Windows Update service does not start "error 1053: "The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion"

Hi Jordan,

Welcome to the Microsoft Community.

Please answer the following question:

1. Did you make any changes to the computer prior to this issue?
2. How are you trying to start the service?
3. What exactly do you refer to when you say “cannot view the update history”? Does it shows a a blank?
4. How did you tried to rename the Windows Software Distribution folder?
5. What is the service status for other services such as Cryptographic and Background Intelligence Transfer Service?

You can follow the steps to check the status of the other services and start them if the status is

stopped:

a) Press Windows and R key together to open run box.

b) Type “”services.msc” without quotes and hit Enter.

c) Locate Cryptographic and Background Intelligence Transfer Serviceand double click on the service icon.

d) Check if the service status is stopped. If yes, click on Start to start the service.

Check if you can start Windows update service.

You can follow the methods:

Method 1:

Folow the steps:

a) Press Windows and E key together and then open ‘C’ (Operating system drive) drive.

b) Navigate to the following location:

C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore.

c) Delete the DataStore foler.

d) Navigate back to try and restart the Windows update service again under services.msc.

Method 2:

If method 1 does not help, you can try to use the following commands on command prompt window and check if it helps.

a) Type cmd on the start screen and righ click on **Command Prompt.**Select Run as administrator from the options at the bottom of the screen.

b) Type the following command prompt and type the following command and hit Enter after each one:

net stop wuauserv

net stop cryptSvc

net stop bits

net stop msiserver

ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old

net start wuauserv

net start cryptSvc

net start bits

net start msiserver

pause

Try to start the Windows update service again and check if it helps.

Do let us know about the results on this issue.

Answers:

1. The only changes made to the computer would have been Windows updates.
2. I am trying to start the service by running services.msc, double-clicking the Windows Update service on the extended tab, and clicking the button "Start". Status of service is stopped. Start fails.
3. If I go to Windows Update in the Control Panel to view the update history, it is blank.
4. I renamed the SoftwareDistribution folder SoftwareDistribution.old (there was no need to stop the Update service since it isn't running).
5. Cryptographic and Background Intelligence Transfer Service are both running.

METHOD 1:

Deleted the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore folder and attempted to start the Windows Update service in services.msc. Service would not start.

METHOD 2:

Also failed. Here is what happened at each step of the process:

a. net stop wuauserv: The Windows Update service is not started.

b. net stop cryptSvc: Service stopped successfully

c. net stop bits: The service is not responding to the control function.

d. net stop msiserver: The Windows Installer service is not started.

e. Successfully renamed catroot2 to catroot2.old

f. net start wuauserv: The service is not responding to the control function.

g. net start cryptSvc: Service started successfully

h. net start bits: The service is not responding to the control function.

i. net start msiserver: Service started successfully

I checked services.msc a bit later and found that despite the message at step h, the BITS service was running.

Windows Update service would still not start.

Doing "dir catr*" in the Windows system32 directory shows there are now two directories: catroot and catroot2.old. There is no new catroot2.

Hi,

I ran the "sfc /scannow" command in a command prompt that I opened to run as Administrator. It reported errors and generated a CBS.log file that is 2.2MB in size. Restarted the computer, but I still cannot start the Windows update service.

Is there somewhere I can upload the log file for you to look at it?

A little more information: after renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder SoftwareDistribution.old failed to solve the problem, I changed the name back to SoftwareDistribution. I did this in order to the try the suggestion you made to delete just the DataStore subdirectory. As I said, it didn't work.

Hi Jordan,

Thank you for an update on this issue.

Let's run system update readiness tool to check if any inconsistencies, on the computer, is leading to this issue.

To run system update readiness tool on the computer, I would suggest you to refer to the link:

“System Update Readiness Tool fixes Windows Update errors in Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008”

Note: You would have to run the following commands:

• DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
• DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Follow the section “For Windows 8”:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821

Note: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, you can refer to the following steps to back the registry files on the computer:

a)      Press Windows and r key to open the run box.

b)      Type ‘regedit’ and press Enter from the keyboard.

c)      Open the file option on the menu bar.

d)      Click on Export and save the file with a name on the desktop.

If you want to backup the file, you can do so by double clicking the file that you have saved on the desktop.

I would suggest you to send us the CBS.log files on Skydrive.

Here’s how to send them on Skydrive:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/4fc10639-02db-4665-993a-08d865088d65/

Do let us know about the sattus of this issue.