Windows 2008 R2 Firewall Fails to start
Ran into a problem where the Windows firewall Service fails to start after a reboot. The error is as follows: The Windows Firewall service terminated with service-specific error This operation returned because the timeout period expired. This has happened on a couple of servers (1 application server and 1 Print Server). The problem is intermittent, i.e out of 10 reboots it might occur 3 times. Manually starting the service works fine and the service starts with no errors. I suspect a dependencies issue but I have kind of hit a brick wall and was hoping someone might have an idea what else to look at. Again, manually starting the service has never generated any error of any kind, and the service has always started. Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.
July 29th, 2011 1:38pm

What errors are in system event log since last boot? Regards, Dave Patrick .... Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows]
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July 30th, 2011 7:23pm

Nothiong but the following: The Windows Firewall service terminated with service-specific error This operation returned because the timeout period expired.Dave K.
July 30th, 2011 8:25pm

I'd check the Dependencies tab to be sure all predecessors are started. Startup type should be Automatic, Logon as Local Service also check Recovery tab. First/Second == Restart, Reset Fail 1, Restart after 2 Regards, Dave Patrick .... Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows]
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July 30th, 2011 8:42pm

Right. First thing I did. Everything is correct. No other services fail to start. No other events in the log except for the one mentioned in my first post. No other action required to start the Firewall except for manually starting the firewall.Dave K.
July 31st, 2011 7:42am

You could try increasing the service timeout period. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922918 Regards, Dave Patrick .... Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows]
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July 31st, 2011 10:13am

Hi Dave K, Please feel free to let us know if the information was helpful to you. Regards, Tiger Li TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.com.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
August 3rd, 2011 7:13am

Tiger, As a matter of fact, no. The suggestions were all good ones and I had already looked at all of that prior to posting. The problem stills persists. I'm still working through this and will update if I come up with a solution.Dave K.
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August 4th, 2011 7:55am

Hi Did you ever find what the problem was. I have a similar issue on Windows 7 SP1 machines in a lab environment. If you turn 30 on, perhaps 3-4 will fail to start the service. If you turn them all off and on again, a different 3-4 will fail. The error message each is the same as the one above. Andrew
September 21st, 2011 6:55am

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