Cannot restore Aero

My aero theme completely disappeared a couple days ago and I cant figure out why. Im currently stuck in windows basic theme. When I go into the personalize menu all themes are there. Nothing is greyed out however when I choose any of the Aero themes I see the screen darken for a sec as if its going to change and makes the sound usually accompanied with it but no change actually happens. When I access the window color menu, its loads the windows xp looking version instead of the Win7 menu with the glass colors and transparency slider (I hope this makes sense) My taskbar is bright white with no transparency. Pretty much all visual enhancements are off including Aero peek (which is actually greyed out in the taskbar properties menu) Windows classic and contrast themes work just not Aero.

Ive read pretty much every thread I could in the last 48 hours and tried every single suggestion posted online. NONE seem to work.

So far ive tried..

SFC
Stopping and start uxtheme in CMD as admin
Stopping and starting DWM and Themes services and ensuring they're set to automatic.
Checked the registry values making sure they're correct
Tried the Aero trouble shooter (originally detected an issue stating my Video card couldnt handle it, now it just detects no issues at all)
disabling and enabling my VGA
Microsoft FIXIT patch for Aero
Uninstalling my VGA and re-installing with latest drivers
Made sure the performance settings are set best quality
Tweaking Windows Repair
Ran malware and virus scans to make sure theres no infection
cleaned registry issues

Not in that order lol

Ive tried a ton of other things that arent coming to me but I still cant get it work.

My last resort is running a repair install (ive been reading about this online but I have no idea what it is) I bought a workstation from a computer shop but wasnt given any cds with it.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

Anak,

Thank you for the speedy response.:)

I tried most of the suggestions on that page including the registry entry listed but to no avail.

I'm running out of options here.

Does anyone have any ideas? Much appreciated!

Speedgamer,

I have no custom themes installed nor any software to do that(if you even need software for it, I dont know)

You can see in the first screen shot i'm currently trying to use the "Architecture" theme. When I switch different Aero themes I get the accompanied sound. They all make different sounds and the wallpaper changes accordingly so I know that aspect is working (if that helps)

In the second screen shot, it gives me the windows classic menu instead of giving me the Win7 style with the transparency slider when I choose "Window Color"

And in the third screen shot you can see that Aero Peek is greyed out from the properties menu off the taskbar.

Im wondering if anyone thinks its my graphics card? To the best of my ability I uninstalled the VGA adapter from Device manager, restarted and downloaded whatever I could corresponding to my video card (AMD Radeon 5400 HD) It just came as one large exe file from AMD's site. Are those typically all in one? Or do I need something else ontop of that? Is the graphics driver, firmware, software etc...all different things that need to be installed separately? Should I have deleted the any old folders before reinstalling the package?

On a side note I did the WEI and my graphics card rated 4.6. Are those ratings based on comparisons to what is available now or is it a rating based on how well the card itself is running?

I have a 6 month warranty on the computer so if he sold me bad hardware I wont hesistate to march back in there. lol


Help is much appreciated!

Speedgamer,

I just tried some of the options on that page including the registry edit but to no avail.