I posted this on the slimbox forum as well, but I'll try also here.

I have squeezebox server 7.5.1 running on Windows Server 2003 .
I have a Squeezebox Boom I also use an alarm clock
I have a Squeezebox Classic in my living room

They are all wired to the home LAN.

This setup has been now working seamlessly forever.

I wake up every morning by having the squeezebox boom play some of my mp3 collection tracks. It from my collection (local to the squeezeserver) that I made out of my own CDs, 320bps, cbr.

Now, few days ago, I did not hear my alarm. When I tested it, I noticed that as soon as the Boom starts to play my alarmclock tunes - after a couple fo seconds, precisely - it shows the error messahe on screen: "nb alloc fail in slimproto" and then reboots. When rebooted, alarm does NOT play any tune nor any local sound effect. The little bell blicks nontheless, as if the unit was in fact playing, but nothing is actually being played.

I've tried everything I could think of, including reinstalling the squeeze center.

The error message is mentione several times in the squeezebox forum, but not in a simliar context, and I could not find any solution.

Any help is appreciated.

Does this only affect the alarm? Can you still play music normally through both the Boom and the Classic?

Is your Alarm set to play a playlist (dynamic or otherwise)?

The only slimproto errors I've ever had were early on in setting up the SB and wouldn't let me play any music at all. I believe in my case it was because SBS could not find the music. But again, this was when it was first being set up, not something that just happened from one day to the next without making any changes.

All else seems to work perfectly fine. I can play music normally.

Alarm is set to play a specific mp3 from my collection (which, again, is local to the SBS).

More info I just discovered:

On the server (currently running 7.5.0 due to trying a downgrade from 7.5.1, to no avail) web interface, open on the server machine itself, I see that the player I'm using as alarm clock is being showed as if it is in fact playing the tune I selected.
In reality, the player is showing the error message on screen, rebooting, acquiring an IP again, and then doing nothing while the web interface on the server machine still shows it playing the tune!

This happens on both players (Boom and classic), and it also happens when I try to play some of the squeezebox sounds (which are still on the server side).

So, I would tend to believe, although I am not sure, that the server side is ok, while the client/player has something wrong. I can't think of what I changed, though.

For the records, 7.5.0 and 7.5.1 have been working great for a long time before this issue showed.

I am thinking that the only change I made to the players is to use them in synch mode a few times, only to deactivate synch after doing so, each time. Currently they are not in sych mode.

This is very annoying. Basically I can't use the boom as an alarm clock, which is one of the main reasons I bought it.

Ok, update, in case it is useful for somebody else:

I found out that if I keep the two players in Synch, the problem does NOT occur! So, it does seem this is somehow related to players being in Sync?!