Dell Precision 690 Workstation, Windows 7 Pro, Dual Xeon Processors, 32GB of memory
Roon build number is whatever it downloaded and updated today, prior to this download and update it had worked flawlessly
Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
Gigabit Ethernet. Roon core on above-mentioned machine, music library is on an HP MediaVault NAS running some kind of Linux I would suppose, connected via Cat5e. All network equipment everywhere is Netgear (switches, router, etc). Core computer is connected to a Netgear switch which the NAS is also connected to. Ethernet cable lengths between each of the components is less than 10’ each (they are all on a table next to one another).
Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Internal SoundBlaster Z set to optical out. Roon and the card are set to bypass any card processing and to send the optical signal out to my connected Yamaha RX-R2050 receiver’s optical in.
Description Of Issue
Roon updated to the latest version when I opened the computer program this morning. Program opens up and gives a notice that the database needs updated and this may take some time. Database/program gets to the point where it opens to my library, but the wheel continues to spin in the upper right. I click on that and it gives the window saying it is rescanning tags on my file (I have over 80,000 tracks in my library). At some random point during this process it just totally blue-screen and shuts down the computer. It does not restart it, a manual button push is required to get the machine back up and running. This machine also runs in a remote location and is generally accessed via GoToMyPC so it’s a pain to go to the basement, go to the room with the computer and then turn it back on. NOTE: I have not tried to do the scan and re-open the program while sitting locally at that machine with GoToMYPC not running.
I have repeated this three times today with the same result (my wife is home today and keeps running to the basement to turn on the computer she said “no mas” ha ha).
I’m having a similar problem reported on a different thread with Nucleus Core. On reboot, the Core scans the database but seems to recursively recreate internal storage directory within itself, to the point it runs out of space. Ultimately, the Core crashes and becomes unavailable. Just saying…
Also, update on this. I did a clean boot of my Windows 7 machine and opened Roon and let it do it’s scan, and it crashed the computer again (no Go To My PC involved). I then booted it back up and did not open Roon at all, and it’s been hours with no issues or crashes. The issue has started and seems to revolve around the aforementioned issue with Roon scanning the files for tag information. I have, however, not added any files to my library via Tidal, Spotify or otherwise since the upgrade to 1.7.
Any thoughts on this after viewing my event log? I am just leaving Roon off for now until I get some kind of an update or thoughts on how to resolve. The last time the software crashed my machine it took three restarts to get the computer to start properly I do not want to risk another crash.
It’s been days now of a restart and operation of my computer, without Roon running, and no crashes or failures. Again, these have only started after the update last week.
Apologies for the delay here. I met with the technical team to discuss your report.
According to the team, nothing in Roon is going to be able to cause a blue screen, but we do talk to drivers and components in your system, and they can cause these types of issues. It’s possible that Roon is now calling on a driver in a different way, and that driver is causing the issue. So what we’ll want to do here is narrow this down.
Starting out, I’d like to suggest that we try running Roon with a fresh database for a while, linking only TIDAL. In this case, no scan will occur of local files. Does the same behavior occur here or do things work?
To start with a fresh database, please see the following:
Followed the instructions and renamed the database file
Opened the program, which asked if I wanted to set up the program as a core, which I said yes to and provided my credentials.
Sometime during this process it asked where the music was, and the default was the music folder, which I left enabled (I don’t store my music there).
I also enabled ONLY the system output for my audio output when it asked me to.
The program asked me to provide my Tidal credentials which I did. It then opened up and showed my Tidal library items, plus one random mp3 file from my local machine that I have no idea where that was stored.
The program then asked if I wanted to update my database (again, I am guessing it had the one random file) I said yes and within seconds I got a notice (I was doing all this remotely through GoToMyPC from my office) that said my host computer (the remote one running Roon) had experienced severe packet loss and was momentarily unavailable. Soon after that I got a notice again that the host computer was no longer available as it lost its Internet connection.
The person I had at my home confirmed the computer had shut off
Secondly I did this:
After the computer restarted I got back in again, and repeated the steps above to rename the database file, provide credentials, etc. This time I disabled the music folder when the program launched and entered all credentials for program and Tidal and got to the window showing my library (which this time was all Tidal).
I was able to then go to settings just to check a couple of things, and then went to the about section, where it showed that my database install was 1.7 (build 505 - stable) and that my program was up to date. Within seconds however I got the same notices about packets and Internet and the computer shut off.
Thirdly
A third restart of the computer and opening it, but not in any way opening Roon, resulted in no errors and the computer worked fine.
I would like to go back to 1.5 database and step backwards on the install to show that no errors would occur. How can I do that?
I also have not tried to do a full uninstall of Roon, but, I would think the current installer would just provide me with the most up-to-date version of the program which is the crash issue.
No guarantees, but I strongly advice you to do a complete uninstall ( both Program & Database - asked in uninstall menu) and then clean your Windows register.
