NAS threw a wobbly!
Posted by: The Meerkat on 25 January 2015
My Qnap NAS threw a wobbly last night, none of the music servers (Minim, Twonky and PLEX) would work. I kept getting error messages stating "Not enough RAM memory, Restart NAS". To cut a long story short, I switched the NAS off for 10 minutes, then back on again. This time everything was back to normal. Should this happen again, it could be a sign the Qnap is on it's last legs.
If this is the case, do I look for another domestic NAS, or use a Windows or Mac computer, which has a much better processor. The trouble with most NAS drives used with streamers, is that they are not very powerful. Qnap, Netgear and Synology NAS drives are used by many forum members, but is there an alternative to a NAS that would serve my music files, (including 24/96) to my ND5 XS?
I was using PLEX on the Qnap. I also have a version of PLEX on my iMac. The iMac is WiFi connected, so not sure if it would stream 24/96 without buffering.
Thanks
If I had half the problems with my TS-112P that Meerkat is having with his TS-112 it would have gone in the dustbin long ago.
FWIW I am streaming using Logitech Media Server (LMS), version 7.7.5, installed on the TS-112P, using a WD Red drive, to a Squeezebox Touch (SBT) and a Boom Radio.
Since setting it up a few months ago it has worked a treat.
My motto: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 
Dave
Jazz...nice!
Dave, I can see the Logitech app in the Qnap app centre, but am I correct in saying, it needs a Squeezebox to work?
If I had half the problems with my TS-112P that Meerkat is having with his TS-112 it would have gone in the dustbin long ago.
FWIW I am streaming using Logitech Media Server (LMS), version 7.7.5, installed on the TS-112P, using a WD Red drive, to a Squeezebox Touch (SBT) and a Boom Radio.
Since setting it up a few months ago it has worked a treat.
My motto: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Dave
Jazz...Nice!
Dave, I can see the Logitech app in the Qnap app centre, but am I correct in saying, it needs a Squeezebox to work?
Correct.
Dave
Yes minim requires Java.
if the 100% cpu is after the media server starts then this could be it doing a scan of files to build the index on startup. Once cpu has dropped, then play a file and see what happens. Do you transcode files or play as-is?
Ian...that is a very good explanation. I hadn't thought of it scanning all the files, which is what any NAS has to do...
I don’t think this is correct.
When I transfer a batch of music files to the QNAP multimedia folder, the squeezebox server won’t automatically play these files, it doesn’t know these files exist. I have to tell the squeezebox server to scan the multimedia folder for new music files. It doesn’t need to scan everytime the server is used, all the information regarding the music stored on the NAS has been stored in the server software.
Errr, I'm in the dark on this one...
Hey Meekat,
Have you thought about selling the NAS / ND5XS and buying a Secondhand CDS3 / XPS. It's dead easy to operate, all you have to do is put the disc in and it plays beautiful music. 
Stokie 
Have you thought about selling the NAS / ND5XS and buying a Secondhand CDS3 / XPS. It's dead easy to operate, all you have to do is put the disc in and it plays beautiful music.
Stokie
It's not throwing a lot of money at solving the problem that's needed.
Dave
Have you thought about selling the NAS / ND5XS and buying a Secondhand CDS3 / XPS. It's dead easy to operate, all you have to do is put the disc in and it plays beautiful music.
Stokie
It's not throwing a lot of money at solving the problem that's needed.
Dave
Hi Dave,
It was meant 'tongue in cheek', Meerkat is a friend of mine
Stokie
Have you thought about selling the NAS / ND5XS and buying a Secondhand CDS3 / XPS. It's dead easy to operate, all you have to do is put the disc in and it plays beautiful music.
Stokie
It's not throwing a lot of money at solving the problem that's needed.
Dave
Hi Dave,
It was meant 'tongue in cheek', Meerkat is a friend of mine
Stokie
Perhaps you need to have a quiet word in his ear then.
Dave
Have you thought about selling the NAS / ND5XS and buying a Secondhand CDS3 / XPS. It's dead easy to operate, all you have to do is put the disc in and it plays beautiful music.
Stokie
It's not throwing a lot of money at solving the problem that's needed.
Dave
Hi Dave,
It was meant 'tongue in cheek', Meerkat is a friend of mine
Stokie
Perhaps you need to have a quiet word in his ear then.
Dave
About what?
Ken is not just a friend, he's a GREAT friend!
I was looking at the various QNAP products on their website and on Amazon. They're not cheap! They do have Celeron powered models; are those best for running Asset?
Hi Bart...I'm not sure about that. To be honest, if my NAS blew up today, I'd probably go for a Synology, just to see how they perform.
