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Nvidia has announced a replacement program for its Shield Pro console, though the company claims only a tiny fraction of the shipped devices are actually affected. According to the company, this recall only affects Shield Pro users who bought the 500GB version of the console, not standard users with the 16GB flavor. According to Nvidia, devices that need to be replaced are those which exhibit the following characteristics (screenshot from Nvidia’s GeForce forum):

Nvidia hasn’t given any further information on what caused the issue, but has promised to replace the defective units for customers, or to work with them to secure RMAs through other retailers where it is able to do so. The company claims that less-than 1% of all units have been impacted, but also notes that the issue can “worsen over time.” If you’re seeing issues with graphical corruption or unusual pauses today, in other words, you’d best deal with the problem now before things get worse.

The timing on this particular recall is a bit awkward, given that NV prominently called out the Apple TV in a recent blog post. aggressively positioning Shield as the best all-in-one microconsole and dismissing the Apple TV as only good for people who play “Crossyroad” [sic]. (This appears to be a misspelled reference to the mobile game “Crossy Road,” which debuted for iOS late last year).

To be fair to Nvidia, it’s not wrong — the Shield TV is one of the most powerful microconsole gaming platforms available today — but it’s embarrassing to be recalling your own hardware less than a week after slamming Apple’s latest set-top box. There’s also the fact that while it may be the most powerful of the micro-consoles, micro-consoles themselves aren’t exactly setting the world on fire. Hardcore gamers are still opting for the Xbox One and PS4, while casual gamers are happy with relatively modest game performance. Nvidia’s Maxwell gives them an advantage in this space, to be sure, and they offer game streaming options that other providers can’t match — but are those features enough to drive products like Shield as a wedge into the wider gaming market? So far, the answer seems to be “No” — and that may limit Shield TV’s appeal in the long term.

This is also the second recent recall of Shield hardware, and though we applaud Nvidia for taking action to resolve the issues it’s encountered with each Shield device, announcements like this can leave the impression that the hardware is less-than-reliable. So far we see no sign that’s true, but if you have a device affected by the recall, drop in and let us know if new hardware fixes the problem.

Read more http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/214279-nvidia-recalls-shield-pro-console-over-hard-drive-woes