Counterfeiting: Windows Aero is not working

[mf22433]

I have been running Vista Ultimate for months without issue (genuine version
of course). Yesterday I downloaded some updates and in the middle of the
update process there has been a power failure in the house... Vista rebooted
and was trapped in a loop: configuring update, shutdown,reboot.

I then booted from the CD and tried to restore a point, no luck, still trap
in the same loop. I then decided to reinstall from scratch from the CD.

Reinstallation took place, just after that Windows Updated downloaded 60
updates, rebooted several times (it trapped and complained about a driver)
but finally did it. However after the final reboot when I logged in I got an
error message: "Windows Aero is not working, you may be victim of a software
counterfeiting". The result is not access to the control panel for example.

The error message suggested to "go online and resolve now". I ended up on
the genuine software page... it runs the test and came back with "validation
successful"... but the problems remained. I then tried the activation over
the phone: started slui.exe 4, called MS, I got the activation number, then
it says again "successful" but after reboot I still have this pop-up "aero
not working" and most of the features are disabled. What could I do now?
Re-install again?

Thanks for your help

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

You could have physical damage from that power failure. The install should
have run chkdsk for you, and fixed anything fixable. A diagnosis app for the
drive is a good idea. There's also always the option to do an install with
minimum hardware to try identifying damage. (However, an Aero failure is
usually a video problem)
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Mark L. Ferguson
..

 

[mf22433]

I'll check the hardware there is perhaps something wrong there indeed.
In the meantime I thought that perhaps I should try SP1... I did, it
installed successfully and ... the problem is gone! Go figure.