Connected via Ethernet to an Uptone Audio etherREGEN switch which is wired to TP- Link x60 mesh router
Connected Audio Devices
Other switch connection to dCS Upsampler
Number of Tracks in Library
80+ thousand tracks
Description of Issue
Over the past few months, especially with Roon 2.0, on my iPad and quickly scrolling or other rapid activity, Roon crashes and reboots. Is this a case of Core memory leak, software bloat, or something I’ve done?
Might this have anything to do with Roon Core changes and that I’ve now over 80k tracks in my library (a pair of USB connected 8TB WD drives)? Also, I do not use any DSP or other functions that might put a load on the server. Never did any hardware upgrades, including adding more memory or even adding an internal drive.
Have tested rapid scrolling with not only my iPad but other devices (Mac Studio, Mac Mini, etc.). Scrolling through my local library will cause the Core to crash and reboot on a consistent basis. Since no HW changes in my environment, I’ve got to believe it’s Roon 2.0 and possibly more activity from local Core to the Roon cloud that is creating this to happen.
In the absence of any support response, I thought it was best to reinstall Roon. Faster than any analysis, and consistent with my decades of experience living with “Windoze” and other operating systems, it seemed a short-term response.
That seems to have eliminated the symptoms until they happen again. And w/o knowing the real cause, the problem will likely show up again.
The other alternative, not knowing if it would merely prolong the inevitable, would have been to swap out the 4GB memory for 8GB, on the assumption that Roon 2.0 and my growing local library were pushing Roon over the edge.
Would be nice to get anyone from support to at least acknowledge my situation.
I also guess that 4GB might not be enough.
The Nucleus is out of warranty?
Then I would rather take even more RAM, I recently upgraded my NUC from 8 GB to 2 x 8 GB, with significantly better performance.
That’s true. Someone from @support should really get in touch with you here.
By adding more memory what performance gain did you experience? Was it a faster response when using the app? I’m more inclined to think that adding more memory, in the absence of a reason to do so, is a bandaid for a problem with operating system bloat, or programming changes that are not cleaning up for themselves - like memory leaks.
@stevebythebay
Yes.
I’ll link you to a couple of relevant threads that might help you make your decision.
My impression is that Roon has become more demanding in terms of hardware with the latest updates. So I don’t know for sure to what extent Danny’s statement regarding RAM requirements is still relevant at this time:
Isn’t that exactly what’s happening to you?
Well, I recently did a screen recording to show how snappy and lag-free all features are. Without gaps and a need to wait.
It wasn’t quite as fast before the ram upgrade. Shuffling a 387 track playlist like at the end of the screen recording took a little longer.
And here some other threads that I can think of that might help you with your decision.
Thanks. I’d seen most of these. However, nobody in support has even suggested that a memory bump would be either needed or advisable as long as the system, in my case an original Nucleus with 4GB of memory, doesn’t exceed the number of albums or songs specified. Mine does not. Maybe the only thing a bit different in my setup is the use of 2 USB attached 8TB drives which encompass my whole local library of music. And I use no DSP-related functions to tax the processor. And I doubt that the Roon Core OS and its processing functions would cause any paging that would affect memory usage.
The fact that this support post has not been “touched” by Roon speaks volumes about what they may not wish to admit regarding their original guidelines, and would sorely limit their ability to keep selling entry-level hardware.
Actually a reply from my side is strange as all of my problems with the Nucleus Plus have been solved.
95% by replacing the SSD by a Samsung EVO Plus 970 by 500GB where the Core is located and final 5% by replacing on top the RAM memory cards by 2x 16GB
No need to proof my problems being solved.
Placebo?
Starting time of a track could take up to 3 minutes. After starting up the Nucleus Plus it was immediately visible by the web browser but not available within ROON for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Not able to connect to the Core at all.
All solved by above actions after testing the complete system if there were other problems. To make sure this was for me the final and otherwise bye bye Nucleus Plus (problems were not showing up when running the Core at my Synology NAS).
No, placebo was not the case here for sure. Works like a charm again.
Absolutely agreed
Mistake from my side, not a 500GB but actually 250GB, sorry
Maybe the 250GB is already extreme overkill and indeed the standard M.2 started to fail although the log didn’t show this.
But the prices of M.2 is not that expensive, so better save then sorry
No mistake in percentages 95% for M.2 en last 5% by RAM 2x 16 GB to finish this story from my side.
I apologize for the delay in responding. Roon staff are working hard to lower response times and the holidays complicate that!
I have looked at logging and don’t see any sort of silver bullet that may pin down the issue. While specs are listed for Nucleus and Nucleus plus, they’re kind of vague and for a reason. An 80k track library can be wide-ranging in size and formats so when we approach that 100k track mark, its accuracy is skewed.
In looking at the diagnostics we see some mDNS errors and errors connecting to devices. Only the former seem out of place. We also noted that it looks like the last crash was on Christmas day.
Determinations:
As others have mentioned, updating the RAM to 16GB would certainly be prudent. While it might not be a fix-all, it would eliminate RAM as a possible issue and could improve performance.
If the issue happens again, a date/time stamp with some description of what you were doing (playing a specific track or radio station etc) will allow us to further isolate the issue.
I can give you a list of steps to reload your Nucleus and SW to see if it’s a software issue but it would be a blind stab at the issue. Just in case though, I’ll list the steps below since there’s no harm in trying and it might prevent some unnecessary back and forth.
