Cognos: Dispatcher not initialized Startup Errors

Getting errors accessing the Cognos Dashboard? Do you get a "Dispatcher not initialized error" ?

Chances are the Cognos service on the box has one of two problems:
1. The SQL Server for Content Manager is not up. Resolution: Start the SQL Server Services manually or using the SQL Server Configuration tool.
2. The Cognos Configuration Manager was not able to start the service correctly and Starting Service from the application returns an error regarding services's configuration. Resolution: Set the timeout setting - "stop wait time in seconds" setting in local configuration pane(left pane) to 200 (max).

It is better to use Cognos Configuration Manager to start/stop the cognos services rather than starting/stopping them manually.