SharePoint 2010 Timer service failed to start

Problem

You recently installed SharePoint 2010.  You start up the SharePoint host server, after a multi-day shutdown.  Connecting to Central Administration, you experience a HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable error displayed in your browser.  You then try connecting to one of your user sites on this same SharePoint server and experience the same error.  Checking host server logs, you notice a number of error and warning events, including:

• Event 8193: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine RegOpenKeyExW(-2147483646,SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Diag,...).  hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied.
• Event 8230: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Failed resolving account [account] with status 1376. Check connection to domain controller and VssAccessControl registry key.
• Event 10: Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.
• Event 7000: The Claims to Windows Token Service service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
• Event 1202: This computer is now hosting the specified directory instance, but Active Directory Web Services could not service it. Active Directory Web Services will retry this operation periodically.

And there are more instances of such errors.  You continue to scoll down, and then you see the following events:

• Event 7000: The SharePoint 2010 Timer service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not start due to a logon failure.
• Event 7038: The SPTimerV4 service was unable to log on as ALSTECHTIPS\sp_farm with the currently configured password due to the following error:  Logon failure: the specified account password has expired.

Solution

The problem involves password expirations, as noted in Event 7038.  This was a new SharePoint 2010 instance, installed within the past few months.  Installation involved a number of domain service accounts being created and configured for use with the new instsance.  The service account option Password never expires was not enabled.  Enable this option for all SharePoint 2010 service accounts:

Then restart the server.

References

• Account permissions and security settings (SharePoint Server 2010)
• Service Account Suggestions for SharePoint 2010
• Service Accounts and Managed Service Accounts in SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Service Accounts - Access Rights, Naming Pattern
• SharePoint Timer service is not running (SharePoint 2010 Products)