I have had a problem with Oticon aids (multiple models) where one aid will “shut down” and not produce much sound. This behavior seems to be triggered by a loud sound, spoon drop, door slam, etc. and is almost exclusive to the left aid. When this happens, the volume and program buttons on both aids work. The problem will continue for an indeterminate amount of time and cannot be fixed via a reboot of the devices. I have gone through 3 different models, and all have exhibited the same behavior. They have tried worked with Oticon to solve the problem and have tried replacing speakers, deleting the program settings from the computer and creating new programs from scratch, replacing the devices, etc. I am a software engineer and I believe the devices detect some sound and respond by going into a clamp down mode where they don’t produce any sound, and that this mode is saved in the device, thus being remembered and restored after a reboot. Oticon has said this isn’t possible, but they have yet to offer a viable alternative to my theory.
I cannot believe I am the only one having these problems. Has anyone else out there experienced something like this?
Regards, Guy
I have had a few times that my aids will reboot if there is a really loud sound, for me it is usually a very loud scream or shout, and also if a very loud vehicle goes by. I have had my aids shutdown volume wise from the same things, but readjusting the volume or worse case a reboot fixes them.
My Opn 1’s will shut down given a loud sound with a fast rise in volume. I decided it was a self preservation path routine if the amplification of the sound would exceed the design limits of the receiver. I have no data to support this conjecture. Usually requires a restart but it does not happen often.
@guy, Sounds like something in the transient noise management settings is setting it off? I’ve had issues with Oticon devices too–first-generation OPN and second-generation OPN S, so I feel your frustration. I’m of the belief that there are some electronic issues Oticon knows about and others that are popping up out of nowhere that people like us are reporting and Oticon has no idea how to fix. It’s sad, because when the devices perform as designed, they are the best I’ve worn for speech clarity. Others have had no issues whatsoever–so are there electronics issues, quality control issues, or are these quirks in our Oticon devices just specific to some of us? I hope you can find out the answer to your shutting-down problem, but you will most likely end up diagnosing it yourself. Don’t expect Oticon to solve it–in my experience and that of other posters, customer service doesn’t seem to be their strong suit. You will likely get better brainstorming and solutions from people on this forum! Maybe @Volusiano, the resident Oticon OPN expert here, can help. Wishing you luck.
This used to be a frequent and recurring issue (reboot on loud sounds) in the first couple of years of the Oticon OPN release. This has happened to me personally as well, but many other folks reported it on this forum as well back at the time. But somewhere along maybe the 2018.1 firmware and software update release, the issue went away for the most part, as reported by many OPN wearers on this forum, and for me personally as well.
Sometimes it was related to having the Transient Noise Management (some people reporting the issue went away when they turn TNM off), but not always, as in my case, turning it off didn’t resolve the issue.
Assuming that the OP is on the latest firmware release, the only thing I can think of is that maybe based on the OP’s level of hearing loss (which is not known because it’s not posted by the OP), maybe this particular type or level of hearing loss (or a combination thereof) lies in an area that is still prone to trigger a shutdown based on the software.
It is kind of odd that virtually nobody else seems to report this type of issue anymore on this forum, but it’s still happening on a regular basis for the OP. I’m curious whether switching over to the S is an option for you, Guy? Even if it’s not, I wonder if your audi and Oticon would be willing to loan out an OPN S for you to try as part of the debugging effort to see if your issue still exists in the OPN S as well. At lease we would think that Oticon may be more vested in making sure that your issue doesn’t appear on the S, and therefore want to help themselves figure this out on the S by helping you.
I’m not particularly familiar with Oticon, but sometimes I find setting up a whole new patient profile in NOAH, entering in the audiogram and starting from scratch with the fitting can help with glitches within the hearing aid set up, rather than making adjustments to the hearing aids within the existing patient profile. Definitely a long-shot but worth a try if this hasn’t been completed by the clinican yet. I’d also be looking at the MPO settings within the software to check the levels set. Seems odd that it has happened with so many different hearing aids.
I originally had Alta2 Pros but they had this dropout issue, so my provider suggested the next level down, the Nera2 Pro, as they had sold lots of those with no reported issues, those had the same problem, so one of the things they tried was to do a full reboot on the software since the original settings had came from the Alta2s, they were never able to solve the problem. I was finally able to meet with the Oticon rep whom I don’t think believed that the issue would survive a reboot.
Remember if they just dropped out and I could reboot them to fix it, this would not be an issue, but the problem is that I have had this happen where I waited over an hour for it to come back online!
