Regular audio glitches and "lost control of audio device"

Hi @Lachlan_Fennen ----- Again, thank you for your continued patience while our techs have been looking into this issue.

As per the team’s requested, they have asked if you could please provide a couple of screenshots. One like in the Rugby’s post above and the other one highlighting the driver versions being used with your various devices (Path: Control Panel ->Device Manager-> Sound Video and Game Controllers-> Properties of each device).

-Eric

Hi @Eric, no problems. I am just glad that you guys are looking into this so thoroughly.

I am working on-site with a client today so only have my mobile DAC with me (the Explorer 2). Here is the screenshot of that device in Windows:

Thanks, @Lachlan_Fennen! Could you please also post a screenshot, highlighting the driver version being used with your Explorer2 device (Path: Control Panel ->Device Manager-> Sound Video and Game Controllers-> Properties).

Thanks!


Ivan

Sure. Here are the two that I’m guessing you’ll need:


I was surprised to see that this is a Microsoft driver as I seem to recall installing the Meridian drivers once upon a time, but found this in Meridian’s driver documentation:

"If using your Meridian USB device with a computer running Windows 10, as long as Windows updates
have been applied when available, there is no need to install any additional drivers. Simply skip to
section 2 below to configure the computer to use the device."

So perhaps, Windows updates have changed the driver or perhaps I’m remembering a previous installation pre Windows 10.

It might be important to re-emphasise that this is occurring across multiple, totally different DACs from different manufacturers and only occurs in Roon. JRiver MediaCenter plays continuously with no glitches at all.

Thanks for that information @Lachlan_Fennen, the follow up is very appreciated! My apologies for the slow response here.

Continuing forward, our tech team has asked if you would kindly please try the following test and share the observations you make during this troubleshooting exercise, to see if this action triggers a change in behavior with your setup. Please see below.

Focusing just on the Meridian Explorer 2

  • Please uninstall the Win driver for the Explorer 2.

  • Please download/install the driver for the Explorer 2 from the Meridian website.

  • Please verify what the experience is like after the driver has been installed.

Looking forward to hearing your observations!
-Eric

Hi @Eric, I’m very happy to do this (and will do so at the next chance) if the team want me too, but I may have found the culprit. I noticed the other day that my whole computer hung for a second or two while doing other tasks (not involving music). I did some research and it seems that Chrome browser is known to cause some problems. I had not specifically troubleshot Chrome because, even though the Roon issues occurred more frequently while the browser was opened, it was also happening when the browser was closed.

Anyway, I opened the hood on Chrome and made two changes: 1) switched off hardware acceleration and 2) switched off Chrome apps working in the background when Chrome is closed.

Since making these changes I do not think I have had a single issue. I can’t explain why this seemed to affect Roon and not JRiver (perhaps by coincidence as I do use Roon a great deal more than JRiver and I can’t predictably recreate the issue - it happens at random time intervals so I could have just coincidentally missed any such glitches while using JRiver). I can only assume that Chrome was placing undue loads on the system and blocking up the USB transfers temporarily.

Can you let me know if the team want me to test the Meridian driver still or does my suggested fix make sense based on the error logs? Happy to give it a week or so and report back on experienced errors too if that’s helpful.

Thank you for the insight here @Lachlan_Fennen! This is indeed a very interesting observation you have made.

I am going to be updating your ticket with your recent feedback so our techs can share their thoughts on the situation. Let’s hold off on the driver test for now until the team can weigh in on this.

-Eric

Hi @Lachlan_Fennen ----- I wanted to touch base with you real fast as I met with our techs this morning to discuss your recent observations while adjusting the mentioned settings in Chrome.

As I suspected the team has asked to hold off on performing the driver test for now and please monitor how Roon performs with the adjustments to Chrome in place. If the you begin to experience the same behavior the driver test is next on the list :microscope:

-Eric

Hi @Eric, I just had another glitch (around 4:40pm today) while using the DragonFly Red device (and still with hardware acceleration switched off in Chrome). There’s no doubt that the issues have reduced since making the changes in Chrome, but I am still not sure if this is a Roon issue or a system issue so I’m looking forward to hearing what the techs can share in terms of the cause of these glitches.

