Task Scheduler Service will not start

[linzwhittles]

We have a machine that suddenly had the Task Scheduler program stop working. When you try to start the Task Scheduler Service it comes up with the following message.

Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Now this isn't very a very helpful error message.

The machine has been restarted, Switched Off and On, had the Service Pack reinstalled. But now have run out of ideas.

Any help would be greatly appricated.

Thanks

Lindsey

 

[tsuji]

Hello, linzwhittles.

This is a misleading message, as MS admitted so too.

The scheduled task may or may not have started, amid in started and pending state. Should eventually investigate event log to ascertain whether the task has eventually run through.

The reference mskb article is :

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q278/7/12.ASP

The following excerpt is pertinent.

quote/excerpt/
CAUSE

This behavior may occur because the error message is displayed when the service takes more than three minutes to respond. This arbitrary time limit had been set with the intention that the user or administrator should be advised of the service status when this time limit is reached. However, the wording of the message may give the impression to the user that the service is unable to start, when in fact the service may simply be taking a very long time to start.

The preceding error message is misleading because the service may still be in a Start Pending state.


RESOLUTION

To work around this behavior, you must clear the error message and continue to check for the service to start. If the service does not start, you must check the System event log for Service Control Manager errors related to the service that is being monitored. If no error is posted to the event log, the service should eventually start.

unquote/excerpt/

regards - tsuji