After getting home from the rep visit the condition happened again so I ran back to the office, he was gone but my provider was able to hear the sound dropout, reboot, and see it stay off. This resulted in the rep offering me a swap to a totally different chipset on the Siya1. Within a week the left aid experienced the same dropout!
In summary, all 3 devices Alta2, Nera2 and Siya1 experience the same reboot surviving dropout, which by the way is almost exclusive to the left aid.
Thanks all for the replies!
Regards, Guy
I am in Melbourne Australia visiting my son and his family ( I live in Auckland New Zealand) and the second day of a 7 day stay my new Opn S rechargeable aids have turned themselves down to virtually inaudible for reasons only known to themselves and nothing will reset them. As I will be spending a number of months of 2020 travelling this is an issue I cannot live with. A week of finding it hard to hear my grandchildren is bad enough but 2 months in Europe semi deaf after outlaying NZ$10,000 on “state of the art” aids is just unacceptable. I might have to switch them out for Resounds. Not as good a sound but resettable.
There seem to be a lot of Oticon representative dealers in Melbourne. Wouldn’t they be able to help you out? See link below:
Thanks for responding Sierra. Yes there are a few Oticon agents Here in Melbourne but it is the summer holiday season here and most businesses are closed. More to the point I just don’t want to have the cloud hanging over me that, at any given moment, I might need to find an audiologist just to keep these Opn S aids working. I will be spending August and September in Europe and I’m not in any way looking forward to trying to get the aids restarted in Athens! The very fact that I can’t give them a cold reboot is worrying. Great sounding aids but I have had a miserable time trying to enjoy my grandkids etc while struggling to hear what they are saying.
It sounds like your aids were not fit to your needs correctly, and not the aids themselves. I have the OPN1 and I love them. But I will admit it took about 8 different appointments with adjustments and tweaks to get them the way I really need them. I have never been able to hear this great before. Even with a few issues with very soft speaking people. I have no issues with most in noisy environments.
Actually they have been fit brilliantly. My audiologist has worked as a recording engineer and totally understands my needs and we have fine tuned them well. When they are working they sound great. I mix albums on them! But aids that just turn down to inaudible and cannot be user reset are just not fit for purpose especially for someone who travels a lot.
Maybe a spare set of aids are in order.
If both aids all of a sudden fail to work at the same time, I suspect that it’s not the hearing aids that fail, but more likely it’s the charger that fails, rendering the rechargeable batteries inside the aids depleted, causing them to be non-functional. If it’s the actual hearing aids that fail, it’s VERY HIGHLY UNLIKELY that they both fail at the same time and in the same manner like this. There’s another thread somewhere on this forum very recently that complains about another pair of OPN S rechargeable failing at the same time in the same way, very similar to your situation as well.
Unfortunately this is the disadvantage of having rechargeable hearing aids, except for the ZPower where you can just swap the rechargeable batteries with regular batteries and move on until you have time to address the charging or battery issue. Unfortunately the ZPower concept is good, but its execution is very poor and unreliable at best, or otherwise it would have been the way to go so you can have the best of both worlds.
Of course this is all a guess, but it makes sense to me. In the other thread that I mentioned earlier, somebody said that there’s a bug with the OPN S charging station where it may drain the rechargeable batteries completely in some cases, rendering the hearing aids entirely non-functional and useless.
I got my Oticon OPN S2 aids in March 2020and had a number of random shutdowns and immediate restarts bothaids affected). Aids were replaced September 2020and the restarts resumed the next day. The profile was recreated from a different computer at a different location and loaded to my aids using the Remote Care app in September 2020. A few days ago November 5, 2020, the restarts resumed in the right aid. Oticon thinks it’s a moisture issue but I have my doubts. They say they’ve never seen this problem before. Grasping for straws at this point!
I got my opns1 from the VA, every time I listen to music on my iPad they shut down! I’ve had 2 different pairs and they both have done the same thing.
I have been suffering with this for years and have never found anything on the internet to help. Just the same as @guy the hearing aid shuts off, comes back but is at 10-20% of the correct volume, switching on and off doesn’t work. It will randomly work 10 to 60 minutes later. This has been an issue across opn s and more 1s so it is definitely a software issue. It’s not a battery issue as the app shows they still have battery life. It is so frustrating to occur and so frustrating to be told by Oticon it’s not an issue in spite of the fact we are here all complaining of the same issue. It is driving me insane. @guy did you ever get it fixed?
Interested I have used OPNS1 and I now have More1 and Real1 aids and i have seldom had my aids restart. Yes there have been isolated occasions of a restart but so far between i haven’t paid it any attention.
I assume that you had your HCP update to the latest firmwares on the OPN S and the More already?