Roon keeps closing without warning, no idea why

Roon Core Machine

Windows 10, good CPU, plenty of RAM.

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Not sure this relevant to this issue, but I’m connected to the internet via ethernet.

Connected Audio Devices

Main output is to a Topping D50s connected via USB.

Number of Tracks in Library

Large, upward of 100,000.

Description of Issue

Roon closes suddenly, and has done so on several occasions. It’s never instantly after opening, and there’s no warning of it, the software just crashes and disappears.

It might be being caused by the background audio analysis, as that has a long way to go. I have it on throttled at present.

I’ve tried opening the log files but they don’t seem to tell me much. There’s no real pattern nor are any errors being reported at the end of the files.

The issue has never occurred when I’m listening, it seems to be happening when I’ve not used Roon for a bit or even been away from the keyboard, just seems to be gone when I get back.

I have 9 days left on my trial and want to become a paying user but of course I feel I need to resolve these crashes first. Any help would be welcome. I can send my logs somewhere if needed.

Finally, I didn’t realise my full name would appear here. How can I change that please?

Post your request for username change in that thread.

HI Katy,

Fellow user here. The first thing to try is to turn off Audio Analysis, leave it off, and see if the crashes continue. Are you using Roon on a general purpose machine, or, one dedicated to running it? If it is a general purpose machine, I would check to see if the time frames of Roon stopping match any other system processing events, like backups.

BTW, If you are on a trial with a large library, I always suggest to turn off Audio Analysis, anyway. That is only used to create a waveform and for volume leveling, it is not for identification. I personally, only use ON Demand analysis which will just do the track you are about to play as I never use volume leveling.

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OK, I’ve turned off audio analysis. I’ll report back if it crashes again, the trial period has over a week so that’s a good timeframe to test it on.

I’ve asked to change my username in that thread.

Is it the Core that’s crashing, or the UI? If the UI, is it running on the same machine as the Core? Or by crash, do you mean the music stops playing?

It’s the software, I guess both crash though? I didn’t check to see if a process was running but it seems to go through a full and long start-up process after it. That said, it’s not crashed since disabling the audio analysis.

My new problems appear to be high memory usage (should it be at 2.5GB, and I’m sure that’s going up) and me experiencing some pops/dropouts on playback of 24-bit (I don’t get any dropouts in foobar2000 or other software). So those bits might make me reluctant to go from trialist to subscriber… I definitely think dropouts and a huge memory dump would be a no deal. Or are there solutions there?

No good ideas, I’m afraid. It sounds like you have the all-in-one core+UI app running. You might try the separate RoonServer download as the core, so that the app with the UI is only the “remote control”, even if they’re running on the same machine. My thinking is that an OS will often treat an unattended UI application as closable, depending on power saver and screen saver options. So maybe the UI is being closed by Windows, and that kills the whole app.

If you have been stable after disabling Audio Analysis, then that was probably the issue. Roon can be considered a database server so heavier RAM usage is not unexpected, especially with such a large library.

When you have dropouts during playback, and I am assuming this is with Audio Analysis, turned off, Look at the Signal Path and see what the CPU load is, anything near 1.3x and the CPU is working too hard. You did not detail your CPU or RAM. Are you using any DSP?

Roon uses 3GB of RAM straight after opening, and it feels like it goes up too. Seems like a lot, especially compared to other players, but maybe it’s just the software.

I clicked on signal path but I’m not sure what I’m looking for to check the load:

image

During playback in task monitor:

image

I have 16GB of RAM and a good CPU so it shouldn’t really be struggling. No DSPs are enabled.

I’d say I’m getting glitches a couple to a few times every 30 minutes but of course that’s still not acceptable to me. I have no background processes I’d be aware of that would interfere.

Roon’s RAM usage is dependent on your library size and hence your database size , for 100k tracks 3 Gb is not abnormal.

May be worth checking any other background processes hogging Windows resources.

Also check that the video card driver is the manufacturer original not the Windows best fit. Windows update can often swap this

Roon is not like other players actually. It has a large database portion to it that is unique. Roon will want to keep as much of the database in RAM, so as Mike mentioned, that can vary with your library size.

Signal Path:

Notice the processing speed pointed to in red above. That is telling you how much of 1 core is being used. If the speed is 100% + it is not shown. In your screen shot it is not showing, so above 100.

You haven’t mention the CPU, but, keep in mind, Roon is single core focused; so, higher single core speed is more important that number of cores.

I noticed you use Wasapi. Have you tried to use ASIO and see if that makes a difference?

There have been widespread reports of random crashing since build 903. I am having very similar issues as reported by the OP on Windows 11 for several weeks now but it seems to effect Windows 10 as well. I am experiencing everything reported in these links.

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Notice the processing speed pointed to in red above. That is telling you how much of 1 core is being used. If the speed is 100% + it is not shown. In your screen shot it is not showing, so above 100.

And over 100% is bad, I assume? The CPU usage in task monitor occasionally spikes to about 12% at most but is mostly as shown. I can’t understand what’s using huge CPU use. It’s an Intel Core i5 8600K CPU, not sure if that makes much difference but it’s handled everything in the past.

I noticed you use Wasapi. Have you tried to use ASIO and see if that makes a difference?

I’ve changed to ASIO already, and it still happens.

No, the opposite. the higher the x value the less CPU being used. A rating of 2x means that 50% of the cpu is being used. So, in my example, the 65.5x is something wickedly small like 5 or 6 % CPU usage. Your usage would be even less.

Ah, ok. So it’s not a usage issue, maybe it’s a soundcard setup for Roon? Are issues with buffer size or something like that plausible? I’ve done no special configuration for it.

Totally anecdotal, but I’ve been listening to some 16-bit music for about half an hour and no skips. 24-bit, of course, should logically put more strain on things, not the CPU clearly as we’ve evidenced, but maybe that’s a clue to the problem.

24 bit meaning 24/96, 24/192, 24/358?

Are you just playing to the Topping? what happens if you play to the System Output, aka internal audio system? Same dropouts?

It varies between 24/44.1 and 24/96, generally. I’ve had the issue with both.

It’s always to the Topping D50s. I’ve not tried System Output but I could give that a go.

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Just had a glitch on a 16-bit track anyway, so that theory about it only being 24-bit isn’t true.

Katy,

Just to get back to the symptoms, when you say just now it “glitches”, do you mean Roon closes out, or, there is an audio dropout?

Did you try downloading new video drivers for your PC from the manufacturer. Roon uses OpenGL 3.0+ in displaying its graphics, like a video game. Sometimes graphics issues can cause Roon to close.

It’s audio glitches, the software is staying open now since I stopped background audio analysis. So it’s not a crash, it’s the song playback glitching.