yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Shield Tablet General] Frankenscript:
[MENTION=4685028]mystreetspirit[/MENTION]:

Yes, as Bogdacutu has said in this thread and I think some others, the old tablet needs an internet connection in order to receive the kill switch. They know when we activate the new one, they've got a database linking the new activation to the OLD tablet, and next time the OLD tablet runs the TegraOTA app it silently downloads the kill instructions, runs it, and kills the old tablet. Removing TegraOTA or simply putting a different ROM on the old tablet prevents it from looking for and receiving the kill instructions. I believe Bogdacutu said he didn't see an indication that they keep track of which OLD tablets actually download the kill instructions.

I remain a bit shocked at how many people want to keep and use the old tablets. I'd like to keep mine for parts, if not obligated to send it back, in case I screw up my screen or get case-cracks. I'm still evaluating the ethics on this before I make a final decision. But for gosh sakes, the early failure rate of the battery was enough for Nvidia to feel obligated to spend millions to replace every tablet out there... wow. Just because there are not a lot of reports of major problems (I've heard "4 out of 88,000"), these batteries go bad over time and that number will spike. I've factory reset my old one, let it drain to a safe ~5% battery, and shut it off. In all likelihood, being in the US, I'll eventually ship it back. It looks like the return box takes it to a place that will likely refurb it for resale. I don't think in the US they just go to a recycler for scrapping. I believe Nvidia wants to extract value out of it, and that's their right, and if so I feel ethically bound to give them my old one.

As to if someone sells it, laws vary from place to place but in the US I believe it to be illegal to sell something that's been recalled, and certainly you can't ship a known defective/recalled lithium battery without jumping through special hoops like Nvidia did. Anyone who sells one of these old units even with disclaimer that it's recalled is probably violating the law. I'm not a lawyer though, so I could be wrong. Certainly if a unit starts a fire, the seller would be in deep trouble.

The bigger problem is that all the defective units out there will drag down the resale price of GOOD units. A year from now I might want to sell my replacement unit, perfectly good with good battery, but buyers might be suspicious that it could be an old unit... this force will likely depress resale value of this model permanently.
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
Well, first off I doubt Nvidia cares that much about it (they are trying to deactivate the "dangerous" tablets, it's not their fault their users are trying to get around that), and even if they cared, they still can't do that without basically running their reputation deep into the ground ("Nvidia reinstalls a backdoor into their devices without user permission" - that doesn't sound too good for them, does it?)
[Shield Tablet General] Shorty88jr:
Haha no it doesn't sound good but I was just trying to tell you there are ways they could get all the devices bricked and render your work around useless. Not saying what you did wasn't important or good just that there are ways to kill all the tablets.
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
Other apps still can't reinstall TegraOTA as a system app, which is likely required for it to actually work
[Shield Tablet General] Samuelgentl:
Ok Im a noob in rooting tablets and flashing custom ROMs. What I know is that my old shield LTE is included in recall but I have never had any overheating problem with it. Its battery temperature has never gone over 41 degreec celzius. Its like new tablet and it would be really a pitty to kill it so Im also for killing the killing switch.

If I understood it right there are (up to now) two methods how to disable killing switch:

1. flash custom ROM

or

2. deleting /system/app/TegraOTA in stock ROM

My shield tablet has the last update 5.1.1 and it is unrooted. Could somebody give me instructions (like for a noob)on how to root it (I usually used kingo root with my smartphones but Im affraid that it is not gonna work for shield tablet newest update) and then instructions how to flash there a new custom ROM and where to download necessary apps for doing it
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
[MENTION=4382472]Samuelgentl[/MENTION], your question is probably better suited for the Q&A subforum
[Shield Tablet General] Dashwood Foxe:
I'm sure someone with enough brains can figure out the patterns by intercepting the I/O calls between bootloader and the AES engine since the bootloader can "use" the key. I'm not sure how we can get to intercepting the handshakes required.
[Shield Tablet General] fkofilee:
Arhhh yes... Remember if you restore to stock... It'll download it again :p
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
there aren't any handshakes, the bootloader can't "use" the key except by going through the hardware AES engine, which won't reveal the key at all
[Shield Tablet General] fro24:
Blisspop 3.9

