Purpose:
You received an error "Timed out waiting for service to stop" when deploying or scanning a target. You may also see the same target that has this error in Deploy seemingly get stuck with a status of preparing in Inventory or vice versa.
Resolution:
This is a target side error when preparing the target. When in the preparing stage the folder structures and services are prepared to carry out the deployment of the scan. It is likely a service or file handle on the target is hung.
Be sure the target meets the minimum requirements found at https://www.pdq.com/system-requirements/. Then reboot the target and retry the deployment/scan.
If the error continues, open the Admin$ of the target from the console machine running PDQ using the same scan/deploy credentials, and ensure you can create and delete a test file or folder without error.
See Also:
Article - How It Works: PDQ Deploy
