As my frustration got on new level, I decided to finally eliminate the D-Link router as a culprit. I bought Netgear GS105 unmanaged switch and just connected it in my system. Things work as expected so I click play on Roon and wait… after two tracks something is sleeping again and when I open the RoonServer_log.txt, I find the same error message:
Debug: [prebuffer] sleeping in read – this isn’t good
What next?
So I spent the whole Friday trying to solve this because what else could you do on Fridays? Things I did:
Reset BIOS to default settings
Reinstalled Realtek GBe Network controller drivers
Reinstalled and restored Roon from backup, also changed from RoonServer + Roon control to simple Roon only application on my Win 10 PC. Never noticed any SQ improvements using the former configuration anyway.
Reinstalled the newest firmware on D-Link router
Fiddled with Windows 10 services disabling/enabling some which had anything to do with networking or power saving
Fiddled with every possible Win 10 setting which has anything to do with power saving or networking
Checked probably ten times that my PC power saving options were all off and it was using the high power plan and advanced settings
Tried to disable indexing on my HDD because someone on internet told it could improve things, useless
Installed Asset UPnP server and Linn Kinsky control point to try out. Had no problems or dropouts with them so it’s Linn + Roon and their fragile relationship clearly.
And as I earlier told, added Netgear GS105v5 switch to the mix.
After everything had failed, I checked the advanced settings of Realtek GBe Family Controller driver (motherboard’s integrated network card). I googled about tips and found this article:
I fiddled the settings according to that article but no, still sleeping in reading error message. Then I tried to remove GS105 from the mix and directly connected everything to the D-Link 868L router again and then… no sleeping anymore. I got normal playback and full buffer again. Color me surprised.
But I had noticed that GS105 has positive effect on sound quality. I listened for a while and everything was still working normally. Then I plugged GS105 back in and now everything worked fine with it also… wtf. Once again I got it working (for now) by fiddling around settings like madman. I’m not sure what did it in the end but I hope it works for a while now.
Hi @patouskii,
Thank you for listing your current troubleshooting and glad to hear that the issue has subsides since making one of the changes! Let me clarify on a few of your points further:
Just so you are aware - these two types of messages do not indicate anything related with “sleep” functions on your PC. Sleeping in read is a general term that the Core or endpoint was waiting for some data (e.g. trying to read it), but the data was not delivered on time and the action was paused (e.g. put in sleep mode) until the data was delivered.
Seeing this in conjunction with a WSACancelBlocking call usually indicates that something regarding the network or the Core is preventing proper delivery of the media across then network, and in a lot of cases where I see this these kinds of traces indicate that the network is not fully stable.
Roon operates on different technology than your 4K video streams. While it is possible to buffer the a 4K video on Netflix, on-demand audio applications such as Roon consume a larger amount of bandwidth than simply streaming a video file, so these two types of applications are not really comparable.
I am hoping that the issues have since subsided with your most recent changes but if it comes back again, we need to find the answers to the three following tests:
If we are able to narrow down the behavior to just one piece of equipment, we would be much better suited to address the issue head-on. From what you have mentioned so far it comes and goes which sounds like a hardware issue somewhere along the line, and often these types of issues are the hardest to narrow down simply because the symptoms are not always visible.
Thanks for the reply.
Everything has now worked rock solid after the last message I wrote. I’ve listened to hours of music with no dropouts. I really can’t say 100% sure what was the reason but I guess it was about the advanced settings of the Realtek GBe network interface. I actually tried to switch those settings back to default just to see if I’d get dropouts again and I actually did get one dropout after that. But it was different dropout, it was the known problem with Linn and Roon when the track stops 1 second before ending. Anyway then I went through the advanced settings one by one and after I had disabled Flow Control, everything’s been rock solid again with zero dropouts.
Also I think that the network/router part of the troubleshoot is done. I now have Netgear GS105v5 unmanaged switch connected. D-Link 868L is only connected to router and data between the Roon core and Linn doesn’t go through it. It really can’t get any simpler than that I think.
