ROCK crashes nightly on Beelink SER3 Mini PC (ref#P5J6DW)

Support
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Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Rock crashes every night, fresh install on Beelink SER3 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 3 3200U, 16GB DDR4, 500GB PCIE3.0 SSD Graphics 3core 1200 MHz

WD 4TB My Passport Ultra External HDD USB-C, Hard wired ethernet, upgraded 100w psu, fresh thermo compound applied to cpu

Tell us about your home network

· Asus zen wifi6

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Hello @Mike_Tufts,

Thank you for the detailed breakdown of your Beelink hardware.

I have taken a close look at your system diagnostics, and I can see these restarts are actually happening at random intervals throughout the day and evening, not just at night. More importantly, the logs show absolutely no traces of the Roon software or the ROCK operating system crashing. There are no software errors recorded before the system goes down.

When a machine drops offline abruptly without leaving a software footprint, it indicates a physical hardware failure causing a hard freeze or power loss. Since the software itself is running normally, this points to an issue with the hardware components.

To help narrow down the hardware culprit, we recommend:

  1. Unplugging the 4TB WD external drive to see if a USB power draw issue is locking up the motherboard.
  2. Testing your RAM and internal SSD health, as faulty memory or a failing drive are the most common causes of random hardware lockups.

Would you be able to run the server barebones (without the external USB drive attached) for a day to see if the system finally stays online?

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I unplugged the usb drive and it hasn’t crash since. I had it plugged into the front of the mini computer. I suppose I’ll try plugging it in one of the ports in the back to see if that helps.

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Update: it just crashed again even though the usb drive is unplugged. I have not been using it the entire time. It’s just been idling until it crashed.

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I believe there are issues with these when the 16gb RAM is in the top slot. Try using the bottom slot.

1 Like
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Both slots are occupied each by 8 gig ddr4 dimm

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How many tracks are in your library?

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Mike, I like this form factor and had a Beelink U59 Pro. Unfortunately, Beelink uses some cheap components and nothing lasts forever. Within the first year (running Windows 11) I had issues with my mini PC associated with the RAM. One of the two 8 GB DIMM was the culprit (trial and error told me which one and Beelink replaced the bad DIMM via the warranty).

During it’s second year I ran ROCK and developed an issue with the internal SSD drive. I replaced the SSD drive myself and all was well for another year.

On the third year, I had some type of power supply or motherboard issue where it would not boot up at all. With no easy fix, I used it as an excuse to buy a new M4 Mac Mini and used my old M1 Mac Mini as a dedicated Roon server on macOS.

I’m not saying any of these issues are your issues. But yes, it may be hardware and not the ROCK causing issues.

1 Like
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I have about one third of my CDs ripped which is about 13,300 tracks. I’m not sure why that would matter given it has crashed with and without the hdd attached.

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Ok, might be worth a try by removing the top 4gb RAM module. ~13,000 won’t use 4gb. This is just to test things.

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Update: Removing one RAM stick didn’t fix the crashes. I then swapped it out and tested with the other stick alone—still crashing. At this point, the SSD seems like the next likely suspect, but I have no easy way to test it without buying a replacement SSD and hoping it resolves the issue.

Any other suggestions or troubleshooting steps I could try before pulling the trigger on a new drive?

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Or perhaps I should just bite the bullet and get ( all input appreciated):

GMKtec Mini PC Intel Core i3-10110U Processor (Beats 4300U/N150) 16GB DDR4 256GB SSD Intel i226-V RJ45 Ethernet Desktop Computer 4K Dual/ 4X USB3.2/ WiFi 6 BT5.2/ Nucbox G3 Pro

Or:

GMKtec Mini PC Computers Intel N95 Processor (Turbo 3.4GHz) 8GB DDR4 256GB SSD Desktop Computer 4K Dual HDMI Display/3x USB3.2/WiFi 5 BT5.0/RJ45 Ethernet Nucbox G3S

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Hi @Mike_Tufts,

While we’re not able to provide specific recommendations (I’d maybe create a thread over in the Roon Software Discussion Software category asking your above questions) there are a few things you can test prior to replacing the SSD:

Reseat the NVMe Drive

Sometimes thermal expansion or vibration can cause a slight loss of contact in the M.2 slot.
  • Power down the unit completely.
  • Remove the SSD, ensure the contacts are clean (you can use a dry lint-free cloth or a bit of isopropyl alcohol), and firmly re-insert it.

Update the SSD Firmware

Many NVMe drives (notably certain Samsung and WD models) have known bugs that can cause "ghost" disconnects or I/O hangs which are fixed via firmware updates.
  • Identify the exact model of your SSD.
  • If you have a spare PC, you can connect the drive to it and use the manufacturer's utility (like Samsung Magician or WD Dashboard) to check for and apply firmware updates.
If you have access to another computer, you can run a diagnostic to see if the drive is reporting "Media and Data Integrity Errors."
  • Connect the SSD to another machine.
  • Use a tool like CrystalDiskInfo (Windows) or smartctl (Linux/Mac) to look for "Critical Warning" or high "Media Errors" counts.

Thank you! :folded_hands:

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