Aero and Vista on an HP Pavilion

I upgraded my dv2000 to Vista Home Premium last week. The installation went fairly smoothly -- except for the nVidia GeForce Go 7200 driver. After searching around I found a link to the HP nVidia driver on this forum, and it fixed my problem.

My question is that I don't seem to see the Aero inteface with Vista on my system. Is there something I need to do -- or is it just not supported with my nVidia adapter?

Also, I now see that HP has posted a Vista upgrade utillity. Should I just ignore it now that I'm already up and running? Can I flash the new, recommended BIOS for the dv2000 even though I'm already running Vista?

The other troubling item is that I get lots of applications (mostly HP) that Vista reports that it can't launch on boot-up... And, of course, HP is way lax in providing Vista drivers for their printers...

 

The BIOS can be upgraded at any time. It is independant of what OS you have on the HD.

As for the AERO Im not sure how to activate it. I know when I ran my Windows Experience rating it turned it on. So maybe you could try that one.

 

Yeah try the Windows Experience rating. Are your fn buttons working with Vista?

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

Tried the experience rating with no success. Getting the feeling that my nVidia adapter just doesn't support the Aero features. Whe I try to change the Color Scheme in the Control Panel to Windows Aero theme, I get the message "Please Wait" and then the system reverts back to the Windows Vista Basic theme.

Yes, the function keys are working.

One more question: I notice with Vista that my wireless signal strength to my Linksys WAP now shows as "Low" where before it had always been "Very Good". Is there some driver modification that I need to do?

 

It supports it. If the GMA 950 can run Aero yours definately can. Right now it's probably a bug. But i'm 100% positive it runs Aero. How much RAM do you have on your laptop?

 

Alright, a couple of things. First, the HP Vista Upgrade Utility won't really do anything for you since you already upgraded... no big deal though. There are new BIOS updates available, either on HP's website or in the drivert thread. You should update the BIOS if you haven't already.

As for aero, the Nvidia GeForce Go 7200 supports it, but you need to enable it. Right click on the desktop, and click "Personalize". Select "Window Color and Appearance". Under color scheme, select "Windows Aero" (if available. Click OK and you're done. If Windows Aero wasn't an option, go to "Control Panel," --> "Performance Information and Tools" --> "Update my score", to rerun the Vista Experience Index. Once that's complete, you should be able to select Aero the way I described.

Hope that helps.

 

Again, thanks to all for the suggestions. BTW, I have 1MB of RAM.

Still a no-go on Aero. I ran the Vista Experience Index, but, when I select "Windows Aero" as the color scheme and click on "Apply", I get the message "Please Wait" for a few seconds and then nothing happens. The Control Panel choice then reverts back to "Windows Vista Basic" theme.

 

That's odd. Screw the HP drivers and download the latest Nvidia drivers from www.laptopvideo2go.com along with the modded inf to get them to install on notebook graphics cards. Install those drivers, then reboot. Then try enabling aero again.

 

I sure hope u mean 1GB there lol

all u can do is install new drivers and try again.

 

Yeah, you got me. 1 GB it is...

I'll try the laptopvideo2go drivers again. However, that's how I started this driver upgrade adventure -- and ended out having some real problems with what I downloaded from there. It basically froze the screen on my system on boot up (a bunch of horizontal color streaks on the screen), and I had to reboot in "safe" mode and remove the driver to get things back to normal.

I guess maybe the full aero experience is going to require that I upgrade my laptop. I bet HP (and the other hardware manufacturers) are loving the release of Vista...

 

upgrading ur laptop? that doesnt make sense considering ur laptop sounds vista capable.

what u need to do is download the HP or Windows vista driver for the graphics card and try it again. (make sure u uninstall the running driver restart then install this one to make sure)

i really had upgrading, id rather do a clean install cuz lots of residual issues sometimes creep up when upgrading. not sure if its still around but google driver cleaner and see if it works on vista, it cleans out drivers that u dont wanna use so that u can install newer/better ones without the old ones still in there somewhere. uninstall ur drivers, reboot into safemode, run driver cleaner and the built-in cab cleaner might help too. once ur done reboot and install ur new drivers and see.

two only options left if nothing works is clean install or reinstall/repair vista

 

Try the 100.54 Vista driver from laptopvideo2go. That's the driver I'm using on my dv2000t and it works fine. Not sure why you're having problems though. Every driver I've ever used on Vista, throughout the beta and since it's gone final, has worked with aero on the GeForce Go 7200.

 

Jadedraverla - IS 100.54 driver the best one for DV2000 at the moment? do i need to use any modded INF?

 

It's the most current stable driver as far as I can tell. And, yes, you'll need the modded inf file from laptopvideo2go as well as the install files.

 

Thanks it work nice The Windows experience is still low though.. 3.3 for graphics and 2.6 for gaming graphic

 

That's scary.

My GMA get's a higher score...

 

I have a feeling GMA has better driver currently and thats why its higher

 

Success! Downloaded and installed the latest driver (100.59) from laptopvideo2go, and now get the full Aero experience on my dv2000. The performance seems reasonable -- at least I'm happy with it.

Thanks to all for the suggestions and help. Glad I stumbled onto this forum.

 

Hi, i'm having the same problem.. eventhough i read the tips given by many of you.. i tried the windows experiance rating, i tried installing the new driver of my graphics card, and all the windows updates were done..
It's my new laptop, with Vista Ultimate, and it's a super high-end laptop.. and for my windows rating my graphics ratings were 5.9 on graphics, and 5.6 on gaming graphics, so i'm 100% sure that it's not any hardware issue..

any more alternatives on how to fix this problem is appretiated greatly, thanks in advance!

oh and btw, Aero used to work when i first started windows, and now about 2 weeks later, after all the windows updates finished, i dont seem to be able to switch to windows Aero, it automatically switches back to vista basic :S

Many Thanks!
*V*