I’ll write back if problems occur again.
Hi @noris
Little update here:
Everything worked absolutely perfectly since my last post. But the problems came back after my vacation trip.
I was away for three nights and unplugged everything at home, my PC, Linn ADSM, router and switch. I came back last night and powered my setup and this morning played some music again. Believe it or not, I got the sleeping in read error message. Nothing had change whatsoever. My setup had just been unpowered for three nights and the error message is back.
After that troubleshooting began. I restarted every single gear, no help. I ran windows update and there was an update which it installed and it asked to be restarted, no help. So once again I look into the Realtek GBe network controller advanced settings, which were as I had left them. I first tried to switch Energy Efficient Ethernet option to disabled and restarted ADSM after that, no help. Then I opened D-Link settings and switched WAN port setting from Auto 10/100/1000 to 1000 only and did the same thing in Realtek advanced settings under the name of “Speed & Duplex”. Under Realtek advanced settings I also disabled Interrupt Moderation. Then restarted ADSM and then to my reference test of running three tracks with no dropouts… and it works. Got through four tracks actually so I guess it works again… for now.
But seriously, this is ridiculous. It’s so fragile. Now it stopped working with no obvious reason. Nothing changed… it just stopped working.
Btw. I’ve noticed that the dropouts only occur when I’m away from computer. If I use the computer while music is playing, I never get dropouts. But when I leave it playing and go to the sweet spot/AFK, then the problems start. It really feels like the computer would lose the connection and go to sleep mode or something, but that’s simply not possible since every sleep setting is disabled and computer optimized for high performance. Any ideas about this finding?
I’m afraid it is. Predating WIN 10, I had a WIN 7 machine completely ignore its power settings and go to sleep after 15 mins or so when left alone. Never did get to the bottom of it. Buggy drivers I presume? I have also had power saving settings on the Ethernet card cause trouble until they were switched off.
This whole saga of ”sleeping in read” is really weird. Every possible sleep and power daving setting is off and my Win10 PC should run with steady power all the time. But since fiddling with Realtek settings seems to do the trick, I guess the problem lies in the network interface. For some reason it goes to sleep while I’m AFK, even though I’ve disabled all the sleep and power saving settings from advanced tab.
Now I noticed there were updated drivers available for the Realtek NIC so I updated. After that all the settings were intact but once again I got the sleeping in read error. I fiddled with random advanced settings for the Realtek and then it started to work again… I turned off some offload settings for example, which previously were enabled and all worked fine then. This makes absolutely no sense.
Can you try a different network interface? USB NICs are quite cheap and handy to have around. I have had to use them on old Vista boxes due to WIN 10 not providing stable/working drivers for the Realtek on-board network chips. WIN 10 kept randomly disconnecting from the network. Logs showed there were issues with the NIC drivers not responding at that specific disconnection time, so it was an easy fix.
Windows (especially 10), Ethernet and drivers keep realms of support people in employment/frustration. If you are using a desktop PC try buying a replacement card and see if that helps.
As @noris pointed out ‘sleeping in read’ does not refer to power or sleep settings in the OS. It refers to network latency.
EDIT: That said it is quite possible that NIC settings/drivers could be the cause of the latency.
I used USB interface with my previous setup for many years. I had stability issues with Roon back then also. I’ve written about it in the beginning of this thread. I never had stability issues with any other software than Roon (I used JRMC and foobar2000 previously) so I like to think this is not only about my system but also problem with Roon.
If the problem keeps appearing I might give separate NIC a try and disable the integrated Realtek NIC for good.
I continued troubleshooting tonight and actually picked up a Intel I210-T1 gigabit NIC and installed it to a free PCI-E slot with the latest Intel drivers. I thought Intel must work best since I use Intel processor and mobo. Internet connection worked fine and Intel even has these neat diagnostic tools on their driver packet which showed that everything from cables to the card itself work fine.
