Oticon More random Restart

Hearing Aids
#11

Thank you all for your thoughts and insight, oddly enough, the first pair did not start this until 3-4 months af wearing, then became fairly consistent, yet random, they would perform well for weeks, then randomly shut down and restart. The second pair seemed to do the same as well as the loaners and the 3rd pair are doing this.

The wi fi frequency is a place to look, both at work and home, I would think though if this was a contributing factor, it issue would be more frequent? I don’t know enough about wi fi and its relationship to my aids to fully understand.

#12

At least in the US only 3 of the 11 Wi-Fi channels are non-overlapping. I work with enterprise Wi-FI systems at work.

Likely the access points at work are automatically dynamically set by the underlying system based on the least interference detected. For home in the US channels 1, 6, and 11 are the non-interfering channels.

#13

If this is a consistent pattern that you’re observing (works well for the first several weeks then starts acting flaky), I wonder if this may have to do with manufacturing tolerances or not. For example, if Oticon has decided to start loosening up their mfg tolerance requirement more recently and don’t bin as many parts (which don’t meet stricter tolerances but meet looser tolerances) as they should. Then over time, the degradation of performance due to the wear and tear of usage starts to trip up the aids and causing more frequent reboots. One possibility is that the memories used inside the aids may start faulting here and there and those faulty spots in the memories get blocked off one by one to disallow use of them. Maybe eventually too many get blacked out that there’s not enough memory space left to support the normal operation. Whenever an overflow condition occurs (maybe a lot more data get sampled and stacked up more than usual, maybe in a difficult listening environment), because there’s not enough memory space to hold data for the computation, the aids are forced to reboot themselves to clear everything out to start anew.

Of course this is only a very wild guess from the over-imagination of an engineer here and this speculation may not be true at all. But if this random reboot consistently starts very infrequently in the beginning but more and more frequent as time goes on, then it’s a plausible explanation.

It’s also possible that it’s a firmware bug where there are memory leaks due to sloppy codes that would cause memories to get unnecessarily filled up and not cleared out when the computations are done, causing the memories to overflow to a point of forcing a restart. But if it’s a firmware sloppy bug, then it would affect more people across the board and there would have been more complaints than usual.

#14

And this is what troubles me, all of my research (and talking to my audiologist) indicate that I am an “anomaly” with this issue, no one else seems to have the same trouble as I. We’ve had the factory rep involved who thinks it may be a “memory dump” but it seems odd to me that 4 pair have done this under similar circumstances but at random intervals.

I have to assume at this point the fault lies with me and my environment somehow, changing the wi fi in my home is a first step, ensuring the firemware is updated is on the agenda also. Thank you all for your help, it is greatly appreciated !

#15

@Volusiano , @cvkemp You guys know me. Do you appreciate the effort I’m making to be a good Forumator by not posting:

  • my success with tinfoil hats
  • questions about the OP’s bitmining or waterproof testing activities
  • comments about the OPs possible targeting by a “government data collection agency”

My knuckles are white, I’m telling you !

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#16

Haha, you never know that maybe one of those situations is a possibility. I just hope you don’t go through great lengths to test any of it out for the OP’s sake. :smile:

#17

For sure the first priority if not done already is to make sure that you’re on the latest firmware update.

I’m not sure how you can change the wifi in your home. The only obvious thing is to use the 5 GHz bandwidth instead for your phone and laptop and such, if you’ve been using the 2.4 GHz bandwidth from your router for them. That’s because the 2.4 GHz is also the bandwidth use for communications on the More, just to minimize any possible interference. But if you have lots of wireless home devices like security cameras and door locks and wireless thermostat and such, most of those home wireless devices operate strictly on the 2.4 GHz band only, so you don’t really have an option to change those to a different band.

#18

Most all home routers have a web page to set them up.

#19

Yeah, I’m aware of it. I just meant I’m not sure if there’s really much he can do to change his wifi router settings that would help eliminate possible interference, except to use the 5 GHz band on any devices that would work with 5 GHz to minimize 2.4 GHz communication with the router.

1 Like
#20

Most any serious programmer has encountered code that crashes only on some rare combination of circumstances. The same may be true here. More likely than Oticon deciding to loosen the tolerances on their circuitry, I think. @user178’s aids may have a combination of options set, that interacts with, say, his voice or his clothing or the jingling tags on his dog’s collar, to exercise a bug. The bug may even be in Oticon’s bug list, but it happens so infrequently and is so hard to pin down that they didn’t let it hold up the release.

#21

Apologies if this has been addressed… I experience those crashes when I leave both my phone (either my old Android and now my new iPhone) and my iPad with bluetooth ON at the same time. I heard from my audi that Oticon does not recommend keeping more than one connection active. Hopefully that has changed with the new firmware 1.4.2, as @cvkemp reports…

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#22

I am just experimenting at this time. I haven’t had my aids updated long enough to get a good feel for what will happen. I do have my iPhone and iPad fully updated.