And another tonight (sorry, I didn’t note the time) using the iFi Micro iDSD. Chrome was shutdown at the time so I’m now stuck as to what is going on…

Thank you for the follow up and the feedback @Lachlan_Fennen, appreciated!

In light of the fact that there are still issues despite the adjustments made in chrome the team would like you to please perform the mentioned test in my previous post.

-Eric

Hi @Eric,

I uninstalled and reinstalled the Meridian Drivers today (turns out the Meridian software WAS already correctly installed), but I did a full reinstall to be certain. I’ve just had my first glitch as of 10:48am.

Thanks for the update @Lachlan_Fennen! I am going to re-enable diagnostics on your account so we can see the log traces from this test run. I will confirm when the report has been received.

-Eric

Update (3/5): Confirming that the latest diagnostics report has been received.

Hi @Lachlan_Fennen ---- Thank you again for the continued feedback and more importantly, thank you for your patience while our tech team has been investigating this behavior you are experiencing with your various devices.

As per the team’s update on your ticket, they have asked if you could please provide the following:

  1. An updated screenshot of the Meridian driver being used with the Explorer 2 (Path: Control Panel > Device Manager > Sound Video and Game Controllers > Properties).

  2. Please very briefly outline the uninstall/re-install procedure you used with the Meridian driver.

-Eric

Hi @eric, sorry about the slow response. Details below:

Reinstallation Process:

  1. Via device manager, I removed the device (Meridian Explorer 2) and selected the “uninstall drivers” option. I also reviewed the list of installed software and uninstalled the Meridian software (see screenshot below for details)
  2. I downloaded and ran the software installer from Meridian which installed the following (same software as I uninstalled above)

    I then plugged in the Explorer and it completed the usual driver installation process when you first connect a new USB device to Windows

Driver derails screenshot:

FYI: I’ve begun using ASIO instead of WASAPI and it seems to be preventing the total drop-out of audio and loss of the device control. I still get some glitches, but they are no longer terminal.

Thank you for the follow up and taking the time to provide the requested feedback @Lachlan_Fennen, very appreciated! Passing over to our techs for review :microscope:

-Eric

Hi @Lachlan_Fennen ----- Thank you for your patience here!

Continuing forward, the team pointed out that from your latest screenshot it looks like the Microsoft driver is still being used with the Explorer2 DAC:

50 AM

In light of this the team has asked if would kindly please perform the following:

  • Press Win+Q
  • Type ‘Device Manager’ and hit Enter
  • In the ‘Device Manager’ window go to ‘Sound, video and game controllers’ section
  • Find Meridian in the list
  • Right click > Properties
  • Open ‘Driver’ tab
  • Press Uninstall device
  • Disconnect the DAC from the machine
  • Install\Re-install Meridian driver
  • Connect the DAC to the machine

[Note: Repeat steps 1-6 and confirmed that AMR driver is used with the device]

The team did a quick test on our end with an iFi device and made the following observations:

Before:
doist

After:
doist-1

-Eric

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Hi @eric, sorry about the slow response. I had a hunch (which turned out to be correct) that I would have to reset my entire Windows installation. I have now done this.

Upon reinstalling the Meridian drivers, there was no way I could get it to accept the AMR drivers despite following all of the instructions to the letter. The Microsoft driver is still used.

One weird issue I had is that I needed to connect the Explorer 2 prior to finishing the installation of the Meridian software. If I exited the Meridian installation package and then connected the Explorer 2 afterwards, Windows 10 reported that the driver was unsigned and gave me no option to accept installation. Disabling Windows signature verification didn’t fix this issue!?

Anyway, given that the problem happens across multiple devices, I am seriously hoping that the issue was a system issue and not a device / driver issue. I have my fingers crossed that the full system reset will have resolved whatever was causing the problem. I will keep you informed…

1 Like

Thank you for the follow up @Lachlan_Fennen! no apologies necessary, I appreciate the update!

Please do keep me informed on how things hold up continuing forward and if all seems well I will close the thread out as “resolved”.

I will keep an eye out for your feedback!
-Eric

Yes, you used to be able to set it up in Dev mode as an exception but now this only lasts until the next reboot.