Roon crashing and computer freezes

Support
1

Bit of an annoying issue that has manifested itself recently that I would appreciate some help with.

After some time of playing music in Roon (I think it’s variable, just now it was around 10 minutes) the music suddenly stops and Roon becomes unresponsive. I can still move the mouse pointer, but clicking on things in Roon or on the taskbar does nothing. It’s like Windows has frozen but I’m still able to move my mouse. Ctrl+Alt+Del does nothing. All I can do is a hard shutdown by holding down the power key for 7 seconds or so. When Windows starts again everything looks normal and I can run Roon again, but the same will happen after some time.

I’m running Windows 10 (Windows 10 Pro version 1607 OS build 14393.479 64bit) on an i7/8GB/250GB SSD.

Any help appreciated as I don’t really know where to start with these things! I took a look at the Event Viewer but wasn’t too sure what to make of it.

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Hi @extracampine ------ Thank you for the report and my apologies for the troubles here. To help aide in my evaluation of this issue may I kindly ask you to please provide the following information:

  1. Please expand on the description of your setup as seen here. The more detail you are able to provide, the better :sunglasses:

Lastly, I would like to gather a set of logs from you so our developers can have a closer look into what may be going on here. I will be contacting via PM momentarily with instructions.

-Eric

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Hi @Eric, sorry for the delay in my reply. Windows itself started crashing, so I decided to do a clean install of windows for a fresh start (no previous files or settings were retained). I did this via the Windows media creation tool and installed a fresh copy of Windows 10 Pro. Added in the serial number I had purchased. All seemed to go fine initially before same problem again!

The extra info requested:

Software: 64-bit Windows + Roon latest version
Mobo: Asus Z97 Gryphon
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770T
RAM: 2 x 4GB Crucial DDR3 1600
Boot drive: Samsung 850 Pro SSD
Power: HDPLEX 100W linear PSU with HDPLEX 160W DC to ATX converter
Other: SOTM SATA noise filter; PCIE firewire card.

Network: Modem/router: Technicolor TG582n (supplied by broadband supplier); connected via ethernet cable to Apple Airport Extreme, which handles the wifi. NAS and Roon PC are both connected to the Airport Extreme via ethernet cable. Other devices (phones etc) connect via wifi.

Music stored on a NAS, connected to the PC via ethernet cable. Collection size: around 380 days worth continuous play (Roon keeps crashing before startup so can’t get the number of tracks). For my build report, see this thread:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/customised-computer-audiophile-pocket-server-build-report-24957/

After a short amount of time using the machine (after reinstalling windows as described above) (basically I had changed a few settings and Installed Roon), to my dismay the machine started crashing again. Same problem as before really. It’s happening right now - I can still move the mouse cursor, the spinning blue circle keeps spinning, but nothing is responding. The blue circle changes to an arrow if I move the cursor to the taskbar, but I can’t click on anything. CTRL+ALT+DEL does nothing either.

The time to crash seems variable. Sometimes it seems to crash right after startup, and at other times i can use the PC for half an hour or so before it happens.

So frustrating!! I can’t understand how it can be crashing on a clean install with nothing extra installed (apart from Roon, but this hasn’t been running). I wonder if it is a hardware issue (but I haven’t changed hardware since I built the PC and it seemed to work fine for some months initially).

I’ve wondered if it is to do with Windows updates, and sometimes when I do a hard reboot it says “working on updates” when I start up, and can get stuck on that screen. I realise that this problem is likely not limited to Roon, but wonder if any kind souls can offer any assistance.

1 Like
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Hi @extracampine,

My sympathies for this, it’s terribly frustrating. Some suggestions from a long experience of crashing my computers:

  • Do you have any replacement RAM you can conveniently swap in ? Perhaps a friend or local computer store could lend you some just to carry out a test. The intermittency sounds just like what can happen when RAM turns evil;

  • The symptoms could also result from a bad disk, but I would put the 850 Pro fairly low on likelihood of failing. It’s not impossible however and swapping in a known good spinning boot disk, or booting from a rescue CD or USB, might be an indirect way of testing for a RAM issue;

  • The only time I really have trouble with Roon is when the Core (Windows Server 2012 R2) is waiting on an update. Then I get lag an non-responsiveness. Once I reboot and allow all the updates to happen, everything comes back to normal;

  • Bad shutdowns during an update are very likely to result in corruption of the OS. It only takes one of these for you to embark on an accelerating cycle of update attempts, crashes and shutdowns. I would suggest a clean install of Windows after any bad shutdown during an update, painful though it may be, as otherwise you may be trying to build on damaged foundations.

Please keep posting here with your investigations. There are a lot of people with more PC experience than me on this Forum and hopefully we can help you get to the bottom of it.

2 Likes
5

Thanks for the advice as well as moral support Andrew!

I did a little more tinkering, including using a program to scan and update older drivers. Whatever I did, it’s been running for about 48 hours now without crashing. I haven’t done much with the machine other than play a few tracks, but this is looking good. I will test it a bit more intensively over the next day or two and report back.

1 Like
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There are so many degrees of freedom with computers these days. Fingers crossed that updated drivers have fixed it.

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Just to confirm, Windows is running fine now. I’m not sure what did it, but I would recommend the software “Driver Booster”, which is free, appears to be legit/free from malware and both scans and updates your out of date drivers.

I have come across an odd problem with the audio playback, but will ask about that in a different thread.