Solved dwm.exe crash/no aero/will not run!

[circa8773]

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

 

[benjy206]

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

 

[circa8773]

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??

 

[benjy206]

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

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

 

[indianacarnie]

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 :

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

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

 

[circa8773]

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?

 

[benjy206]

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 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html but if you don't just do the rollback option if up to yourself

 

[indianacarnie]

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?

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!

 

[Layback Bear]

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.

 

[Bongo]

Welcome to the Seven Forums

From one of Brink's tutorials

Check your settings in Visual Effects and Services then refresh your WEI

Jerry

The desktop composition and Animate controls and elements inside windows options need to be enabled in Visual Effects.
The Desktop Window Manager Session Manager and Themes Services need to be set as Started and Automatic.
Refresh or update your WEI score. You will need an WEI score minimum of 2.0 in both Graphics & Gaming graphics in order for Aero to be activated.

 

[circa8773]

I've done the WEI refresh. It's 5.9 because of the hard drive transfer speed. Everything else is 7.4 or up so its more than capable. I think the issue is because dwm.exe won't run. If i could get that to run aero would be fine. something is making it crash and close everytime i try and restart it.....

 

[circa8773]

And as far as Norton goes, it ran fine for a few months with Norton installed. Only thing that has changed is the driver updates. I just screwed up and did too many at once, didn't realize my recovery points weren't turned on. so i did too much, it messed something up, and now i don't know what to uninstall without removing half my OS and messing something up further. I was hoping someone could look at the event log from when it happened and might be able to decipher what the issue is. I'm fairly competent with figuring things out, but the error code language is beyond my capabilities.

 

[benjy206]

Here you go try this and post back. This will tell you when the drivers were installed hope this help's View the List of Installed Drivers the Easy Way

 

[circa8773]

EX64.SYS 00000000`0E40C000 00000000`0E60F000 0x00203000 1 187 Driver AV Engine 20121.3.0.76 Symantec Corporation Symantec Antivirus Engine 2/27/2013 9:59:53 PM 4/5/2013 10:49:43 AM C:\ProgramData\Norton\{0C55C096-0F1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\N360_20.1.0.24\Definitions\VirusDefs\20130405.005\EX64.SYS A NAVEX15 NAVEX15

ENG64.SYS 00000000`0E60F000 00000000`0E631000 0x00022000 1 188 Driver AV Engine 20121.3.0.76 Symantec Corporation Symantec Antivirus Engine 2/27/2013 9:59:53 PM 4/5/2013 10:49:43 AM C:\ProgramData\Norton\{0C55C096-0F1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\N360_20.1.0.24\Definitions\VirusDefs\20130405.005\ENG64.SYS A NAVENG NAVENG

EraserUtilRebootDrv.sys 00000000`05482000 00000000`054A8000 0x00026000 1 87 Application Symantec Eraser Utility Driver 112.2.0.13 Symantec Corporation ERASER ENGINE 2/27/2013 9:59:53 PM 4/5/2013 1:13:48 AM C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\EENGINE\EraserUtilRebootDrv.sys
EraserUtilRebootDrv EraserUtilRebootDrv

IDSvia64.sys 00000000`05400000 00000000`05482000 0x00082000 1 85 Unknown IDS Core Driver 11.1.1.5 Symantec Corporation Symantec Intrusion Detection 2/27/2013 5:21:50 PM 4/4/2013 9:52:33 PM C:\ProgramData\Norton\{0C55C096-0F1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\N360_20.1.0.24\Definitions\IPSDefs\20130404.001\IDSvia64.sys A IDSVia64 IDSVia64

iertutil.dll 00000000`FECB0000 00000000`FEF3C000 0x0028c000 1 199 Dynamic Link Library Run time utility for Internet Explorer 10.0.9200.16521 Microsoft Corporation Windows® Internet Explorer 4/4/2013 8:49:21 PM 4/4/2013 8:49:21 PM C:\WINDOWS\System32\iertutil.dll A

urlmon.dll 00000000`FD3A0000 00000000`FD4F9000 0x00159000 1 217 Dynamic Link Library OLE32 Extensions for Win32 10.0.9200.16521 Microsoft Corporation Windows® Internet Explorer 4/4/2013 8:49:21 PM 4/4/2013 8:49:21 PM C:\WINDOWS\System32\urlmon.dll A

wininet.dll 00000000`FEFC0000 00000000`FF1ED000 0x0022d000 1 196 Dynamic Link Library Internet Extensions for Win32 10.0.9200.16521 Microsoft Corporation Windows® Internet Explorer 4/4/2013 8:49:21 PM 4/4/2013 8:49:21 PM C:\WINDOWS\System32\wininet.dll A

nvkflt.sys 00000000`04CF7000 00000000`04D3F000 0x00048000 1 80 System Driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 314.22 9.18.13.1422 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 314.22 3/15/2013 1:53:06 AM 4/4/2013 3:18:44 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\nvkflt.sys A nvkflt

