Fixing the “service is not running” error

This post discusses several solutions to fix the “service is not running” error message seen on a Lights-Out server

or a Lights-Out client:

There are two different sources for this error. First an internal program error which crashes the service. This type of error should be reported to support and is not discussed here. Secondly a service which fails to start within the standard 30 seconds limit. This happens after a (re)-boot of your machine and is handled in this post.

Check if service is not running because it failed to start

To find out if the service failed to start in a timely manner, press WIN+X to open the menu, then click on “Computer Management”.

Expand Event Viewer, Custom Views, Administrative Events. Sort by Event ID, then lock for any of the following error events:

Event 1

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Description: The ServiceName service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Event 2

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7011
Description: Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the ServiceName service.

Event 3

Event Type: Error 
Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7009
Task Category: None
Description: A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the ServiceName service to connect.

Any of these events indicate a start-up failure of the service.

Start service manually

Expand “Services and Applications” and select “Services”. Then scroll down until you see Lights-Out. Select the entry and click on “Start the service”.

If everything is then working as expected and the service does not stop again, continue reading. Otherwise contact support.

First fix: Defragment your system disk

If you system is running on SSD, then skip this fix and continue reading on the next section. If your system is running on a classic hard disk, verify that the system disk is not fragmented.

Windows automatically defragments your disk each Wednesday. After a Windows 10 in-place upgrade or after the patch Tuesday (Windows Updates), you may see a very high fragmentation which delays the service start until it fails. Right click on your system disk and select properties.

Change to the Tools tab and click on Optimize.

Analyze the system disk.

If your disk is fragmented, click on Optimize.

Let the process run, then reboot the machine. If the service is now running, you’re done. Otherwise we need to try the next fix.

Modifying the service startup type

Open Computer Management (see above) and double click the Lights-Out service. Click on startup type (default Automatic) and change it to Automatic (Delayed Start).

Click OK and reboot your computer. The service will now start after most of the system services. This fix is risk-free and easy to implement but adds some unwanted delay. If you want to avoid any additional delay, read on.

Modifying registry setting ServicesPipeTimeout

Windows waits 30 seconds for a service to respond. You can increase the default time-out value for all services in the registry. Please be very careful and follow the steps exactly. A registry backup is recommended.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
3. In the right pane, locate the ServicesPipeTimeout entry.
   Note If the ServicesPipeTimeout entry does not exist, you must create it. To do this, follow these steps:
   On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   Type ServicesPipeTimeout, and then press ENTER.
4. Right-click ServicesPipeTimeout, and then click Modify.
5. Click Decimal, type 45000, and then click OK.
   This value represents the time in milliseconds before a service times out.
6. Restart the computer.

If 45 seconds is still not enough, you may try 60000 (60s). Should it still not start, then please contact support.