Crackle and Interface Freeze on Roon with Windows 11 (ref#00I9OE)

Support
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Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· When I minimize and and then open the application there is a crackle in the music, and the interface literally froze twice now, while the music continues to play. I have a new Windows machine, windows 11, lots of power processing etc. I am using qobuz. I have reinstalled both Roon and qobuz a few times now, but the problem persists. Can you help please.

Tell us about your home network

· Windows 11 machine, music on a qnap, Rogers internet service, fast.

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Hi @Claudio_Gaudio,

Thanks for reaching out, and congratulations on the new Windows 11 machine! I’m sorry to hear that you are experiencing UI freezes and audio crackling right out of the gate. Audio pops when minimizing or maximizing windows can sometimes be related to graphics drivers or audio exclusivity settings in Windows, so let’s narrow this down.

To help us investigate, could you please provide a few more details?

  • Is this isolated to Roon? Do you experience this same audio crackling or freezing if you play music directly through the standalone Qobuz desktop app?
  • Timestamp: The next time you hear the crackle or the Roon interface freezes, please make a note of the exact date, time, and your local timezone.
  • Track Name: What specific track and artist were playing when the issue occurred?

Once we have a timestamp, we can enable diagnostics for your account and check the Roon logs to see exactly what the system was doing at that moment.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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Hello Vadim;

Thank you kindly for getting back so quickly. I have copied Norbert in this email, a friend who works in the field and knows a great deal more than I do, He is also helping me with this problem.

Is this isolated to Roon? No it is not isolated to Roon, it also happens with Tidal and Qobuz, but nothing else. I have tested it with YouTube music, with video making software, etc. I could not replicate the problem.

Timestamp: The crackle does not happen when Roon is running, it happens only when minimizing and expanding the application. I can recreate the problem at will simply by minimizing and then expanding Roon Tidal or Qobuz interface repeatedly. No crackle when minimizing… only on reexpansion.

Luckily, it does not happen randomly, so I can still enjoy listening, but something is obviously wrong, as I have another computer running these programs on my main floor, older technology, and I could not recreate the problem on that computer.

Track Name: It does not occur with a specific artist, or track. It does not matter what is playing. It happens when I am using Tidal or Qobuz, with or without Roon. This seems to be a kind of “handshake” problem, there is a delay in Roon on expansion, about 50 percent ot the time, and intensifies if I continue to expand and minimize the application.

The graphics card and the processor are relatively new technology (see list of components below)

We updated the intel drivers, which may have reduced the problem somewhat, I could not replicate the freezing, for example, after trying for a few minutes. But it did remain unstable, throwing up a white/ghost screen before populating the interface. The crackle persisted on expansion.

Motherboard is

Asrock Z890 Pro RS which is an Intel Z890 chipset

CPU is a Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 265K

Video Card is CPU built in Intel Arc video

Built In audio (Realtek ALC897) is disabled in bios

Network card is a Realtech Dragon RTL8125BG

32 GB or RAM

No add on cards

Samsung 990 Pro nVME operating system drive

No overclocking has been done

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Vadim; Perhaps it would also be helpful for you to know how I am using roon/qobuz/tidal. I am using a USB-2 connection to a Holo Audio Spring 3 dac, via an ASIO driver.

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I just reproduced the problem, there is crackling, not as bad as yesterday, the timestamp would be in the minute, or so, before this post. So; 11:19 to 11:21 Eastern Standard time.

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Vadim, in case this also helps, I am unable to expand the “show advanced” option in Device Setup.

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Hi Vadim, sorry for the barrage of posts, but it occurred to me that I do know the timestamp for when this happened at its worst, and that would be Thursday March 19th, between 5:48 and 6:30 PM, Eastern Standard Time,

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Hello @Claudio_Gaudio (and Norbert!),

Thank you for the detailed hardware breakdown and for running those cross-application tests. It is certainly frustrating to put together a powerful new Windows 11 machine only to encounter audio crackling and interface glitches right out of the gate.

Testing the standalone TIDAL and Qobuz applications provides the definitive clue here. The shared behavior across multiple distinct audio platforms points directly to a system-level interaction rather than a Roon-specific error or a RAAT protocol issue. What you are experiencing is a symptom of an interrupt conflict between the graphics rendering engine (Intel Arc) and the USB/ASIO audio stream. When an application window expands or maximizes, the GPU suddenly draws resources to render the UI, which momentarily interrupts the timing on the USB bus, resulting in the audio crackle and the “ghost” white screen.

Because this is fundamentally tied to the Windows OS environment, motherboard architecture, and hardware drivers, our Roon support team is unfortunately not the best resource to diagnose or resolve the underlying system conflict.

To point you and Norbert in the right direction, here are the most common culprits for this specific hardware behavior to investigate:

  • ASIO / USB Drivers: Verify if Holo Audio has released a newer, specific ASIO driver optimized for Windows 11 and the latest Intel Core Ultra chipsets.
  • Hardware Acceleration & OpenGL: The inability to expand the “Show Advanced” option in Roon’s Device Setup is a known symptom of OpenGL rendering failures. Adjusting settings within the Intel Arc control panel or exploring beta graphics drivers is the best path forward for the UI freezing.
  • USB Power Management: Ensure that “USB selective suspend” is completely disabled in the Windows Power Options, and try switching the Holo Audio DAC to a different physical USB port (preferably one routed directly to the CPU rather than through a secondary motherboard hub).
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Hi Vadim,

The advanced menu does not work on any one of 3 computers, in case Roon wants to address this at some point. I guess my last question would be would be: does any of this impact sound quality during normal use. I don’t think it does, as the ASIO driver is engaged, shows the correct color and signal path, but I thought I’d ask anyway.

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Hello @Claudio_Gaudio,

To address your last question first: No, this should not impact your actual sound quality during normal playback.

Since you are using a dedicated ASIO driver and Roon’s Signal Path is showing the correct colors and bit-perfect indicators, the audio stream itself is remains intact.

I want to be very direct—because this issue persists across three different computers and multiple applications (Tidal/Qobuz), Roon cannot “fix” this from our side. This is a clear indicator of a system-level OpenGL or Graphics Driver conflict within your Windows environment.

We’ll go ahead and close this out since the root cause is at the OS/Hardware level, but don’t hesitate to reach out if a future Roon update changes the behavior!

Happy listening!

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Vadim, I think you misunderstood, the “crackling” problem is only on the new windows machine. What is happening over 3 different computers is the the problem with device setup advanced settings, in that it is not expanding over 3 different computers. The crackling is my problem, agreed, but I’m pretty sure the non expandability of the device setup advanced menu is a Roon problem.

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