My Nucleus Is Crashing About Once Per Hour [Solved]

Support Nucleus Support
1

I can’t find the support request form, so here is my setup:

AT&T 50/12 U-Verse internet using stock U-Verse modem/router (2-Wire 3801 gateway).
Ethernet from router to Nucleus running Roon Build 936.
Ethernet from unmanaged Netgear switch to Oppo 203, HDMI to Bose.
Ethernet from unmanaged Netgear switch to RPi4 running RoPieeeXL, USB to Meridian Prime, USB to Mojo 2. RPi4 running Build 918.

My Nucleus crashes over and over after about one hour of streaming from Tidal and Qobuz.
I can restart it by unplugging the power cable for 30 seconds.
I have restored several backups from a day or two to 7 or 8 days back.

I’m starting to think my Nucleus is dying after 2 1/2 years of flawless operation. This started Friday, I believe.

I purchased my Nucleus directly from Roon on their Black Friday sale November 28, 2019.

I installed this SSD at the time of purchase. It has a couple albums ripped from LP’s.

I need help from @support to figure this out.

2

Crashed this morning after playing for 47 minutes. I need help from @support

3

Hi @Jim_F,

Thank you for bringing this issue to our team’s attention, and I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having issues with the Nucleus. I have just a few questions to clear up why might be happening, and we can proceed to troubleshoot from there.

Do you experience the crash playing local files, or is it specific to streaming service content (Tidal/Qobuz)?

Would you mind sending a screenshot of the Admin page on your Nucleus web interface? The information displayed will help us pinpoint the problem and take more efficient action to get your system working again.

It may also help to manually set your database aside and start with a fresh database. You can find more context in this Knowledge Base article, but I’ve also pasted instructions below:

  1. Stop RoonServer from running in Nucleus’s Web UI
  2. Navigate to your Nucleus’ Database Location
  3. Find the folder that says “RoonServer”
  4. Rename the “RoonServer” folder to “RoonServer_old”
  5. Restart the RoonServer in the WebUI to generate a new Database
  6. On the Roon Remote(s), press “Use another Core” and connect to the new database
  7. Restore a backup

Please send over the screenshot at your convenience, and we’ll proceed from there. I’ll keep an eye out for your response.

4

Thanks. I don’t really have any local files except a couple albums that I rarely play. All this happened streaming from Tidal and Qobuz.

After this morning’s crash, Roon will not load. I just get the swimming jelly fish ICON. I can load Roon core that’s on my Dell, but not the Nucleus core.

5

OK, I was able to do that and Roon is now downloading my album links from Tidal and Qobuz. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks and thanks Rugby.

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6

When this finishes, should I restore a backup or will that reintroduce the problem?

7

Hi @Jim_F, Correct, you can restore a backup after you’ve renamed/set aside the database. Let me know if that stirs anything back up, as it may indicate a separate issue.

8

I restored a backup and now Roon can’t find my Nucleus core.

9

I have renamed the database to _old AGAIN and Roon is reloading my Tidal and Qobuz links. I will NOT do another restore and will wait for further guidance from you.

10

By the way, it’s not the end-of-the-world if all my backups (30 daily, 12 monthly) are not usable since all my music and playlist are on both Tidal and Qobuz and are restoring to Roon. I don’t do any edits and my device setups are simple and easy.

I just want my Nucleus to stop crashing!

11

Nucleus crashed again. I left it running while I left the house for a while, but probably within an hour. I need another solution or an RMA.

12

I did a reinstall of the Operating System and it now says Missing Codecs. Do I need that? It’s playing music now, but who knows for how long. Usually it craps out after about an hour.

14

Hi Jim, the codecs are only necessary for MP3, maybe something else. Flacs should play just fine without. So, I would just let your system run for an hour and see and not worry about them yet.

It is odd that it is about an hour each time, symptoms like that make me wonder if the system is overheating and shuts down.

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15

That’s exactly my feeling. What else would happen in one hour?

16

Crashed again after less than one hour. Please send me an RMA or a solution. Otherwise, I’m going to take this Nucleus out into my driveway and smash it to bits with a sledge hammer.

17

I moved my Nucleus into the family room so I wouldn’t have to walk so far to unplug and replug it every hour when it craps out. Maybe I’ll have better luck here. The only difference here is it’s going through two switches and about 50 feet of ethernet cable around the back of the house instead of a 6 feet ethernet cable directly into the router.

19

You could test the theory by adding some airflow over the Nucleus case, e.g. a fan of some kind. Like you and @Rugby I see overheating as a likely cause…

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20

Yeah, that was always my belief until I was set straight by @danny.

As I recall, the ‘something else’ was something that would crash Roon if the codecs weren’t present. Still, for this problem codecs can probably be omitted.

Ah, here it is -

@jim, it appears, to me, that Nucleus has heat problems that effect the M.2 drive. Maybe being fanless turns out not to be such a good idea.

21

But after 2 1/2 years? I also thought about the fan idea just as a test.

Where can I get the ffmpeg file?

Thanks all.

It’s been playing for an hour. Fingers crossed.

23

Overheating can “develop” as a fault, with fanless units, if thermal paste deteriorates.

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