Would flashing the latest Blisspop leave me vulnerable to the kill switch since its is based on the 3.1 kernel source code and blobs?
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
No, the OTA that kills the tablet needs TegraOTA from the stock ROM.
[Shield Tablet General] Dashwood Foxe:
Can't we rainbowattack the AES engine? I know the tablet has the option to encrypt the content of your storage media, doesn't that use the AES engine?
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
Even if it does, it won't help in any way. AES isn't vulnerable to known-plaintext attacks.
[Shield Tablet General] fro24:
Thank you!
[Shield Tablet General] Dashwood Foxe:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2071626 Maybe this would help, not sure if it's applicable.
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
not applicable, that's only for tegra 2 and 3
[Shield Tablet General] Dashwood Foxe:
Whelp, was worth the shot. I tried.

---------- Post added at 10:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 PM ----------

Hey Bogdacatu, where I can I get a hold of the ABX drivers and the sdk/nvflash. I can probably poke at it.
[Shield Tablet General] Beauenheim:
Glad I could help! Will wait a bit longer but I will be putting 3.1 back on to my old tablet!
[Shield Tablet General] MusikMonk:
I will probably try redoing what you did for fun when I find the time, but I was wondering if you can release a tool to manually request the OTA of death. Just in case NVIDIA's keeping track which tablets have been deactivated and which haven't (not that it would be of much use to them).
[Shield Tablet General] Mr.Optimistic:
Ok I'm kinda lost..basically the kill switch is embedded in the newest ota and it has the ability to install itself.How would that work.My tablet never could update itself I always had to manually install it thru twerp.Every time I had a new update it would fail to install after reboot so I had to do it myself..Wouldn't that make my tablet sort of immune since I could Denie any further updates.
[Shield Tablet General] bluegizmo83:
See post #8 http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=62345335&postcount=8
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
Old units are easy to identify from the recall message at battery info.

As far as morality goes in returning these tablets, if Nvidia wanted the tablets back, would have found a way to retrieve them, not tell 80% of the users to "dispose" of them. Nvidia HAD to put the killswitch in place because of regulations. If users found a way to bypass it, is their problem. I would not willingly destroy my tablet, as some of you did, just for the sake of morality. Is nothing moral to transform 88.000 tablets in waste. These are easy repaired. Anyway, I am sure the battery will not explode so easily. They implemented some stuff like fast charging that pushed the battery over the limit and generated heating and bloating and in extreme cases, rupturing and catching fire. That function was removed in update 3.0.

For the battery to blow up, is a long way and any user would first observe that the tablet is cracked in half by that ballooned battery. Not to say that it will become very hot.

The only time my tablets battery ever reached 43 degrees was in a full bus, with 35 degrees ambient, while being used. Was rather hard to miss it since was burning my hands, so I stopped using it there. I use BatteryBot and shows at anytime the battery temperature.

Want to play safe? Don't let the tablet charging unattended (over night, when away from home) or use a standard USB slot of 500mA (from a computer or a powered hub) so it goes into slow charging.
[Shield Tablet General] guily6669:
Well... There's a vdeo in youtube of a guy with a shield that claims it had only one week and while playing Half Life the tablet swell a damn lot and opened up by it self...

Well, just also check battery explosion on youtube and you will easily see that it can probably blow your whole hand into pieces and catch fire to the entire house.

The thing is, the tablet is the same, so if nvidia wanted they could simply call the tablets and replace the battery, don't know why they didnt care for the old one (maybe there's some defect on hardware that we dont even know??).

Anyway we probably can buy a 6000 mah 1s generic cheap battery and replace it with the original one (but you have to make sure it can stand up the shield's discharge rate).