Well, with default settings on I210 the first play ended up stopping 1 second before end of the track, the known problem with Roon + Linn streamer combo. I started to fiddle with the advanced settings but couldn’t make Roon work steady with the I210. I reinstalled Roon, tried with Intel drivers and default Microsoft drivers but no. Usually got through 1-2 tracks and then the playback cursor stopped somewhere around middle of the track while playback still continued. Similar error messages in log than with Realtek, though now it didn’t give sleeping in read.
I removed Intel I210-T1 and fired up the integrated Realtek NIC again. All the settings were intact from previous install so I played some music… and it drops on third track. I fiddled with random advanced settings (at this point it doesn’t matter what to change, just change something and it might work or not) and now it works again this morning with no dropouts. Gone through ~10 tracks now with no dropouts. But at this point I know that some day sooner or later, the problems will come back with no obvious reason. Maybe next time Windows decides to install updates or maybe when Realtek updates its drivers. And this bothers me a lot, the connection isn’t stable.
Since there’s no other connection problems, download speeds, online gaming or anything else, I can’t think of anything else than some sort of problem between Linn and Roon. They don’t play well together. I hope someone’s looking into this.
Update:
Since I’m on vacation and have nothing better to do, I decided to give I210 another try. I installed it to a different PCI-E port (switched places with Asus Xonar soundcard, which outputs optical spdif to Linn ADSM for movies and such where I need realtime audio). Once again Microsoft installed its own drivers but I installed the newest Intel drivers, rebooted router, ADSM and computer and after that tested. Once again, playback cursor stops in the middle of third track, but Roon shows no obvious errors in log. Then I switched Speed & Duplex to 1gbps full and disabled interrupt moderation from NIC advanced settings. After that I have now got through seven tracks with no dropouts, so it seems now Intel works also with some fiddling. Its behavior seems to be similar to Realtek though, far from stable.
Hi @john
Only shortly to try it out. It works but I haven’t done any longer testing. Sound quality is quite far from Ethernet connection.
It would be helpful if you could run a test where you stream to the Linn device using Airplay for a period of 12 hours or more. This will help us target where in the playback chain the issue could be occurring. Let us know once you’ve run this test and we’ll continue from there.
-John
Just a brief report about the situation here. Things have worked ok with the Intel NIC but every now and then I still get dropouts and freezing. Dropouts and freezing is always connected to updates on drivers or operating system (Win10). When something changes in the setup, hiccups start to appear on streaming. It’s truly a a weird problem. For example, yesterday I noticed there’s more recent drivers available for the I210 NIC so I updated. Today music playback froze after ~2,5 tracks played on Roon. (it’s always the same length give or take, 2-3 tracks and freeze, never 1 or 4 tracks, always 2-3). First the playback tracking cursor freezes but music keeps playing for a while until it completely stops. Roon Log has always the same message of “Unable to read data from the transport connection: A blocking operation was interrupted by a call to WSACancelBlockingCall.”
Then to the usual problem solving. Nowadays I know to open advanced settings for my NIC through Win10 device manager and change some random settings there and save. Then it usually works again with no freezing. Today I disabled Interrupt Moderation and Interrupt Moderation Rate settings and voilà, four tracks played and no freezing. Next time this happens I might enable those two settings and things work again. Makes no sense whatsoever.
So it’s still an extremely fragile connection between Roon and Linn ADSM but now I know how to live with it since it seems there’s no fix coming to this. Last update to Roon was like what, half a year ago? I hope it’s still being developed.
And sorry, still haven’t played 12 hours straight with AirPlay.
Hello @patouskii,
I would be interested in seeing a new set of Roon logs the next time that this behavior occurs.
Can you please upload the logs to Dropbox / Google Drive / Send.firefox.com and post a link here? Please be sure to turn on “sharing by link”, instructions on how to do so for Dropbox can be found here and for Google Drive can be found here.
-John
Sure, I’ll post the log next time I get dropouts.