Hi, Hoping someone can help. Aero disables when resolution is set higher than 2048 x 768. I am running a HP Compaq 6715b Laptop with Windows 7 RC. Radeon X1250 Graphics Card. Plugged into the VGA Port is a Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition (2 DVI-VGA converters on outputs) into two HP v185ws. Now I can use a resolution of 2048 x 768 (Recommended it says) on what appears as display 2 and aero works but as soon as I select 2720 x 768 aero disables itself. When troubleshooted it says Desktop Window Session Manager is disabled but it is not and it can't do anything about it. Does anyone have any suggestions why it disables itself when I set it to that resolution? Display 1 is set at 1680 x 1050 (recommended) in both instances. I would like to us the resolution of 2720 x 768 (2 monitors x 1360 x 768) as this is the native resolution of the monitors and both the graphics card and the matrox box support this. I installed Matrox PowerDesk, as before I did this resolutions above 2560 x 1024 were not even being displayed. By installing Matrox PowerDesk and going through the wizard I made a change to the monitor.inf I believe which enabled higher resolutions to be selected and this displayed in the Screen Resolution Control Window. With either have PowerDesk installed or when I uninstalled it these resolutions remained to be selected but when selected with either PowerDesk installed or not aero disabled once you went over 2048 x768 resolution. Please help. Thanks, Dan.

The x1250 is a old card, so old that ATI has stopped making drivers for it, and there are no win7 drivers for it. Anyways it may not support these huge resolutions very well, also the card probably only has shared memory since it is a laptop and no built-in memory... It may not have enough memory to run Aero on huge resolutions, and if win7 detects that the card does not have enough memory or power to render Aero at the current settings, it will disable Aero automatically. Please post the card's graphics memory. (right-click desktop, select screen resolution, advanced settings, post memory specifics seen)Hello! Please reply back, promptly if possible with the results to solutions to your problem!Curious about Win7 min. system requirements?Readme for older ATI graphics cards or Intel onboard graphics and Windows 7 usersWindows 7 tips - JoelbX

I have added a little bit of additional information to my orginal post also if you could have a look. It's just a bit strange it will support aero at 2048 x 768 but not at 2720 x 768, that's not that big of a leap? The driver it is running is: Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc Driver Date: 01/12/2008 Driver Version: 8.561.0.0 Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher Adapter Information Adapter Type: ATI Radeon X1200 Series Chip Type: ATI Radeon X1200 Series (0x791F) DAC Type: Internal DAC (400MHz) Adapter String: ATI Radeon X1200 Series Bios Information: BK-ATI VER010.038.000.004.023883 Total Available Graphics Memory: 831MB Dedicated Video Memory: 128MB System Video Memory: 0MB Shared System Memory: 703MB

Ah, from all the info you have given in your post and the video memory you report, win7 is automatically shutting down Aero, and the Desktop Window Manager which runs it, at the higher resolutions you are running at because your graphics card can't handle running a high resolution and provide an enjoyable Aero experience at the same time. You will need to upgrade the graphics card to run Aero at the screen resolutions you are attempting to run it at. Not sure how you are going to do that on a laptop, as laptops aren't designed for upgrading components....Hello! Please reply back, promptly if possible with the results to solutions to your problem!Curious about Win7 min. system requirements?Readme for older ATI graphics cards or Intel onboard graphics and Windows 7 usersWindows 7 tips - JoelbX

Ok, I accept that may be the case. But dwm.exe is still running in the system processes. And who is Windows to decide what my Graphics Card can handle? Is there not an overide to enable Aero regardless of what Windows thinks I can run because clearly my Graphics Card is capable of running Aero otherwise it wouldn't work in any resolution? Is there not a way I can see what happen if I force Aero on at that resolution and see what happens, as I'm betting it would be fine? Most of the Aero effects would be on the taskbar anyway which is displayed on the laptop screen? I may be wrong but I just don't see a jump from a resolution of 2048 x 768 to 2720 x 768 that big? Also Windows 7 doesn't actually report that my graphics card does not support Aero at that resolution just that Desktop Window Manager has been detected as disabled which it is not and has not? Which I have read in other forums seems to be a frequent fault with Windows 7 but caused by many various reasons on computers that have been displaying Aero just fine until "something" happens and then Aero refuses to work coming back with the same error as I am having?

I see your point with letting Windows decide if your card can run Aero or not. Windows / MSs / JoelbX's standpoint is that at these higher resolutions, your card cannot handle the billions of pixels and the fancy effects rendered in real time, it can only handle it if it slows down the system, making it unbearable to use if you have a extremely high resolution since the effects are not being rendered in real time. (Think bad framerate (FPS) in Need for Speed with a lot of car details and anti-aliasing on, but runs fine with anti-aliasing or other visual effects turned off.) However, the graphics card can handle Aero great at lower resolutions, this is why win7/MS does not report that your card "doesn't work" with Aero, they only report it doesn't work with it if the graphics card can't handle Aero at all . As for overriding the disabled Aero, I don't know how you would do that, probably some registry tweak somewhere... Have you tried the latest drivers for the card? (as you report a driver date of 1/08) The latest/last drivers for the card were made in March 09. Click here to go to ATI driver search pageHello! Please reply back, promptly if possible with the results to solutions to your problem!Curious about Win7 min. system requirements?Readme for older ATI graphics cards or Intel onboard graphics and Windows 7 usersWindows 7 tips - JoelbX

Thanks, I will try updating the drivers again I have tried installing new drivers but everytime I look back into what driver it is using it always reports it is still using the old one. I will try this on Tuesday as this is the next time I have access to this particular computer and post my results. In the meantime if anyone else has any ideas, please post them. Thanks.