For example a 6000 mah at 1C dischare and charge rate means the battery can be charged at 6 amps for 1 hour charge (so ir will take the nvidia charger very well), and can discharge 6 amps for one hour of use which is probably something like ~22 Watt

ps: But just to make sure try to use a 2C battery with around 6amps (6000mah) :). Oh and don't buy Lipos even though they are better, they are the most explosive one ;)
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
The charger outputs 11 watts (that is roughly 0.5C), so charging shouldn't be a problem. And discharging goes the same if not even slower. How fast any of you drained a full battery? Surely in more than 3 hrs. So less that 0.3C. How could this battery blow up in such a low usage device, beats me. Maybe other parts heat up the battery.

Everyone I've told about this said it must be some other reason for the recall... The battery was easy replaceable. Nvidia could have paired up with service centres in each country, send good batteries to them, collect the tablets locally, replace battery and send back.
[Shield Tablet General] guily6669:
Yes that's what I think too. But it still might be a very cheap bad quality defective battery that can't even discharge at that rate?

I really would love some advanced engineer to investigate it and come to a conclusion of why this HUGE money loss for nvidia to say just put it in the garbage...
[Shield Tablet General] Frankenscript:
I'm unfamiliar with the regional demographics of where Nvidia has sold the tablets (# per country). As a running assumption, I'm presuming >50% of them are in the US, probably more like 75%. If I'm way off, let me know because I'm interested. :)

Anyway, Nvidia DOES apparently want the tablets back, at least in the US which is probably the only (or one of the few) countries where it makes financial sense to get them back. Being a US user, when I got my replacement tablet it came with a box that will take the old one to Surface Art Engineering, Inc.. Some people got/are getting their shipment boxes later, having gotten the new tablets earlier. What they will presumably doe is either swap the old battery out for a new one, and the units enter a re-use path (either as part of the RMA process outgoing units, or to be sold as refurbs), or they will be disassembled for components to be used elsewhere. Either of these paths results in financial compensation for Nvidia, so my own code of ethics is leaning toward sending mine back. I don't feel legally obligated to send it back or anything, as I don't believe anything I signed compels me to do it. However, the preponderance of evidence shows that on this issue Nvidia does care. It doesn't seem like the shipment boxes they sent out are done simply as a convenience to help us get them into landfills.

I'm not in any hurry to come to a conclusion on this... they took 5 weeks to replace my tablet, I can take a similar amount of time to come to a final decision as to "keep it for parts, just in case" versus sending it in. I won't be charging it or using it again. Even if I had need for another tablet, say for one of my kids, I'd rather just buy something cheap at Costco (~$180 for a decent Samsung tablet with case) than risk using a tab with a bad battery. The reason I got the shield was to get an unlocked LTE unit which is a relatively rare commodity. But I have no need for a second LTE tablet.

I'm not trying to push my ethics onto others... you're all free to choose your own path. I'm just stating my own view of the situation, and I'm interested in other people's opinions such as Topcat36's view.
[Shield Tablet General] :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_36yNWw_07g
[Shield Tablet General] Anonym323:
My Shield works also.

Next OTA: ST - yy (urgent) is the message I get.

Used a custom rom and also used your zip file and flashed it via flashify to block OTA.

Thanks!
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
I have the new tablet for 20 days now. No killswitch update waiting.

I specify again that the new tablet was never used with TegraOTA active on internet. I updated it manually to 3.1.1 and removed the OTA file before connecting it to my WiFi.

Seems that Nvidia sends the killswitch AFTER the new tablet connects to the OTA server the first time. If mine didn't, no kill switch was sent either. Fancy that :)
[Shield Tablet General] Headstyler:
APX after using this St-yy zip :S

Hey Guys,

after i rootet my device i use this st-yy than i got black screen, cant reboot or turning on the shield tablet, but if i connect the usb to the PC thy show me APX , my question now is what can i do to safe my tablet? :confused: Thankfull for any helps
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
You killed your tablet yourself ?! :mad: st-yy is the killing package why would you flash that? Nomoreota.zip is the package you had to flash.

Your tablet is dead man. You cannot do anything anymore. Next time, read more carefull the instructions.