#23

When I had my Oticon OPN aids for about 9 mos back in 2017 or so, they started to automatically reboot about 5 mos into my ownership. I had no idea what was going on, and would stand there - usually in the company of people (at a store, talking to a vendor, something where I HAD to hear), and the aids would go DEAD for a good 30-sec or so.

I was away from home for a few months then, so I continued to have these episodes of rebooting till I got home, got in to see my audi, and had a firmware update. That was the last time I had the reboot. Granted, this was several years ago, but maybe try the firmware update? Even if you’ve had one before, that could be all it needs to “re-set”.

This issue brings up something I’ve been mulling over. Why don’t hearing aid manufacturers keep a database of us OWNERS of their devices like car makers keep us in a database for service appt’s? It seems to be a simple issue of getting our contact info, the serial numbers on our aids, entering in a database, and mailing the needed UPDATE notices as they happen. That way, folks could plan to take aids in for firmware update and not be inconvenienced by aids that reboot like some kind of robot that we can’t even control.

GOOD luck to yoou trouble-shooting these issues.

#24

The use model of the HA industry shouldn’t really be compared with the automotive industry. The automotive industry is required by law to keep track of their buyers in case there are recalls because there’s the safety issue involved. On top of that, they can get the benefit of doing paid services for you (like oil change and maintenance work) when you bring your car in for recalls, so there’s an incentive for them to be proactive about it.

On the other hand, there’s no incentive for neither the HA mfgs nor the HCPs to get you back in for firmware updates or stuff like that, and they’re not required by law to do so because of safety issues. Once they already get their money from you and can no longer get anymore, they could care less about proactively servicing you, unless some HCPs are smart enough or conscientious enough to provide you with above and beyond service to ensure repeat business from you.

And by the way, I think the HA model is that the HCP is your primary interface, and it’s already assumed so that the HCP has the client database. So the mfgs provide support to the HCPs who in turn provide support to you. Whether the mfgs collect and keep a bigger database from those kept by the HCPs or not, I don’t really know. But it’s the HCPs’ job to be on top of things and inform their users when there are updates available to install.

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#25

I will talk to my audi about that when I see her tomorrow. I wonder if SHE gets any notices from Phonak about firmware updates?

Considering these are medical devices - and maybe I’m a minority of one, but I NEED to hear cuz there is no margin for error without aids in - it would be a better world if we HA owners got some kind of notification that our aids need to be taken in for an update.

The alternative is that many seniors (and even those younger!) are wondering why their aids reboot or have performance issues. Then we either post a query here (if we know of such a board) or limp along till we get an app’t with our audis. I called on Monday, but the earliest I could get an app’t is Thu. So I’m wondering if others out there have similar issues.

If a person had NO backup aids, and the aids they rely on are not working … it could be really dicey at work or out and about. Is this the best we can hope for? Wait for failure. Then call audi. Wait for their availability to see us. Turn the aids in. Perhaps they need to go back to the maker. HOPE for a “loaner”. :worried:

#26

This whole thing is because I am so glad to be receiving my aids from the VA, and to be using the clinic I am going to. The audiologists and staff truly care about keep our aids updated, and I have to admit with the aid of this forum, and my love of research I do drive a lot of it in my volunteer work with the clinic.

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#27

You GO! :grin: (oh, and 20-odd more characters till I can post a single word or two)

3 Likes
#28

Perhaps she could set up an email distribution list to email her clients notifying them of new firmware. Bonus points for adding some information from the release notes.

#29

I had this issue with my OPNs last year and a couple of months prior to going to Oticon and getting them replaced, they were rebooting on a daily basis and taking an age to turn on again, particularly in my right one but both were doing it and there was no set pattern to it. It became infuriating. Contacted Oticon in Denmark and they asked me to come to them and they would look at them.

Appears they were simply ageing and within 20 minutes of arriving at Oticon, they had replaced the entire hardware inside except for the shells and put my programs back on etc.

They were just within the four year warranty period at that time so it was free. Since then, no issues thankfully.

Unfortunately they are complex technology and inevitably will go wrong especially when they are worn at least 12 hours a day and I do hours of streaming so I wasn’t overly surprised! But all credit to Oticon in Denmark, they were fab and I was so impressed. It was amusing as they were next door to a shop, where they sell equipment and devices for the older generation. They said you can go and have a look around if you want while you wait. I’m only 38 :joy:

#30

Would I LOVE that! I’m adding that suggestion to my (growing) list for the app’t today.
Thanks for the suggestion! :smile:

It would give us customer/patients the opportunity to schedule things proactively instead of reactively.

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