Windows 7: dwm.exe crash/no aero/will not run!

Help! Updated drivers via Dell, somewhere along the way Aero is gone, won't run. Upon start up, get message saying "DWM.exe has stopped working and has been closed/ A problem caused the application to stop working correctly, windows will notify you if there's a solution." Worked flawlessly until 2 days ago.

Troubleshooters say DWM is not activated, services say it's running, so i restart it, immediately i get the same error message. So DWM will not run and is not running in task manager. The file is still in System 32.
My drivers all say they're up to date. Malwarebytes says all good. i don't know what to do.' Im desperate, i'm stuck on pale blue windows, limited themes.... out of options, and i've tried all the normal go to fixes. I do have the event logs from when i was updating drivers via DELL site. Looks like it started around that time. Not sure if i missed an update or what or if NOT updating something seemingly unrelated would do this.

I hope someone can help or has heard of this. I'll post my general and graphic stats below, if anyone wants to see anything further just ask......

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me.

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i7 3820QM @ 2.70GHz Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM: 8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard: Alienware M14xR2 (U3E1) 28 °C
Graphics: Generic PnP Monitor (1600x900@60Hz),NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M,Intel HD Graphics 4000
Hard Drives: 466GB ST9500423AS SCSI Disk Device (RAID),Dev_Cache,Type: Raid 0,Volume: 32GB
Optical Drives: MATA DVD+-RW UJ8A7 SCSI CdRom Device
Audio: Sound Blaster Recon3Di

Graphics: Monitor - Generic PnP Monitor on Intel HD Graphics 4000
Current Resolution: 1600x900 pixels
Work Resolution: 1600x860 pixels; State enabled, primary
Monitor BPP 32 bits per pixel; Monitor Frequency 60 Hz
Device \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M Memory - 2047 MB Driver version: 9.18.13.1422
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 Driver version: 9.18.13.1422
OpenGL: Version 4.0.0 - Build 9.18.10.3071
Vendor - Intel; Renderer - Intel HD Graphics 4000
GLU Version 1.2.2.0 Microsoft Corporation
Values: GL_MAX_LIGHTS 8; GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE 8192; GL_MAX_TEXTURE_STACK_DEPTH 10
GL Extensions: Will post on request

What drivers did you update? That is more than likely the problem. You could roll back the driver's of what you downloaded and see which one is the problem

I updated about 20, laptop is less than a year old but Dell has a system scan tool for driver updates. So anyway it found about 31 new ones i think, did about 20, only recommended ones, even BIOS i think. Guess i'm screwed, also noticed my system restore wasn't turned on, so no restore points beforehand. Would the event log tell you anything??

Noramlly windows update would create a system restore point it would be no harm to try :)

System Restore

No restore points huh? Did you turn them off yourself? If not thats an indication of virus/malware. Not PROOF but an indication. Give your system a good deep scan with your A/V. Then ...... if you have no restore points and no system image to return to you could roll the new drivers back if possible. If not you could try the Dell/Alienware site for the previous drivers (the ones that worked) or maybe try here :Download DELL Drivers - Old Drivers

Was there a reason you updated them? I mean was there some other issue(s) before you did that? With drivers I've always subscribed to the adage of "if it ain't broke. don't fix it".

Worst case I guess you could try a repair install, fairly drastic but would get your machine running again. Heres a tutorial on how to do that :

Repair Install

I would do that only in an extreme case though, try a few of the other suggestions first.

I screwed up i guess, saw something about an update, so i did the scan, and it came up with 31 things that could be updated. Some remarked about performance boosts, even though i don't really need it with this thing, its blazing fast. Just thought itd be good to keep things up to date. Now i'm paying for it. Alienware had it shut off i think. I've scanned with norton and malwarebytes, nothing. It runs perfectly fine, except for losing my aero, and the dwm.exe won't run. So i guess it's a conflict somewhere. Just wouldn't think that putting UPDATED drivers in would do that, i could see an OUTdated driver conflicting with aero effects. Guess i'll have to go one by one and start rolling back. Will the "rollback button" automatically install the previous one i had installed?

Well you could go doing that yes but it could take a while :) em Try you graphics driver just check the details of when they were installed in device manager. Or if you wanted which would fix your problem and save effort is Repair Install but if you don't just do the rollback option if up to yourself

I know what you mean about wanting to keep drivers updated, went through a very similar episode with my Asus G74Sx, blazing fast but I saw "performance" and tried it... to my sorrow too. Yes, the rollback feature SHOULD work for what you need.If not then we're always here to help.Good luck and happy gaming!

I'm no expert on such things but I have read several post where Norton will cause such problems. Interfering with driver insulation and many more problems. You have tried so many things I just thought this might help. If you so choose you could uninstall Norton using their online tool and install MSE just for testing and see if that helps your problems.

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