Bogdacutu, please remove that package from the thread. Seems there are people ..... enough to flash the killswitch manually ( just in case the urgent OTA spared them). x^x
[Shield Tablet General] Headstyler:
OMG , okay thats why i in APX mode now, haha **** but nothing to do, maybe someone can this handle in fiew month =) otherwise i will use it as Spare part like the Display etc. Ty for your answer i used the wrong zip so bad for me -.-
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
I think there already are enough warnings around those links, whoever decides to ignore them (without knowing exactly what they are doing) probably deserves what's coming to them.
[Shield Tablet General] frenziedfemale:
I just want to say how great it is that you have this attitude instead of trying to blame the oops on the OP or someone else. Sorry you killed your tablet but keep the awesome attidue dude!☺
[Shield Tablet General] andilama:
hi, my tablet in place is ok , the old one today after 15 days it was off and does not want to light up . is there any way to turn it back ? sorry for the english
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
Too late. You had to follow the instructions in this post BEFORE the tablet was killed.

Enjoy your new tablet.
[Shield Tablet General] julianceed:
my nvidia shield tablet apx have a led of charge only this work
[Shield Tablet General] kamma:
there is another solution, which i found more safe.

your shield tablet must be rooted and bootloader unlocked.

if you have these two prerequisites, you can continue with these simple steps:

1. completely remove original recovery

adb shell

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS

2. if you need to install anything with twrp/cwm, boot into recovery from bootloader

fastboot boot twrp-2.8.7.1-shieldtablet.img
[Shield Tablet General] MusikMonk:
You could simply use:

fastboot erase recovery

At any rate, if you don't also remove the updater, I'm guessing that your tablet will probably get stuck in a loop of restarts trying to flash the urgent update.

Edit:

I knew this was mentioned before but I couldn't find it at first:

So, yes it will keep restarting.
[Shield Tablet General] Anonym323:
What about custom Roms and flashing twrp to recovery ? Is the stock recovery not already gone then or is the original recovery still there ?
[Shield Tablet General] bung-koe:
hello

is there a way to fix the bricked tablet? i hope someone will reply (sorry for my english T.T) i really want the tablet to work again :"(
[Shield Tablet General] MusikMonk:
No.
[Shield Tablet General] Hellren:
If by bricked you mean tablet where suicidal update was flashed, then no, there is no way for us to unbrick it. If you use search, you will find many posts of people asking same questions you ask with reply I just provided.

Odesláno z mého A0001 pomocí Tapatalk
[Shield Tablet General] Singularity_iOS:
So nvidia FINALLY sent my new tablet, after months of delays. Its not here yet and probably wont be for 2 weeks due to the fact that i'm in australia, but I was wondering nvidia doesn't require you to send it back do they? What do the instructions of disposal they keep telling me about entail? Im planning on installing CM on it and just using it as a spare. Has anyone else actually kept theirs? Obviously some have, otherwise this thread would be pointless, but I just wanna know.
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
I use the old tablet and keep the new one as spare. Better make the most of the already used one while it lasts and keep the new one spotless :)
[Shield Tablet General] JuStAdsor:
My instructions says to throw it in the garbage, following the regulations related to electronic waste. :)

No kidding! This is what it says!

Trimis de pe al meu SHIELD Tablet folosind Tapatalk
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
Interested in giving it to me ? I wanna experiment some fixes for the killswitch and don't wanna kill my tablet.

Or somebody else from Ro. who has the tablet killed and wants to donate it for research ?
[Shield Tablet General] josephsmithybull:
Hi Bogdacutu,

Do you know if they're implementing this kill switch for the Android TV? If so can this kill switch be applied to the device? Can I use the Shield Tablet OTA Check to check if Nvidia triggered the kill switch? Sorry for all the questions:D
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
What would be the purpose to kill the Android TV boxes ? I hope they did not recall those as well.

