[HELP] SiS671 Mirage3 --NO AERO! (but w/o drivers=AERO)

Hi all. This is my first post since upgrading to Windows 7.

I am currently looking a way to enable Aero in my machine. (as note, currently I am missing the Aero Glass, Aero Peek, and Aero Flip.)

My specs:
Axioo NVS M720S Laptop
Genuine Intel Pentium Dual Core T2130 @ 1.86GHz
1024MB DDR2 Memory
SiS671 Mirage3 Graphic Card (on board)
80GB HDD
12" LCD Monitor

I did a clean install of Win7 on the machine. Because my screen is WideScreen, at first the graphics are all large and mushy. But at this point I HAVE AERO!

Then, I installed the driver for the gfx card, which was SIS UniVGA3 v.3.85. After installing and restarting, I get the normal resolution (1280x800) but NO AERO.

I thought this was driver problem, so I downloaded UniVGA5 v5.07, UniVGA5 v5.20 (which is the driver for Windows7, according to the site), and the SiS driver update from Windows Update, all of which didn't enable Aero for me.

I tried the registry hack with no result.

Here is my Windows Experience Index:
Processors: 4.4
RAM: 3.9
Graphics: 2.0
Gaming Graphics: 2.5
Primary Harddisk: 4.4

with Overall score: 2.0

I am completely stumped on this. I just don't get why the heck I get Aero WITHOUT driver, but no Aero with drivers.

Maybe a stupid suggestion but i haven't read in your post if you have tried this:

Right click on the desktop and click Personalize

Try picking one of the Aero Themes.

The thing is that if you update your drivers windows could switch back to the Windows Basic theme.

Thanks skunksmash and Maniaknl for the response.

Skunksmash's explanation make sense, and I agree that probably that's the reason why Aero ran when in low res mode.

As for Maniaknl's response, I tried to select Aero themes when I got my drivers loaded, and after I click on 'Window Colors', what appears is the classic Windows Color and Appearance window, which shows that Aero is not availiable.

There's gotta be a way to force activate Aero. Lets just say now I don't really care if performance dropped, I just want to use Aero Peek.

I don't know if the registry hack even works. I saw videos of this hack in Vista on YouTube, and it shows after typing 'net start uxsms' in cmd, the windows suddenly became transparent. In my case, nothing budges even a bit after doing that.

Anybody has any other possible solutions?

edit: Would it help if I add more RAM? I currently have 1GB, would adding another GB helps? Coz, my gfx is integrated with shared memory, but it do have its limit on maximum shared memory. Would adding more memory (1GB or another 3GB) help on my WEI scores? Anybody tried this solution (or knows if more memory improves WEI overall scores on integrated gfx chips)?

It definately wouldn't hurt .And I don't see why it shouldn't being that it is shared so your graphics score should go up but your wei score is calculated by the lowest score which is almost always your hard drive.

But my HDD score is 4.4, which I think is enough for Aero to run (>3.0). CMIIW.

Any other tips? I see that SiS graphics is not very popular in this forum.

So theoretically, if I max out the RAM to 4GB for example, I would get Aero (hopefully). Lets see how that goes.

By the way, how do I know if my gfx card support PixelShader 2.0 and such?

Goggle it and check the specs.Fabe

I checked Google, and you know what? It does support PixelShader 2.0 and DirectX 9.0c. Source: http://www.techshout.com/hardware/20...oduced-by-sis/

I just don't get it. My Atom netbook run Aero smoothly (which has a WEI of 2.1!!!) But not this piece o shiz SiS.

I upgraded to 2.5Ghz RAM by the way. I can see an increase in Memory on WEI. But in Aero graphics, score remain at 2.0. I JUST DONT GET IT!

Any thoughts and help guys??????
Plzzzz