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My Adventures With Oticon's Random Reboots Come to a Close

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As I go back to my Phonak Naida B90 UP plus on Friday. I dug out my old devices and they still look good. This is a stop-gap measure until I can upgrade to the Naida P90 plus CROS in a few months’ time. I’ve already purchased bluetooth headphones to replace the bluetooth connectivity of the Xceed1 plus CROS. Don’t get me wrong; I am still keeping my Oticons as a backup for the very very rare instance I will need them. But I just can’t deal with the random rebooting manufacturer defects anymore in my main units.

I honestly thought they would be an improvement over Phonak based on several reviews on this forum, but they just turned into another set of even more issues I had to deal with. And I prefer having hearing aids that simply work 24/7 without issue. And Phonak fits that bill for me as a near lifelong user of them. If I had experienced the amount of random rebooting during the first 30 days, and if I had known what to look for then, I would have returned them immediately rather than going through an entire year of this crap. I need 24/7 devices because I can’t hear when I take off my aids. Not pieces of crap devices with manufacturer defects that only work some of the time. What if I had to return to the office at some point (unlikely in my field but you never know)? I couldn’t even trust that Oticon would work. Not good.

I am taking my Phonak devices with me to my audiologist to have him do an exam of them, cleaning (the devices, not my ears), and default reload of the programming along with a few tweaks to get them to baseline. And then, it’s off to the races.

Goodbye, Oticon. It’s been fun. I won’t miss your random reboots. Not one. Single. Bit.

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I think @cvkemp mentioned this part (I didn’t want to continue to take over the other OP’s thread): that Oticons are probably working so hard to reach the level of hearing loss that this may cause them to short out.

I simply wanted to mention that I think that, if these were truly ultra power aids, that they would not short out regardless if proper quality control were applied to their production process.

I don’t know if continuing with Oticon would be such a good idea under the circumstances.

Stop blaming the aids that are definitely wrong for your hearing loss for not standing up to standards that they never were meant to accomplish. Tell it to your audiologist for selling a set of aids that the audiologist should have known better than trying to fit to your hearing loss. Any device that is pushed well beyond its design is going to break down. Some where along the line common sense was forgotten about.

Edited

@cvkemp - They are supposed to be ultra powered, as they are labeled - my other newer audiologist and I talked about this. If there were any issues like this she should have brought them up with me. And I specifically asked her to prevent my own hubris and falling for marketing hype: “should I be sticking with Phonak? I may want to try Oticon, but is the Oticon Xceed 1 wrong for my loss?” And she didn’t budge on her recommendation and assured me it was right. Which is why I won’t be continuing with either and I am returning to my old audiologist.

It is well-documented on these forums that others have had problems with the random reboots from Oticon too on multiple models of their , which are a manufacturer related defect that is part of the firmware. Namely here: Oticon More random Restart, and Oticon Opn. Rebooting randomly

The More, Real and INTENT are no where close to being Utra power. I wear the 105db receiver INTENT1 aids and my hearing is severe and almost to the start of profound in my right ear. Xceed is Oticon’s Utra power aids.I don’t know where you got your information.
I have worn both the OPN, OPNS1 and More1 aids and never had an issue with rebooting. Yes there was random rebooting but never more than once or twice in 6 months of use.

That is correct. The Xceed1 UP I have is supposed to be correct for my level of loss in my right ear - nearly 70 and crossing over to the profound range depending on frequency, so in general, it is correct. But clearly, the random reboots constantly (nearly every day, once or twice a day in most cases now even on my new warranty-replacement ones) say differently.

I think we might have our wires crossed here. I was saying that if the OPN and More have reboot issues, then it’s not a stretch to say that the random reboot issues extend to the Xceed firmware too, considering this firmware also hasn’t been updated for a number of years now, and there are no updates for the Xceed on the horizon per other posts on this forum.

I don’t know about the xceed there aren’t enough on here that wear them to get a field for them. But like I said I have worn both without enough rebooting issues to complain about. I was an IT professional and the best fix for an issue for most computers was rebooting. My research on hearing aids and rebooting has shown that it was caused by being overloaded and pushed behind the capability of the processor. My More1s did reboot with 85dh receivers but with the 105db receivers I had no more rebooting issues. The difference was the aids weren’t being pushed as hard. And the processor wasn’t being overloaded. To be absolutely honest my audiologist would recommend for your hearing loss. Even the best Ultra power aids are going to be pushed extremely hard to get enough sound to your ears.

Thank you for the additional explanation! That makes sense.

I have never had any major issues with Phonak in this regard, so that’s why I’m going back. I’m sorry, but I’m not doing . I’ve been down that road at least twice. My word recognition is too good at 75% and above without hearing aids in my good ear, and my left ear that’s profound has been that way since 1982-ish, so a CI there will only make the hearing in my good ear worse per my audiologist, so that’s not what my audiologist will want to do.

Wow. What a difference. Okay, so I’ve gone back to my old Phonak Naida B90 hearing aid plus . Aside from the random reboots, Oticon made me feel deaf by comparison, even though I may have been bathed in sound, my brain wasn’t making as much sense of the signals, and I was definitely not hearing as well with my Oticon XCeed 1 plus CROS as I was with my Phonaks. Regardless of the volume level.

