since school. Granted he only wanted $50 for it so many that should have been a red flag? But I doubt he's also one to be in the know about this kind of news. I spoke to Nvidia and they had no mention of this. Great...

Yeah I would not sell one for $50 personally unless it was used.  A brand new one still goes for like $150 - $200 so... yeah.

[LaboonTheWhale]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Yeah I would not sell one for $50 personally unless it was used.  A brand new one still goes for like $150 - $200 so... yeah.

How should I go about this explaining it to my friend, he probably would not understand the situation. Could you link me to something that talks about the recall? or the battery issue.

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18 minutes ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

How should I go about this explaining it to my friend, he probably would not understand the situation. Could you link me to something that talks about the recall? or the battery issue.

Well like I said we don't know for sure that that's what happened, but here's some links:

http://tabletrecall.expertproductinquiry.com/

https://forum.xda-developers.com/shield-tablet/general/kill-kill-switch-shield-tablet-xx-t3179489

[LaboonTheWhale]

19 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Well like I said we don't know for sure that that's what happened, but here's some links:

http://tabletrecall.expertproductinquiry.com/

https://forum.xda-developers.com/shield-tablet/general/kill-kill-switch-shield-tablet-xx-t3179489

speaking to Nvidia, as per S/N, it seems it was a recall model that was to be tossed... but my fried says the school gave it to him brand new. oh boy...

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Just now, LaboonTheWhale said:

speaking to Nvidia, as per S/N, it seems it was a recall model that was to be tossed... but my fried says the school gave it to him brand new. oh boy...

Maybe they did.  This recall was quite a while into the device existing, not like super early on the way it was for note 7

[michaelsreign]

If you are interested in selling the bricked tab I would be happy to give you $60 for it via PayPal.  I have a cracked screen and can't find a replacement.  I could just be able to switch in my motherboard and be good to go.  Let me know if your interested. Thanks man!  @laboonthewhale