From a quick glance at Best Buy it looks like the market has turned to solid state drives for all the low-end laptops. You want that for speed, not a leftover older model with hard drive. 64GB drive seems really small, 128GB is better. I got my mother (98YO) a Dell with 128GB SSD, and upgraded the memory from 4GB to 12GB.
@x475aws: Thanks for this information. It’s a big help. I’m 72, and have not kept up with Windows machines at all.
But - let me ask you this, if I may - given that my 2007 MacBook is totally defunct and all our other devices are Apple, would it be wiser to get a new MacBook and run Windows/Genie2 on a virtual machine setup? (The only real use I have for a computer is recording on GarageBand and a bit of writing.)
I so have a bunch of instructional DVDs that I’d like ro continue to be able to view…
You’re an intelligent, tech-savvy person, so your advice would be helpful.
Keep in mind the following system requirement for Genie 2 when you look for a laptop. This instruction is for Genie 2 2020.2 but hopefully the same applies for Genie 2 2021.2.1 which is the latest version right now.
Thanks for this input, @Volusiano. I did remember that there were minimum requirements for running a Genie2. I just checked Apple prices, and they’re way to high to commit the resources to running a virtual machine for one Windows app.
I’m going to have to go to BestBuy with these minimum requirements and see whether they have any sales or open box items, if I decide to pursue the DIY route. In that case, I’ll have to figure into the proposition the cost of NoahLink Wireless, etc, all so that I can make adjustments that:
- VAC may not authorize me to perform, and
- Are already provided to me, gratis, the only downside being the patience required to book the required audiologist appointments.
Giving this some serious thought, I realize that I’m not so unhappy with the current performance of my More1 HAs that I’m willing to jump through these hoops in order to tweak them. It’s all well and good to discuss such tweaks here, in the Forum, but it’s another matter to be willing to invest the real time required to actually “get into it”. This is actually a valuable realization for me. I’m 72, and I’m not going to live forever. There are other things I’d be happier doing with my remaining time, I think, than tweak my hearing devices.
Of course, if I encounter an adjustment problem that my audiologist can’t resolve within the terms of his agreement with VAC, it may be that I’ll have to go this route.
Thank all of you, however, who have offered information and suggestions about getting into DIY.
An optical drive isn’t standard on computers these days.
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@gkumar, many thanks for the details. I used to get 4 1/2 days out of the OPN S1’s on disposables…
Hopefully the rechargeables in the More 1s last at least a year of constant draining…
On most days by 10pm they go down to 15%, sometimes less… One time i saw 0% left on one side and somehow the one HA was still working before it put it on the charger…lol
@Luga: FWIW, I wear my More1s for 17-18 hours a day and i usually have 18-25% of battery left at the end. I’ve never run them down to zero in actual use (I did forget to plug in the charger one night.)
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The lowest I have seen my More1 aids has been 35% but I don’t do as much streaming as some do. My day starts at about 7am and ends at about 10pm. My aids are always connected to my iPhone but I only stream calls and a couple hours of TV using the TV adapter.
I run Genie 2 (latest version) by booting Windows 10 via BootCamp on both a 2017 iMac Pro and a 2016 MacBook Pro. Seems to work fine using a Noahlink wireless with my OPN S 1 aids. The one down side of BootCamp is you have to have a version of Windows 10 for which you have a license so you basically have to purchase Windows if you don’t have a license. Using BootCamp to boot Windows you don’t have to be running virtual machine software with the overhead and possible incompatibilities.
You might wish to consider an older refurbished Mac that has an optical drive as the newer ones don’t have them.
Stuart
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Thanks for your input, Stuart . I’m toed up with yard work for a while, but I’ll have a look around later.
Perhaps we should start another thread so I don’t end up hijacking this one? (I tend to not clue into the drift until I’ve thoroughly pissed some folks off, which is not my intention.)
I am happy with the performance of the rechargeables and maybe just a little worried for what will happen down the road… It’s all the streaming that I do that drives the power requirements… During the weekend the More’s battery has much more charge left at bedtime. I am also in IT and a byproduct of working from home on the phone all the time I suppose…
@Luga: I power my HA charger with a battery pack, both of which live in my nightstand drawer. This getup solves the dual bugaboos of:
- Dangling cords for cats to play with/chew through, and
- Frequent, unannounced power failures in our neck of the boonies.