This is used only for wrecking the old, recalled Shield Tablets so do not worry.
[Shield Tablet General] josephsmithybull:
They did lol. It wont let me post the link cuz im a new member but they're recalling the PRO because they have a faulty hardrive. I got the replacement today but i dont want to return the device since there was nothing wrong with it lol.
[Shield Tablet General] topcat36:
I can't believe this :screwy:

Yes, the link should work. It shows what update is waiting for a serial (correct me if I am wrong Bogdacutu). I presume they could render the AndroidTV useless in the same way, but you should check a thread related to the killswitch for AndroidTV.
[Shield Tablet General] Bogdacutu:
it's specific to the shield tablet (as evidenced by it getting somewhat broken when a new OTA appears), so no, it won't work for the shield TV (although it's pretty easy to check for updates manually, check the page source). the thing is, I haven't seen nvidia mention deactivating the shield TVs anywhere (makes sense, considering that the main purpose of the recall is bricked devices)
[Shield Tablet General] josephsmithybull:
"Note: This note only applies to SHIELD Pro (500GB) units. There have been no reports of update issues with SHIELD (16GB) units.

Less than 1 percent of SHIELD Pro units have been diagnosed as having a hard drive issue that can worsen over time.

A symptom of this issue is the device’s failure to properly update during a System Upgrade (fastboot menu is seen).

Units experiencing this will need to be replaced. We apologize for this inconvenience and will do everything to ensure a quick replacement."

They're replacing bricked devices and devices that show pixelated icons. My device shows none of the symptons of a bad HD and was still able to get a replacement. I want to keep both devices but i dont want them to remotely trigger the kill switch. If they haven't already I'm pretty sure they will implement the kill switch for people like me. :D
[Shield Tablet General] JuStAdsor:
My tablet is in perfect shape ;). Why should I kill it?

Trimis de pe al meu ASUS_Z00AD folosind Tapatalk
[Shield Tablet General] Anonym323:
[Ccvvxxdf5QUOTE=kamma;62932626]there is another solution, which i found more safe.

your shield tablet must be rooted and bootloader unlocked.

if you have these two prerequisites, you can continue with these simple steps:

1. completely remove original recovery

adb shell

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS

2. if you need to install anything with twrp/cwm, boot into recovery from bootloader

fastboot boot twrp-2.8.7.1-shieldtablet.img

[/QUOTE]

What about custom Roms and flashing twrp to recovery ? Is the stock recovery not already gone then or is the original recovery still there ?
[Shield Tablet General] Lettuce:
Hello,

i installed now blisspop 4.0.1 ony my OLD shield!

My new shield is not startet.

Will this enough my old shield is save? i dont do uptdaes with my old shield! Kill swich will be on with my new shield later!
[Shield Tablet General] vrmuhr:
Twrp vs CWM

Most posts seem to fancy TWRP over CWM.

Don't want to (re-) launch a general debate but to understand advantages of TWRP specific to Shield tabbie.

PS

Mine has CWM, no issues so far
[Shield Tablet General] SnowiiSnowii:
Hi everyone,

I have a few questions:

I have received the new Shield but I am keeping it in the box untouched for now, my old one is in original state (stock, unrooted) with 5.1.1 (the last OTA I know about was the one enabling me to recognise the recall type of battery) and now an OTA was trying to download which I cancelled immidiately - I have just turned the old unit on after a few weeks. Using http://shield.bogdacutu.me/ I get back a blank page, so I am guessing the killswitch hasn't been triggered for my unit yet, is that correct? Or does it mean the opposite - no update waiting for my unit, therefore it has "all it needs already"?

I also would like to confirm that I can simply leave the new unit untouched for now and easily root and flash TWRP/CWM on the old one - I am fearing once I start the process due to some OTA already in the old unit it will deactive itself or something similar. Is that possible? Does not touching the new unit guarantee that the old one has and will have no kill switch in the meantime or at least it won't be triggered while trying to flash TWRP/CWM?

Once flashed then what? what version of stock can I use? would be great to have some noobfriendly step-by-step for my situation (which I guess could be quite widespread) - ofc not describing how to flash, we can find that in other threats, but steps what to take to prevent the old unit from killing itself.

Thanks!