I had to do this in the past a couple of times after a Windows update in order to get Roon running again.
The reason for cleaning the Windows register is there are traces of Roon left, even after full uninstall.
I used the free version of Ccleaner to do that.
Then download the most recent version of Roon and install again.
All in all you should be done in less than 15 minutes.
I do not know if it will help in your case but I believe it is worth to try, most definitely in the situation you are in.
All the best
Dirk
Before even seeing your note I had decided to do just this, and had done the uninstall and wiped out all traces. I actually have the paid version of CCleaner and also ran Win Optimizer as well.
I rebooted and reinstalled the program. It opened and I followed the prompts, it logged in and opened to only my Roon with Tidal. It’s now been open and on all night for many hours, with no issues.
I will add my library folder back in and see what happens, but, as of today it appears the uninstall/reinstall route has produced a non-crashing computer.
I will let @dylan know this as well. Thank you very much for your input.
Hi Larry
If you have a decent backup, I can recommend you to first do a restore before specifying your storage location(s).
Even before that, in Settings - Library , set both Analysis to OFF.
After the Restore finishes, watch the scanning wheel untill your library is completely loaded (scanned)
Only then, you can input your storage locations again.
This will drastically reduce the time to have your library back, wilst reducing the risk of losing your own corrections.
(You will probably still loose a couple due to changed metadata. On my +2000 albums, I have about 5 that are splitted and I have to merge again. Happens every time so I know them by heart by now)
I will try that again later, before seeing your note and after letting another hour or so go by with no issues I decided to just add in my music storage folder to Roon. It did not get 4000 files in before it crashed the computer.
So the clean install with Tidal only created no issues. The default music folder had also been enabled (located on my C drive) although nothing was in it and that created no issues. As soon as I add it in my network connected NAS with all the music files on it the crash occurred.
I saw your note about restoring a back up and all. I do have back ups but I do not have any playlists or anything special just my music imported. So I had not really been losing much of anything not using the back up. Perhaps I will try your steps.
As mentioned above, Roon on its own couldn’t cause this kind of crash to occur. Roon will use drivers from the Core machine that could cause this type of behavior, but Roon uses these drivers on thousands of other Windows machines without issue, so something different is happening on your Core machine.
My advice, to confirm this, would be to install Roon on another machine and restore a backup there. Assuming this works and doesn’t present this crashing issue, then we know that something about the hardware or drivers on the current Core are causing an issue here.
I will play around with this over the next two days and report back. I am suspecting that 1.7 is communicating in some way differently over the network than 1.5 did, as it appears the crash only happens when the network is engaged in the scan (other than Internet calls to Tidal).
I have checked my Broadcom drivers for my NIC and they report up-to-date, so again more research is needed. I do have other computers in the house but they are all MACs and I was hoping to try to pinpoint whether this was a Windows issue or not. Stay tuned and I will circle back later. Thanks.
PS: update on this after it was written earlier - as I mentioned before I was able to run the program with Tidal only and no music in the default music folder for Roon. As a test, I put 20 music files in the default music folder, and then asked Roon to force rescan that folder. Within seconds the computer crashed. I restarted the computer and deleted the music files in the default folder, then the database file and restarted Roon and no issue. So…again…this has something to do I am convinced with the way that Roon is talking to something else to query the Internet for file and tag information that is different than 1.5, which was very stable for me and never crashed. More later.
Not sure if this thread has closed or not, I still have nothing more to add as I cannot find a second Windows machine to bring home and try this on. Everyone else in my household has swallowed the Kool-Aid and gone to a Mac. Stay tuned.
Roon has been running for the past week however on my Windows machine with only Tidal active with no issues.
@dylan and @anon90297517 as a followup to this, I just wanted to let you both know that I have yet to fix it, but, today I had my first “crash” as happened with Roon running, but totally independently of anything Roon. The software was not running, but, I was using GoToMyPC and got the packet error/Internet connectivity error and the crash.
I am of the opinion (shared previously by Dylan) that there is a driver or a network card issue that is totally unrelated to the Roon software itself but certainly is related to network traffic and connectivity. I have checked my NIC and the drivers are up to date, but that just means they are a few years old for my card, not anything really brand new.
The plan now is to replace my NIC with a new one. The NIC in my machine is probably 10 years old, and while it’s a gigabit card I am sure that current technology has better throughput than this old one. For $25 for a new card it’s worth a shot. At any rate, thanks everyone for your prior input and keep rocking away.
@dylan FYI I got so frustrated with this I just went out and bought a new computer ha ha. Merry Christmas to me. It will have Win10 and all updated drivers on it, so, the old machine can go out to pasture. This will fix my issue I am sure, as the machine started to shut down abruptly even without Roon running. So…it was some other unknown problem. Thanks for attempting the prior fix suggestions. Happy Holidays.