nvlddmkm.sys 00000000`06C21000 00000000`076CC000 0x00aab000 1 94 Display Driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 314.22 9.18.13.1422 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 314.22 3/15/2013 1:53:06 AM 4/4/2013 3:18:44 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys A nvlddmkm

nvpciflt.sys 00000000`01FE3000 00000000`01FED000 0x0000a000 1 44 System Driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 314.22 9.18.13.1422 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 314.22 3/15/2013 1:53:06 AM 4/4/2013 3:18:44 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\nvpciflt.sys A nvpciflt
iaStorF.sys 00000000`01E00000 00000000`01E0B000 0x0000b000 1 46 System Driver Intel Rapid Storage Technology Filter driver - x64 11.6.0.1030 Intel Corporation Intel Rapid Storage Technology Filter driver 9/1/2012 6:01:56 PM 4/3/2013 8:22:37 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\iaStorF.sys A iaStorF

iaStorA.sys 00000000`01617000 00000000`018E2000 0x002cb000 1 22 System Driver Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver - x64 11.6.0.1030 Intel Corporation Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver 9/1/2012 6:01:56 PM 4/3/2013 8:22:36 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\iaStorA.sys A iaStorA

L1C62x64.sys 00000000`06400000 00000000`0641B000 0x0001b000 1 102 Network Driver Qualcomm Atheros Ar81xx series PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller 2.0.14.15 Qualcomm Atheros Co., Ltd. Qualcomm Atheros Ar81xx series PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller 3/2/2012 6:49:20 PM 4/3/2013 7:44:13 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\L1C62x64.sys A L1C NDIS Miniport Driver for Atheros AR81xx PCI-E Ethernet Controller

iusb3hub.sys 00000000`05AD9000 00000000`05B36000 0x0005d000 1 130 Dynamic Link Library Intel(R) USB 3.0 Hub Driver 1.0.4.220 Intel Corporation USB 3.0 Device Driver 3/9/2012 6:52:24 PM 4/3/2013 7:34:26 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\iusb3hub.sys A iusb3hub Intel(R) USB 3.0 Hub Driver

iusb3xhc.sys 00000000`06898000 00000000`0695C000 0x000c4000 1 96 Dynamic Link Library Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver 1.0.4.220 Intel Corporation USB 3.0 Device Driver 3/9/2012 6:52:24 PM 4/3/2013 7:34:26 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\iusb3xhc.sys A iusb3xhc Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver

iusb3hcs.sys 00000000`00FEF000 00000000`00FF8000 0x00009000 1 14 System Driver Intel(R) USB 3.0 Host Controller Switch Driver 1.0.4.220 Intel Corporation USB 3.0 Host Controller Switch Driver 3/9/2012 6:52:22 PM 4/3/2013 7:34:26 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\iusb3hcs.sys A iusb3hcs Intel(R) USB 3.0 Host Controller Switch Driver

SynTP.sys 00000000`076CC000 00000000`0773C000 0x00070000 1 108 Driver Synaptics Touchpad Driver 16.1.4.0 Synaptics Incorporated Synaptics Pointing Device Driver 4/26/2012 8:47:52 PM 4/3/2013 7:24:07 PM C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\SynTP.sys A SynTP Synaptics TouchPad Driver

 

[circa8773]

That's everything with a created date from the time it happened forward. Everything before was in march and wasn't manual. Hope this is readable for you....

 

[circa8773]

i'm pretty sure it was like this on the fourth though, so the few that got installed on the 3rd have to be the problem. Plus i know i installed about 20 different ones at the same time, that tool isn't showing that many, unless its grouping some together or something.

 

[benjy206]

Ok first of all is to start with the graphics driver for a roll back. Do you have two anti virus's?

 

[indianacarnie]

To just restart dwm.exe, couldn't you open task manager > New Task (or run, with admin.) and type in dwm.exe and enter?

Or open services and un-disable it?

 

[circa8773]

i've tried restarting dwm.exe numerous times. It immediately gives me the error message 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"......... and closes. That's the problem, it will not run no matter what. And i have no idea what is making it close....

I will start with the graphics driver tomorrow, try rolling it back and see what happens. Had a few drinks so i don't want to further complicate the issue tonight. I just have a funny feeling that it won't change anything. IT seems as if the new drivers actually put new programs on the computer as well, nothing strange, but on the start menu, nvidia and intel were both lit up as if there was new software present...that may be normal idk. Anyway, do i start with nvidia or Intel HD 4000?? because i believe both had componenets updated. Also, i don't think there's just 1 driver for each correct?? i seem to remember numerous components of each having individual drivers...... Sorry if i'm sounding ignorant, just trying to get a handle on what will remedy this situation without further damage.

Thank you to all that have given me input!!

 

[benjy206]

Yes there was both of them thats why I said start with nvidia