Windows Service Error 1053, "The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion"
Windows gives a service 30 seconds to report that it started. If the service is still busy, slow, or stuck when that window closes, the Service Control Manager stops waiting and reports error 1053. The service itself may still be running, or it may have failed to start at all.
The fix, in order
Restart the PC and try starting the service again. A service that is still loading after a boot or an update can time out once and then start normally.
Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc) and check Windows Logs, System and Application, around the time of the failure. The real reason is often logged there as a service timeout or an application error.
Check what the service depends on. In Services (services.msc), open the service, go to the Dependencies tab, and start each dependency first.
Give the service more time with the ServicesPipeTimeout value. In Registry Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control, create a DWORD named ServicesPipeTimeout if it is missing, and set it to 60000 (60 seconds). Restart the PC.
Temporarily turn off third party antivirus and try again. A slow scan of the service executable at startup is a common cause of the timeout.
Reinstall the program that provides the service, or repair it from Settings, Apps. A damaged service executable can stall during startup.
Back up the registry before editing it. In Registry Editor, use File, Export to save a copy first. A wrong value in the Control key can affect how Windows starts services.
If it still happens
If the timeout happens only at boot, set the service Startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start) so it loads after the boot rush. If it happens every time, check the program vendor's support pages for a known slow-start issue, and check the drive health, since a failing drive makes every service start slowly.
Common questions
Does error 1053 mean the service is broken? Not necessarily. It means the service took longer than 30 seconds to answer the start request. A slow PC, a busy disk, or a service that loads a large database can all cause it without anything being broken.
What is the ServicesPipeTimeout value? It is a registry setting that tells Windows how long to wait for a service to start, in milliseconds. The default is 30,000. Raising it to 60,000 gives slow services more room, and it is safe to set.
Can antivirus cause error 1053? Yes. Real-time scanning can hold up a service executable while it starts, especially after an update. Try starting the service with the antivirus paused to test it.