This computer's video card can't play themes

JohanA said:

Thanks for the advise torrentg. I hoped that something maybe had been missed and was hoping it would be settled in e.g. a new release of drivers for the card. But since they are perfectly compatible this is not the case.

Anyone else knows what could create this problem?

Your video card scores are a little low in WEI, for what they should be. My 3850 gets 7.0 rating for both. Your card should be > 3850.

Check device manager to see what version of the driver you're using and date. Double click the card then go to driver tab, then let us know about it.

Maybe just installing the Windows live photo gallery caused this problem to occur.

I can't believe that Antman actually overclocked and I also can't imagine why he would still be using any build other than the 7600.

Have you done a deep viurs/malware scan?

Does dxdiag report any problems? Hardware acceleration turned up? Did you use driver sweeper to properly install new drivers?

Thanks for all of your replies! and sorry for not answering earlier (I actually missed that a page two popped up, I've been here several times).

torrentg:
I have driver version 8.661.0.0.
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...tiesDriver.jpg
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...iesGeneral.jpg

chev65:
I would say that Photo Gallery did not cause any problems, more that I'm trying to find the same Photo Screen savers as in Vista. This is how it looked before Photo Gallery in Windows 7
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...oScreenSav.jpg
And this is how it looked like in Windows Vista:
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...otoScreens.jpg

carlharsch:
I'll run AVG-free, AdAware, Spybot and Windows Defender during the night and see, I hope it will be sufficient.

Frostmourne:
Interesting tool! never seen it before. It looks ok as far as I can see it but I add some screen dumps.
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...ag_display.jpg
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...display_64.jpg
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...iag_system.jpg
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/..._system_64.jpg

Uninstall the drivers from control panel, run driver sweeper as admin in safe mode, then reboot into safe mode and install the newest drivers. Update your chipset drivers too.

Thanks. I'll give it a shot tonight.

The virus scans did not find anything.

I have a theory, but I don't know how to test it...

Windows Live Photo Gallery was released before Windows 7. And I understand the ability to use its screen saver's themes is dependent upon the Windows Experience Index (WEI) Graphics score.

WEI was introduced with Windows Vista. I don't know what the minimum WEI Graphics score is to enable themes, but let's just call that the <minimum WEI Graphics>. In Vista, the maximum WEI score was 5.9. Yet in Windows 7, the maximum WEI score is 7.9.

Is it possible that the themes option is Windows Live Photo Gallery requires a WEI Graphics score between the <minimum WEI Graphics> and 5.9? Meaning, if you have Windows 7 and your WEI Graphics score is *greater* than 5.9 (i.e. between 6.0 and 7.9), perhaps that itself is causing the "Your computer's video card can't play themes"...? In other words, is this a case where Windows Live Photo Gallery just isn't compatible with Windows 7 and high-end video cards?

I ask because I have an NVIDIA GTX-295, and have a WEI Graphics score of 7.8. Yet I have this issue, too.

DaWarden said:

I have a theory, but I don't know how to test it...

Windows Live Photo Gallery was released before Windows 7. And I understand the ability to use its screen saver's themes is dependent upon the Windows Experience Index (WEI) Graphics score.

WEI was introduced with Windows Vista. I don't know what the minimum WEI Graphics score is to enable themes, but let's just call that the <minimum WEI Graphics>. In Vista, the maximum WEI score was 5.9. Yet in Windows 7, the maximum WEI score is 7.9.

Is it possible that the themes option is Windows Live Photo Gallery requires a WEI Graphics score between the <minimum WEI Graphics> and 5.9? Meaning, if you have Windows 7 and your WEI Graphics score is *greater* than 5.9 (i.e. between 6.0 and 7.9), perhaps that itself is causing the "Your computer's video card can't play themes"...? In other words, is this a case where Windows Live Photo Gallery just isn't compatible with Windows 7 and high-end video cards?

I ask because I have an NVIDIA GTX-295, and have a WEI Graphics score of 7.8. Yet I have this issue, too.

I have 7.0 for both graphics scores in WEI. Gallery works well here. Good thinking but theory doesn't pan out.

torrentg: Can you confirm that you have the theme option available in the Photo screen saver in Windows 7 as shown in Vista below?

So it looks like this (Vista):
Windows Vista with Windows Live Photo Screen saver (see the Theme option):
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...lleryPhoto.jpg

And not like this:
Windows 7 with Windows Live Photo Screen saver (see the absence of Theme Option):
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...withHD4870.jpg

This is valuable information for narrowing down the problem for us.