Start service

I'm trying to start a v15 service on a Windows 2012 R2 server where it
hasn't been used for a while.
The service is set to run as pgUser.
pgUser owns the Postgres directory, including the data dir.

The command the service is using is
' "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\15\bin\pg_ctl.exe" runservice -N
"postgresql-x64-15" -D "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\15\data" -w'

First off, it's interesting that "runservice" isn't listed as an option for
pg_ctl.

Windows Event Viewer shows it starting up, handing off logging to pg_log,
then timing out.
Waiting for server startup...
2023-09-22 12:31:15.173 CDT [5000] LOG: redirecting log output to
logging collector process
2023-09-22 12:31:15.173 CDT [5000] HINT: Future log output will
appear in directory "pg_log".
Timed out waiting for server startup

It does create a log file in pg_log, but it is empty.

If I sub 'start' for 'runservice' and try to start it from CLI, I get
C:\Users\administrator>"C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\15\bin\pg_ctl.exe"
start
-N "postgresql-x64-15" -D "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\15\data" -w
waiting for server to start....2023-09-22 12:48:05.438 CDT [4796]
FATAL: could
not create lock file "postmaster.pid": Permission denied
stopped waiting
pg_ctl: could not start server
Examine the log output.

And again, I get an empty log file in pg_log.
Is there somewhere else I should check?

I get the same results if I pass username and password with -U and -P

I'm running as administrator, so not sure how I get permission denied
Checking EffectiveAccess shows that admin and pgUser have full control, so
I assume this message is a red herring, standing in for the real issue.

Without an actual error message to fix, I'm not sure how to proceed.

Thanks,
Brad.