Is the noise occurring when you are using HQPlayer directly, without Roon in the mix at all? If so this would suggest that it is a configuration on HQPlayer itself and not necessarily related to Roon.
If you are able to use Roon lossless without HQPlayer you can certainly do so. The main benefits of HQPlayer are to lessen the strain on the DAC by moving the upsampling portion away from the devices internal DAC and onto a more powerful machine (see this thread for a great read: What do most people use HQ player for?)
As for HQPlayer not connecting, are you perhaps using an antivirus application or a firewall blocking tool on that machine? If so, I would check to see if there is any change in behavior if you temporarily disable this firewall. I would also make sure that Roon.exe, RAATServer.exe and HQPlayer have been properly added to your Windows 10 firewall. You can use these instructions to check this aspect.
Please let me know if this helps!
– Noris