Aero apparently disabled in hardware

[ncJohn]

I have a Dell Optiplex 9010 with Win7 Pro that was used in a corporate environment before i bought it 6 months ago. Aero has never worked in it and I assume it was disabled because of workplace policy.  It has an i7 and 16 GB of RAM.

 

I also have a desktop with Win7 home and the aero works fine there, but aside from the aero feature the machine is too puny for AP; I tried it and the performance was jerky and totally unusable. The machine is a cheap casual-user machine that's maxed-out as far as cpu and RAM, which is why I bought the Dell in the first place.

 

In trying to find the reason for aero not working in the Dell, I took the hard drive containing Win7 Home (with working aero) and put it in the Dell; aero did not work there so it's not a software issue.

 

Does anyone have any idea how they could have disabled the aero (or DWM) in the hardware of this machine?

 

Thanks

 

 

[v_kyr]

Look into the BIOS settings of that Dell, if there is a possible graphics settings toggle and also check if there are possible newer/updated BIOS versions and drivers available for it at the Dell website! - Which GPU has yours, see the below list?

• Intel HD Graphics (Celero/Pentium CPU-GPU)
• Intel HD Graphics 2000 (iCore DC/QC Intel 7 Series
  Express Chipset CPU-GPU combo)
• Intel HD Graphics 2500/4000 (i3/i5/i7 DC/QC Intel 7 Series
  Express Chipset CPU-GPU Combo)
• or a discrete - PCI Express x16 graphics adapter

With an installed discrete PCI Express x16 graphics adapter (AMD or Nvidia card), that computer usually shouldn't have any Win Aero problems other than some possibly outdated installed graphics driver. - So I assume you might have just one of those older low-end Intel CPU-GPU chip combos inside your Dell there, which then has problems with Win Aero.

[ncJohn]

It's the third in your list: the built-in graphics adapter is called HD4400. When I check for updates it says it's current. I read that if the driver version starts with 7 or higher it's aero-compatible; mine starts with 10.

 

I've also tried it with an AMD Radeon 7570 adapter, which also has supposedly current drivers.

 

I checked in the BIOS, there are only 2 settings having to do with graphics: You could choose either the built-in graphics or "auto" which is supposed to just decide for itself whether or not you're using a discrete adapter. I tried them both. I also found a setting for CPU XD, which (from what I can gather online) has to do with prohibiting some sorts of apps from running. But disabling it didn't change anything. Oh, and I updated the BIOS yesterday.

 

Thanks

[v_kyr]

I've seen on the net that other people too had difficulties with those older Dell Optiplex 9010 computers in terms of Aero usability. But somewhere I also saw that with an dedicated AMD Radeon it should related to some sources work. - Hmm didn't the Dell support can help here, usually they should be aware of it and probably have some solution how to fix it?

[ncJohn]

I've looked in their forums and found quite a few people complaining about the problem but it seems like each case was caused by a different problem, and it was always something in Windows, not the hardware. But maybe I'll go back to them and check some more.

Thanks for your time.

[v_kyr]

Did you also cross-checked with Intel's FAQ for Win Aero due to requirements and how to enable/disable it on Win? - The latest drivers for that Intel HD4400 can be found on Intels site here. Though personally I would tend more to use that AMD Radeon 7570 adapter you named above together with the latest drivers for that one.

 

If you then still have problems with Win 7 on that machine, you can look if probably switching over to Win 10 might be an option for you (...as far as there are Optiplex 9010 component supporting/related drivers available for that). - Hope you get things sorted out so that it will run on Win then, good luck!