Funnily enough, I set up Minim server on the Qnap today, and I was able to transcode FLAC to WAV on the fly, which is very useful if you store in FLAC, and playback in WAV. I did a back to back test, and personally couldn't tell the difference. I am going to disable Minim, because all my compilation albums were fragmented all over the place! Missing artwork, no artwork. With PLEX, you can add, delete artwork and other metadata on it's GUI
Yes it is slightly slower, but it's back to PLEX for me!...Haven't tried Asset yet 
I'm glad you're up and running! On my Synology 213j, both the native Synology media server and MinimServer will transcode flac to wav on the fly for me. That's my current system; all albums stored as flac, and transcoded by the server to wav. My uServe is my server of choice, and my nas is for backup, but I play with the servers on it just for fun
I took a few screenshots of the NAS resource monitor. It’s a QNAP TS112 1.2 GHz CPU with 256MB DDR2 Ram.
Streaming to a SBT with squeezebox server doesn’t appear to trouble the CPU at all, in fact most of the small value spikes are caused by the resource monitor.
Streaming doesn’t cause any spikes or change in memory.
24/96 high res flac streamed in flac.
Redbook WAV streamed in WAV
Redbook WAV streamed in flac
Memory.
Fatcat
It would seem you and I spare similar experience of using QNAP NAS (and Logitech Media Server (LMS)). Excellent.
Dave
If I had half the problems with my TS-112P that Meerkat is having with his TS-112 it would have gone in the dustbin long ago.
FWIW I am streaming using Logitech Media Server (LMS), version 7.7.5, installed on the TS-112P, using a WD Red drive, to a Squeezebox Touch (SBT) and a Boom Radio.
Since setting it up a few months ago it has worked a treat.
My motto: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Dave
Jazz...Nice!
Dave, I can see the Logitech app in the Qnap app centre, but am I correct in saying, it needs a Squeezebox to work?
Correct.
Dave
If I understand this comment correctly, then: No, you don't need a Logitech streamer device (Touch, etc.) even when when using LMS - provided this app is on the NAS and correctly configured.
I run several servers, both PC and NAS based. Having used a SB Touch I've found most severs problematic and so found how to install LMS on the NAS. Ironically, I rarely use it now but my wife uses it most of the time. It reads the music from the file structure (in my case: genre / artist / album) though there is one annoying quirk compared with the old PC~SB Touch set-up relating to multiple artists on an album.
You do have to run the scan (or set it to run periodically) to pick up new rips/amendments and this can overload the RAM so it's best to do this over-night.
I haven't found a way to transcode in LMS so the music plays on the NDX in its NAS format (for me: FLAC)
Mitch
Musicmad
re: your last post I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say in your opening statement? I have LMS installed on my NAS along with the music files. In order to listen to these files I need some kind for Squeezebox player, e.g. Touch, Boom, Radio. Is that not so? But maybe from your last comment you are saying LMS can be used with other players, e.g. Naim NDX? I wouldn't know.
Also, regarding running scans, for my size library, about 5000/5500 files, a complete re-scan has never taken more than about 15-20 mins. If I add, or change the NAS contents, then a "look for new or changed music" scan only takes a few minutes maximum. There is no requirement to periodically re-scan the library. At least that is my experience.
Dave
Hi Dave,
With apologies to the OP for veering away from the thread topic ...
I started streaming a few years ago with a straightforward PC~SB receiver (upgraded to SB Touch) using LMS.
When I moved my library over to a NAS (QNAP 419 PII) I continued to use LMS (PC based) - I had to convert all the Windows Media (WMA lossless) files to FLAC Lossless as I couldn't find a way for the NAS to read WMA.
The scanning of the NAS FLAC files has always taken much longer than the scanning of the PC WMA files.
When I upgraded from the SB Touch to the Naim NDX (just over 12mths ago) I found I could not use the PC based LMS but a few weeks (perhaps longer) later I found a thread on this forum which explained how to install LMS on the NAS and configure for non-SB play. By that time I had been experimenting with QNAP's own server (awful!) and Twonky, subsequently MinimServer, then Asset (PC based) and Asset (NAS based).
With my "large-ish" library (48,000+ tracks) it takes LMS several hours to scan. Yes, I can opt to check for new tracks but I prefer the full scan ... there're always a few other tracks to play in the meantime!
I now run two parallel systems (though very rarely use the "old" system):
- NAS FLAC to NDX using any of Twonkey/Asset-NAS/Asset-PC/MinimServer/LMS-NAS (wired)
- PC WMA to SB Touch using LMS-PC (wireless)
I run full scans on both LMS systems periodically as a check that I have all music tracks converted from WMA to FLAC. The PC LMS scan takes only 25-33% of the time that the NAS LMS scan takes.
In summary: if you need something confused ... bring it to me!
Mitch
Mitch
Interesting. With me it's a case of "keep it simple" & "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Anything else is too stressful. Each to there own I suppose.
Dave