diff --git a/dlls/advapi32/service.c b/dlls/advapi32/service.c
index 3acab45..3ecf7b6 100644
--- a/dlls/advapi32/service.c
+++ b/dlls/advapi32/service.c
@@ -688,17 +688,17 @@ static DWORD WINAPI service_control_dispatcher(LPVOID arg)
                   PIPE_TYPE_BYTE|PIPE_WAIT, 1, 256, 256, 10000, NULL );
     HeapFree(GetProcessHeap(), 0, name);
 
-    /* let the process who started us know we've tried to create a pipe */
-    event = service_get_event_handle(service->name);
-    SetEvent(event);
-    CloseHandle(event);
-
     if (pipe==INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
     {
         ERR("failed to create pipe for %s, error = %d\n",
             debugstr_w(service->name), GetLastError());
         return 0;
     }
+ 
+    /* let the process who started us know we've tried to create a pipe */
+    event = service_get_event_handle(service->name);
+    SetEvent(event);
+    CloseHandle(event);
 
     /* dispatcher loop */
     while (1)