Error 14258: Cannot perform this operation while SQLServerAgent is starting. Try again later.

I'm getting the following error on two of my SQL Servers -

Error 14258: Cannot perform this operation while SQLServerAgent is starting. Try again later.

The only solution that I have seen is the same solution that Microsoft has published in the following article - KB303287 [http://support.microsoft.com/ scid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.support.microsoft.com%2fkb%2f303287%2fen-us%2f]

The solution is to unflag the use of NT Fibers.  However, our software application provider is advising us against doing this.  Is there another fix anywhere that I could get my hands on - another solution

Thanks in advance.

Thanks very much for the reply and for the extra information as well.  My situation actually started when we attempted to create and use a local machine account to run the SQLSERVERAGENT service.  I'm not sure if this brings more into play or not.  I took the service back to using a different priviledged domain account to run the service and I'm not getting the errors currently. 

I would, however, much rather run this service as a local user for security reasons.  I have not yet taken a fresh look at Microsoft's best practices on this issue [the service account], but I will be taking a look at that as well.

thanks again.

As mentioned above in the posts, change the log on account from local system account to a specified account, even if its the same account that you are signed on to the server. Worked like a charm for me..

thanks guys...

Right on! How Fibre Mode got switched on will be vexing me now. At least server agent is running and I can see what is going on. When server agent hangs with a 14258, it seems to be running in enterprise manager but none of my jobs show a history from the point of failure.

I may have popped on the checkbox when i was looking at sql server properties. When the server was bounced last week to finish a patch the agent did not come back when Fibre Mode was enabled and hung all my agent jobs. That's the best I can do. Careful when you browse a production machine... I have DTS packages running on shedule so this turned out to be a big deal.

I will see tomorrow if everything runs ok. At least the error is clear when I try to edit the jobs. I would think a melitious attack to have caused real damage so I blame myself. Nothing in the security logs tells me any different. Thanks.