The signal strength between the CROS unit and my main hearing aid show a significant improvement as well, overall. I have some re-learning to do with these Phonaks, but overall, I am thrilled with what I am hearing after a second look.

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp - Definitely. You would think that $5,000 devices would provide a $5,000 benefit in hearing. But, in hindsight, I realize that isn’t always the case. I’ll admit when I first got them I thought they were great. But running into the issues I did, they are definitely not equal to Phonak. I heard so much positivity about the comparison between Oticon and Phonak over the years eventually I wanted to try them. I didn’t know I would experience so many issues.

Well, you live and you learn…

I have been wearing aids for 20 years and Oticon aids for about 15 years. After a while I got hooked on the Oticon sound, yes different makes of aids sound different. Over the years I try different aids just in case I find something better. I am a veteran with service related hearing loss so my aids are provided to me by the Veterans Administration along with a supplies extras like connect clip, extra chargers. TV adapter, even a sound machine to mask out my tinnitus so i can sleep. I have a 50% disability rating. My audiologist have gone way over in the way of appointments and adjustments. My audiologist is also a professor at the State medical school and I have attended his classes and even been a case study for his students. The clinic that I go to has three audiologist. My audiologist and 2 of his previous students that have started working ar the clinic. I am very fortunate to have my VA medical benefits. And I volunteer at the clinic working other Veterans that need help getting use to their aids
Making recommendations to the Veterans and even the audiologist on hiw to help the veteran to get better results. I know most of the hearing aid company representatives that support the VA clinic. It keeps me out of trouble and I feel like I am giving back.

In reply to @codergeek2015

@codergeek2015 said:

It is well-documented on these forums that others have had problems with the random reboots from Oticon too on multiple models of their HAs, which are a manufacturer related defect that is part of the firmware. Namely here: Oticon More random Restart, and Oticon Opn. Rebooting randomly

Random reboot is no big deal if it happens occasionally, and in earlier versions. Take the OPN, which I’ve had since 2016 until last year. In my first 4 months, it might randomly reboot evey other week, but then after a certain firmware update, it very seldomly reboot anymore, if ever. Maybe once every 3 months top. Ever since I’ve had my Real for the last 3 months, I haven’t had a reboot even once. Granted the Real is also “mature” technology by now.

It’s unfortunate that you have the random reboot issue on the Xceed that goes unresolved. I presumed that you already updated to the latest firmware and everything. I don’t know why you keep getting a lemon after lemon (if you have had several replacements and are on the latest firmware version). But I don’t recall hearing from enough folks beside yourself (if any) wearing the Xceed that complain about random reboots on their Xceed. At least not in a big enough wave that would trigger a recall from Oticon.

For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing by finally abandoning Oticon and go back to Phonak. I just don’t think that there are enough other anecdotal evidences here that would affect the sales of Oticon going forward. Certainly it hasn’t been an issue for me personally at all, on the Oticon OPN for the last 9 years and to the Real recently. Good luck with switching back to Phonak, though. I’m sure it’s been overdue for you to do so.

@Volusiano said:

Ever since I’ve had my Real for the last 3 months, I haven’t had a reboot even once. Granted the Real is also “mature” technology by now.

My experience is different. I have no experience with Xceed but I’ve had OPN (original version which was later listed as level 1 after the 2 and 3 became available), OPN S 1, More 1, and currently Real 1. I had many random restarts with the OPN and OPN S but firmware updates reduced the number of silence/reboot events. I had more events when streaming or with sudden loud sounds (noisy dachshunds for example). OPN and OPN S had 312 zinc-air batteries and I had more events when the batteries were nearly gone than when fresh. My More and Real aids are rechargeable. I still have silence/reboot events but not often enough to discern any pattern. Last two with the Real aids were on evening walks in a “natural” (desert) park during the last two weeks. One was when it was quiet and one with a very loud, sharp noise. I guess it is time to update to the latest 1.1.2 firmware for the Real aids and see if the update improves things …

Thanks for sharing @biggar. Knowing how complicated these devices are, even if I can count the number of reboots on my hands within a month, I wouldn’t worry too much about it, because each reboot is only a few seconds out of the hours of the day that you wear them in. I’d worry more if they reboot more than once a day.

My guess of the triggers for the reboots are probably the state of charge in the batteries like you observe, and probably also unusual events that make the aids work harder in its computations to react to it, and if it can’t react fast enough to deliver the expected result, it might overflow and that triggers a reboot. I wonder if evening walks outdoors might present a windy condition or a sudden sound that cause the aids to not being able to handle them quick enough, resulting in a reboot.

Nevertheless, regardless of the reasoning for a reboot, what matters is the frequency of the reboot and your tolerance to this frequency. If you’re still at a working age and you’re in an important meeting or phone call and a reboot makes you lose vital information while trying to listen and understand something, that’s be less acceptable than if you’re retired and the reboot has less of an effect on you because your life is not at a fast pace anymore.

I also wonder if the type of aids, like the Xceed being a more powerful aid, might also play a role in being more vulnerable to reboots, like it having to deliver too much amplification sometimes and it just can’t make it deliver the result satisfactorily and it triggers a reboot.

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