Slow response to Roon Core in different zone

H ello Roon Techies:
I love Roon! This is my issue: Using my Lenovo All-in-One PC as a core ,every function is lightning fast; looking up metadata, changing playlists, artist bios, etc. BUT…using a Lenovo Thinkpad as a zone device for my living room, the same functions take much much longer. I tried making the Thinkpad into my core by attaching my Music Files directly to it from my Western Digital 4 TB, but after all the music was imported functions are still very slllooowwww. Here is something interesting… I accidentally “authorized” BOTH computers to be “cores” , which solved the problem…but that was before I found out that would result in another $119 yearly charge.
My question is, why does having DUAL cores speed up the response on my Thinkpad in the living room when using it as a SINGLE core results in slow response?

Hello @kim_hixson,

Thanks for contacting support regarding this issue. If you were using Roon as a Remote on the other Lenovo Thinkpad and it was slow, this could be due to networking issues preventing proper communication between the Core and the Remote.

You have bypassed this since installing the second Core allows your endpoints to communicate directly with it but when it was in “Remote Mode” then there had to be some additional hops to reach the destination. How exactly was it slow? Was browsing tracks slow? Was playing back tracks taking too long?

We have often seen that some routers require specific settings to operate properly:
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Networking_Best_Practices#Router_Specific_Settings.

This could be a change you would need to make or another suggestion would be to update the router’s DNS servers to Google DNS or Cloudflare as that has helped in the past. Also making sure that your Core is connected via Ethernet to the router helps with stability. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Noris

thanks for the prompt reply Noris. The issues are with just about all graphics interfaces. For example when looking at my “artist” or “Album” libraries, it takes between 3-5 minutes to load the images. Once loaded it takes a minute or two to choose a musical choice and get it started. And if you go from one “page” to another on these libraries, the graphics accompanying the albums/artists are never saved–they must always reload. Regarding playback, there is never a problem with stutter or cutting out. At times the timer showing elapsed time of a song will “hang up”, but the song itself continues.
I am using a Netgear Genie as my router…I also have a range extender but I disabled it for this application

Hello @kim_hixson,

Thanks for letting me know. I have a few suggestions based on your feedback:

  • Does the same behavior occur if you connect your Core via Ethernet?
  • I would try the DNS change in your Netgear Genie if possible.
  • If you have another Roon Remote (such as an iOS device) are you still able to see this same behavior?
  • I am wondering if a cache clearing will help here. Please try this if it occurs again:
  1. Quit Roon
  2. Find and open your Roon folder
  3. Locate and delete only the cache folder (Roon/Cache)
  4. Restart your Core

Thanks,
Noris

Hello Noris;
Thanks again for the help. My Core is already connected via ethernet. I connected the laptop in my living room zone via ethernet and still got the lag in displaying artwork, etc. Guess I will try the DNS option. Since I am not a techie I am concerned what that may do regarding all of my other programs, apps, etc… any thoughts on that before I do that?

Hello @kim_hixson,

You should be ok performing the DNS change. The default option for the majority of routers is using the ISP provided DNS which is usually slower than Google or Cloudflare. A DNS server stands for Dynamic Name Server and this is what translates websites or web assets to the actual server’s IP address.

Just so that we can be confident that this is not the Remote/Core itself I would advise performing a reboot for both to see if that helps resolve the issue and if not then proceed with the DNS change. Please let me know your results.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris;
I took your suggestion regarding the DNS change…wow what a difference! The Roon interface on my Thinkpad is blazing fast. Still loving Roon. Thank you again.

Hello @kim_hixson,

Glad to hear that the DNS change worked out and the system is much more responsive! If there’s anything else you need assistance with, just let us know, otherwise I wish you a wonderful day!

Thanks,
Noris

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