Warn: [1] frame took ...... and Too many dropouts

Roon Software Discussion
1

Hi, this post isn’t really a cry for help, more a sharing of experience which might help others.

I’ve been having a lot of problems with Live Radio stations dropping out for about a year now. Sometimes the system would run for a couple of hours, sometimes it would dropout straight after starting. I’ve always been too busy doing other stuff to seriously investigate. But this Xmas break, I have had some time.

My active system is comprised of a mac mini as Roon Server, 2 other mac minis and a MacPro late 2013 (just replaced with a Mac Mini Studio M1) as Audio Devices (what used to be called Endpoints). The mac minis are maxed out with RAM at least 8GB. The whole system is hard wired with Cat5e cabling.

I’ve looked into the log files and found warnings saying things like;
“Too many dropouts (>3s dropped out in the last 30s). Killing stream”
“Warn: [1] frame took 4325.84ms! 17.93ms preframe, 0.00ms safe queue, 0.00ms timers, 0.00ms frame calls, 1.64ms update, 4325.84ms render”

I can quite see why a frame taking 4325ms would be a problem!

I initially thought that the Dual-Core i5 mac mini mid 2011 I was using as the Roon Server was underpowered. It was in the kitchen for searching recipes and was painfully slow. So I rebuilt the server into a Quad-Core i7 Late 2012 mac mini and configured the 2011 mac mini as an Endpoint. This is a significantly faster machine and Activity Monitor shows me that it is just ticking over while running Roon and surfing the internet.

But that didn’t solve the problem. There are several other posts in the forum of a similar nature and they are pointing towards network issues.

I realised that there was a Netgear GS324 switch and an old Apple Time Capsule hub between my Router (a BT Home Hub 2) and the Roon server, so I tried wiring the Roon Server directly to the Netgear switch and then directly to the Router. Although I didn’t seem to be getting as many dropouts, they were still occurring. I also tried rebooting the router.

Today I tried something different. I am using my Mac Mini Studio as an Endpoint and, although the late 2011 mac mini is awake and running Roon, it is not playing any music. The system has run perfectly all day. But when I use Apple’s Screen Sharing function to log into it to see what its log files look like, its painfully slow responding. Yet using Screen Sharing I can log into all my other macs and they are running fine.

So I am beginning to think there is something wrong with the mac mini mid 2011. Activity Monitor says it is not doing very much yet it responds painfully slowly. Think I’ll try running hardware diagnostics on it. And then reinstall all the software including macOS.

2

Fan likely has failed causing the processor to save itself from over temp and throttle way down.

3

Good point.
I’ve just downloaded System Monitor and its showing me that the fan is running but the processor is up at 85-90°C. Sounds like its time for a hardware spring clean! I’ll take it apart in the morning :sleeping:

4

Ok, spent a bit of time today examining the mac mini 2011.
I ran the extended Apple hardware diagnostics on it. No problems found. So I stripped it down expecting to find the insides full of cat fur and dust. Well there was a very thin layer of fine dust but nothing that would explain the slow downs. I checked heat sink screws and found 2 that tightened by about a 16th of a turn.
While it was apart, I put the SSD into a caddy and ran First AId on it using Disk Utility. Again no problems found at any level of the drive structure.
So basically, I didn’t find anything that could really be causing the slow down.
I’ve put it all back together and set it running Roon as an Endpoint. And started a spreadsheet and some internet surfing with Safari.
The System Monitor App I downloaded yesterday, shows that the processor is running somewhere between about 55 and 90°C, fan peaking out at about 2500 rpm. All good.

But then after about an hour or so, its all slowed down to a crawl again. Everything except cursor movement is slow, even dragging a window across the screen. The spinning beachball actually stops for 10-20 seconds. Yet Activity Monitor is showing about 25% processor loading. And Roon is still playing Planet Rock Radio!

I sloooowly managed to close down Safari and Numbers, leaving just Activity Monitor and Roon running. Still slow but Roon still playing. So I closed Roon and suddenly the machine speeded up. I could move windows, run Safari and Numbers.

I’ve checked the Roon Log file. Instead of “frame took” being something between 15 and a couple of hundred millisec as it was shortly after I rebooted the machine after the cleaning, the times were up in the 3,300 - 4,100ms range.

So it looks like its some sort of problem with Roon on this particular mac mini :confounded:

Does anyone know what this frame time is referring too? And at what time does it cause Roon to drop out?

Ok, this slowing down issue is repeatable. After restarting Roon, the mac mini ran ok for a while. I’ve just just been and checked again and everything is running slowly. Quit Roon and the machine instantly returns to normal.

Think I’ll add Support to the post :smiley: That is if I can work out how to do it. Maybe just start a new post with the essentual details.