I usually put my HAs in around 05:00-05:30h, and take them out between 23:00-23:30 h. Usually, I still have between 18-25% power left in my rechargeable batteries at the end of the day. I drop the aids into the charger, hit the power button on the battery pack, and they’re all charged up and ready to go ~2 1;2 hours later… except for one night when I guess I didn’t hit the button correctly, and didn’t check the charging status of the recharging station/aids. Bummer.
When I awakened at about 03:30h for my run to the loo, I did remember to check my drawer: no charging lights were visible! Double bummer. I took the aids out and powered them up. The left aid showed 0% on the ON app meter, while the right aid indicated a residual charge of ~8%. I was relieved when I returned the HAs to their cradle, powered up the battery pack, and saw both devices light up as they’re supposed to when charging. Pew.
That morning, I slept in until about 08:00h, which is not my habit. The right aid showed green (charged), but the left was still yellow (not unexpected, since this device had shown less remaining charge at 03:30h.). Yet, when I pulled the left aid out of the charger and waited for it to boot up, it showed 100% charged on the app meter. This, recall, is the device whose LED was yellow when I removed it from the charger. I replaced it into the charger, and its LED charge status light turned green, immediately.
Thus began several days of increasingly erratic battery behaviour, ending in a botched battery exchange in the audiologist’s office and having to return the aids and charger to Oticon for examination.
As it happens, there were 2 mistakes made when the batteries were swapped out by the audiologist’s front desk personnel:
- OpnS batteries were installed into my More1 devices, rather than the appropriate cells, and
- The zero of the internal charge meter in the hearing aids was not recalibrated, as is required when installing new batteries (further exacerbating the crazy readings I was getting from the incorrect batteries).
So - I think that those of us who had no choice but to take delivery of rechargeable HAs have reason to be apprehensive about the unknown glitches we may encounter a year or two down the line. I no longer think that I’m a hypochondriac when my charge values aren’t what I think they should be at the end of the day.
[I apologize for the long post - if it is deemed to be too off-topic for inclusion in this thread, I will gladly copy and paste it into a new topic heading. I included the narrative here because I thought it would be useful to Luga.]
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@SpudGunner Thanks for sharing your experience and sorry it went sideways. I now have a few questions to ask the audi when my time comes to swap out the rechargeable batteries 
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@Luga: I had the experience, subsequent to drawing the aids down below 10%, that one aid started to lose charge at a much faster rate than the other. So you might want to keep that on your radar.
Best of luck to you.
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RayOVac Loud’N’Clear batteries lasted me approximately 77-79 hours. After the low battery beep, the batteries lasted at least 20 more minutes. Compared to iCelltech batteries, which last for 63-66 hours, about 20% more charge does not justify paying 50% more price.
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RayOVac Proline Advanced batteries lasted 79 hours. After low battery chime, the batteries lasted for more than 30 minutes. I paid $0.425 per Proline Advanced battery, so this is the worst performance/cost. RaOVac Loud’N’Clear battery is better value for $0.302 per battery.
The best value for money is iCelltech for $0.201 per battery. 1 cent gives you 3.1 hours of usage.
After about 3 months of using my more’s i was monitoring the battery levels through the day until i sleep. On average the batteries go down to 15-20% from 7am to 12:30 at the night with streaming videos and radio in the morning but i’m not sure if the batteries are safe to go that low? I think the average life of the batteries on the website representation is a full day so around 12-14 hours. Wondering why it takes 3 hours to fully charge the batteries even though they have so small capacity i htink 300mah each? Anyway i would like them to last more because if i want to go out for a drink at the night i have to charge them for minimum 30 minutes for additional 6 hours but i guess i just need to get used to it l afterall lol.
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@dimitrispap: I wear my More1s 17 hours a day, every day. When I take them out, there’s usually 25-27% charge remaining. I have worn them for 20 hours straight a couple of times, and have never gone below 10%.
I wouldn’t worry about running out of juice. The only thing that might not be good for the batteries is if you completely deplete them.
There’s a set charging rate requirement for LiPo batteries that determines the charge rate. It’s related to voltages, and not to charge capacity. I’m no techie, so that’s as much as I know. But I wouldn’t worry too much about your batteries giving out on you.
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Good to know thanks for the info Spud, i guess streaming eats so much the batteries and also the settings of the ha’s can also affect life. Another thing i noticed is that there is always batteries level difference like my right ha has always 7-10% less juice compared to the left one at the end of the day.