Aero disappeared!

[Rebecca]

I have had a bunch of problems ever since SP1 appeared and have been in
constant contact with MS support. In fact, I just emailed him with my
latest unhappy discovery, but it will take him several days to reply, so I
thought I'd post the problem here and see if anyone else has an answer.

In trying to fix all the issues, I downloaded several new hardware devices
(all suggested by the MS guy) including a graphics card. Well, I just
discovered that the Aero function no longer works on my laptop. I have
Vista Home Premium, SP1; a 3.1 Windows Experience Index; and USED to have
all the Aero functions. Now I just get little icons when I click the Aero
icon on the taskbar. I also have Mobile Intel 945 as my display device, 2
GB RAM, 32-bit OS, and 1.66 GHz. I no longer even have the option of
Windows Aero in the Personalization menu.

Anybody have any ideas??

TIA,

Betty

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Rebecca,

Click start and type services.msc, then hit <enter>. Scroll down the list
and locate the Themes service. Select it and try restarting it (left
column).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Rebecca]

Thanks for your quick response. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I even
stopped the service and started it up again since the "restart" didn't do
the trick, but nada. Any other suggestions? Any thoughts as to what might
be causing this?

Rebecca

 

[Paul Smith]

Thanks for your quick response. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I even
stopped the service and started it up again since the "restart" didn't do
the trick, but nada. Any other suggestions? Any thoughts as to what
might be causing this?

The system might of fallen back to the generic VGA driver for your display.
Type 'device manager' into Start Search, hit enter, elevate when prompted
and check under Display adapters.

If it is showing as a 'Generic VGA device' instead of something like Intel
945GM or similar then trying right-clicking on it going properties and try
Update Driver (just try automatic) failing that try 'Roll back driver'.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Desktop Experience.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Rebecca]

Thanks for your input, but once again, no luck. My device driver shows a
Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset Family and an HP RC Mirror Driver under
"Display adapters." I've been looking online and I even updated my score
since I hadn't done that after I downloaded all the drivers recently, but
that didn't help either (and my score remained the same). Very frustrating.

Anybody else have ideas??

Thanks,

Rebecca

 

[Spirit]

Did you get your drivers here? Redownload and re-install the
latest versions.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2300&lang=eng

 

[Rebecca]

Actually, I got the links to the drivers from the MS Support fellow helping
me, but I don't remember where they were from. Anyway, I went to Intel and
downloaded the driver but my system crashed. I then went to Dell (I have an
E1405 Inspiron) and downloaded the latest video driver from there--more
system crashes. I saved all the info and copied them to a Dump file the
tech support guy had me create and I'll email them to him along with a
description of my actions.

It seems odd that I can see that my driver isn't up to date, but my computer
crashes whenever I try to install a newer one. Rats!!!

Still no Aero!

Rebecca

 

[Rebecca]

I wanted to add that I just did some more research and checked the
properties of my Intel GMA 950 and found that there is no Dedicated Video
Memory. Could this be causing the problem? If so, what would I do to alter
it? Anybody???

Rebecca

 

[monaghana]

Rebecca, sorry I'm new here, but I had problems getting Aero to work again and finally it is. try the following:-

I have the same Intel Chipset as yourself so I hope this works for you.

1) Go to Start and Type 'services.msc' and hit enter
2) Scroll down till you find 'Desktop Windows Manager Session Manager'
3) Double click until the properties come up - keep to the 'General' tab
4) Go to 'Startup type' and change to 'Automatic'
5) Click on [Start] button and [Apply] then [OK]

You should now have Aero back again - if not then open services again and scroll down to 'Themes' and 'Reset' it. Hope this helps as it finally worked for me after trawling the web for a couple of months. I haven't seen this solution posted, only one person 'thought' it might have something to do with 'Desktop Window Manager'

Alan