Windows service fails to start, with generic error

Question

I wrote a trivial NT service using VS2010 and it does install on my XPSP3 dev box just fine, using InstallUtil. However when I run net start TestService I get a generic error:
The TestService service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the path specified.

This same error is also written to the Event System Log, unfortunately with no more details as to which specified path net start didn't like. So I ran Filemon, but no luck there, none of the output could shed any light on my failing service.

The service runs under the Local Service account.

Any tips for debugging this problem?

EDIT: Thanks to all for the tips. DLLs were fine, catch blocks not kicking in, I had try/catch blocks around InitializeComponent, and OnStart methods. The below-mentioned statements of checking the path was the tip-off. I've made an obvious mistake, I had run InstallUtil on my binary from a SUBST'ed drive, which reported success for some reason. Running InstallUtil from a local path fixed my problem, the service now starts correctly.

Answer 1

First verify that the service is installed properly using sc qc TestService Verify that this is a full path name (starting with drive letter) and try to run the executable from the command line.

If the above works, I would try to check permissions on the executable file.

Answer 2

If your ...bin\Release\xxxmyprojxxx.exe happens to be on a network drive (even if mapped to a drive letter), it will NOT start with the “System error 2 ... system cannot find the file specified”

So copy the dir with the exe (which hopefully includes any dependencies) to a local drive on the machine (san or internal drive), NOT a mapped network share/drive.