Service Stuck Starting Or Stopping

Description:

If you have an issue with a service that is stuck Starting or Stopping but it won’t complete, follow these steps:

To Resolve:

1. Update: This is much easier to do this with powershell. For example, with print spooler you can do:

   get-service | ? { $_.DisplayName -like "*print*" }
   
   Status   Name               DisplayName
   ------   ----               -----------
   Stopped  PrintNotify        Printer Extensions and Notifications
   Stopped  PrintWorkflowUs... PrintWorkflow_6dc45
   Running  Spooler            Print Spooler
   
   $ServicePID = (get-wmiobject win32_service | where { $_.name -eq 'spooler'}).processID
   Stop-Process $ServicePID -Force
   

2. Query the process => To kill the service you have to know its PID or Process ID. To find this just type the following in at a command prompt: sc queryex servicename

   

   • Replace servicename with the services registry name. For example: Print Spooler is spooler. (See Picture)

3. Identify the PID => After running the query you will be presented with a list of details. You will want to locate the PID. (Highlighted)

   

4. Run the TaskKill command => Now that you have the PID, you can run the following command to kill the hung process: taskkill /f /pid [PID]

   • This will force kill the hung service. (See Picture)

   

5. Another way to stop a stopping service:

   • Set all restart of service options to Take No Action:

   • Run => services.msc => right-click Target-Service => Properties => Recovery tab #Make sure the First\Second\Subsequent failures are all set to “Take No Action”

   • Get the PID of your target service using:

   sc queryex wuauserv
   

   • Kill the process:

   taskkill /f /pid 334
   

   • Try starting the service.

6. Never tried, but you could try stopping all processes with a specific service by using:

   TASKKILL /F /FI "SERVICES eq wuauserv"
   

   • Powershell way to kill all hung services:

   $Services = Get-WmiObject -Class win32_service | Where-Object {$_.state -eq 'stop pending'}
   foreach ($service in $Services) 
   {
      try
      {
         Stop-Process -Id $service.processid -Force -PassThru -ErrorAction Stop
      }
      catch
      {
         Write-Error -Message "Error : $_.Exception.Message"
      }
   }