SQL Server 2019/.2022 Express Launchpad service failed to start

Question

I installed SQL Server 2019 Express on Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (with 250 GB HD, and 8 GB RAM) with ML services. It is a standalone machine and it is not a Domain Controller. The installation went fine. However I am unable to test R, Python, Java because the Launchpad Service fails to start. I followed the instruction here. Still, the Launchpad failed to start. I then uninstalled the SQL server completely, and even went to the registry and removed any reference to SQL Server 2019 Express, then deleted the installation folder, and rebooted.

Then downloaded SQL Server 2022 Express and installed it with the ML service option. Same problem! The Launchpad service failed to start. I followed the instruction here but to no avail. This is the error message I get when I attempt to start the Launchpad service in Computer Management:

Services Windows could not start the SQL Server Launchpad (SQLEXPRESS) service on Local Computer. Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly. OK

Windows Event viewer shows this:

The SQL Server Launchpad (SQLEXPRESS) service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).

And the Event ID is 7034

Here is what I found in the SQL error log:

Resource governor reconfiguration encountered an issue (HRESULT code : 0x80040002, reason: Construction of Launchpad Connection failed), while sending active external resource pool ids to launchpad. This will not fail reconfigure.

I am not clear what it means.

One twist to this whole saga: I installed SQL Server 2019 Express and SQL Server 2022 Express in Windows 10 and Windows 11 on VirtualBox with no problems, and everything worked just fine!

Appreciate any help.

Answer 1

This is a known issue, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/sql/database-engine/machine-learning/sql-server-launchpad-fail-start.