Roon suddenly cannot see all of my zones

I am running Roon 1.5 with Windows 10 64 bit on an Asus machine. My 60,000 songs are on a QNAP NAS using ethernet cable. I am running an UltraRendu with a Channel Islands DAC.

Out of the blue when I try to play a playlist to the above setup, all of the songs flip through the display, but none of them ever play. This only happened on the UltraRendu/Channel Islands zone. So I unplugged both the DAC and Rendu and, when I plugged them back in, that zone had disappeared altogether. I tried all of the permutations and combinations I could think of to get the Rendu/Channel Island zone back. When none of those helped, I did a complete uninstall of Roon and a reinstall. This time all of my devices that are part of the Core computer are not recognized either! The only zone that is recognized is an Airplay zone, which still works perfectly.

Both the zone that didn’t work (and which is now not recognized at all) and the Airplay zone that works fine are on the exact same subnet as the Core is on.

I’m lost altogether and welcome any ideas.

Thanks,
Kirk

Cables do go bad.

Cables on my system and inside my Core box that connect all of my devices can’t all go south at the same time I’m afraid.

But thanks,
Kirk

All that has to go bad is the Ethernet cable from your core machine. Do you use that machine for anything else?

No, this is a dedicated machine.

But you missed the twin facts that:

  1. One of the other zones running off of that same ethernet cable is running fine, and
  2. Roon also is no longer seeing any of the devices inside of my Core computer - those being my soundcards.

Thanks Slim.

Kirk

Ahh, didn’t see any sound cards mentioned and Airplay can go off WiFi, but that’s OK.

Flagging @support for you.:sunglasses:

Thanks Slim. I hate to bother those guys, but I’m afraid we need to.

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Hi @Kirk ---- Thank you for the report and sorry to hear of the troubles.

May I kindly ask you to please provide a brief description of the what the “chain of communication” looks likes like between the core and the affected endpoint just so we have a better sense of what your setup looks like.

Please also be sure to provide the make/model of any device in the chain, so for example this may look something like:

Asus router > ethernet cable > netgear gs305 switch (unmanaged) > ethernet cable > UltraRendu > USB Channel Island DAC

Additionally…

  1. have you confirmed that you can access the UltraRendu’s webUI via sonicorbiter.com without issue? If so, is the device still set to “Roon ready”.

  2. When you performed the reinstall did you use a previously made Roon backup?

  3. While I understand that the mentioned airplay zone is still visible to the application, can you please confirm that there are no firewalls or antivirus applications running on the core?

-Eric

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The topology looks like this:

Core==>ethernet==>gigabit switch==>ethernet==>router==>gigabit switch==>ethernet==>USB==>DAC==>pre

No I didn’t use the backup, I did a complete clean reinstall.

Yes I checked the Rendu’s website to validate its subnet and restarted RoonReady while I was there. There is no aftermarket firewall of antivirus on this box (probably a bad idea since it’s open to the internet, but there you go.) The Windows firewalls were all on but I just shut them off and it made no difference.

Thanks and I look forward to your best educated perspective.

Kirk

There’s obviously an ethernet cable between the router and the second switch too. DUH!

Hello @Kirk,

Thanks for providing that topology, but can you please expand on the model/manufacturers for each device? Sometimes we have seen special settings needing to be applied to specific brands of router or switches.

Also, it would be very useful if you could include a screenshot of your Audio Tab from Roon just to see if there are any signs of issues pointing in that direction, this screenshot should look like this:

Just in case it hasn’t been mentioned yet, can you please try a reboot of all of your networking gear & Core? I would start at the Router and then continue rebooting everything in an outward fashion (Router -> Switch -> Core -> Endpoint -> DAC). Please let me know if that helps at all.

Thanks,
Noris

Core (Roon 1.5 with Windows 10 64 bit on an Asus machine.)==>ethernet==>gigabit switch(TpLink)==>ethernet==>router(D-Link AC1900 Wireless WiFi Router)==>gigabit switch TP-Link TL-SG1016==>ethernet==UltraRendu>USB==>DAC(Channel Islands)==>pre(PSAudio BHK Signature)

I will post the results of the various reboots shortly. As you will see below, the devices internal to the core box are now back. I did a restore from an old backup and then the soundcards started to show again - obviously it didn’t help for the UltraRendu/Channel Islands DAC though.

Did the cut 'n past of the screenshot work - it doesn’t look like it on this end.

Thanks,
Kirk

All that happened when I rebooted all of those devices in the order that we discussed was that we lost the internal soundcards again.

Once again the local soundcards came back when I did a restore of an old backup. But still my DAC doesn’t show.

Thanks for those screenshots @Kirk,

Hmm, this is a strange one, I do recall working with you on this issue previously where the UltraRendu disappeared from Roon but then showed up later again, I’m wondering if the same underlying issue is causing this strange behavior.

Is your DAC currently powered on? It would have to be powered on and have the correct USB selected to show up in Roon. Do you mind posting a screenshot or the text snippet of what your UltraRendu says under the WebUI -> Apps -> DAC Diagnostics?

Since your local zones are also disappearing I’d like to try to see what the behavior is like with a fresh RAATServer in place, can you please try the following?

Please let me know if that changes anything.

Thanks,
Noris

There’s the problem Norris - Rendu doesn’t see the DAC anymore. I changed the cable (piggybacking on what Slim was thinking) but it’s not the USB cable - it’s actually the DAC. Oh well, I guess that’s an excuse to get the PS Audio DAC with Bridge that I’ve been dying for anyway!

Thanks Norris and thanks for trying Slim.

Kirk

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@Kirk - If it’s the DAC itself then not much can be done here from our end.

I would verify what the behavior is like with the Ultrarendu not in the chain, as in do you experience the same issue if you connect the DAC via USB directly to your Core? At least then we can know where the issue lies.

Thanks,
Noris

I absolutely agree with you Norris, you guys have done all that you can do. Further, you have been great to deal with. I am already talking to my dealer about a PS Audio DAC with Bridge. The Channel Islands DAC/UltraRendu has always been a stopgap solution anyway from my perspective.

Thanks,
Kirk

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