regular crashing problem in max 8

[keno2k6]

I often have a problem with 3ds max 8 crashing, I suspect it may have something to do with my memory (I have 2gb ram) but it happens on small scenes or whilst doing small changes to materials etc, sometimes I can track the problem down to one object in the scene by merging each piece of the model into a new file and waiting for it to crash. Once the offending object has been removed the file works again. This is very frustrating and I always have the feeling that max is unstable. This is the dreaded error message...

 

'an error has occured and the application will now close'

 

I have no idea what the 'error' is as it seems to pop up in the most unlikely scenes and situations.

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

[SandmanNinja]

When a Windows program generates that kind of generic error message, it means it's in serious strife. It's unable to do normal error reporting (error number, etc).

 

I started with max 8 and if I remember there are a number of Service Packs for it (3 or 4?? I forget now).

 

If you create a new, clean scene will it crash? Can you take a scene that crashes your max and give it to someone else to see how it behaves over there?

 

You don't state your operating system, but I'm guessing XP Pro.

 

I'd do some basic house cleaning on your computer:

* del temp's

* scandisk

* virus scan

* spyware scan

* defrag

 

I've had other programs do that and if the above didn't fix it, then a chunk of the file was corrupt. I uninstalled it, did ANOTHER defrag (to compact the space that it previously occupied), reboot, then reinstalled the program and the latest service pack.

 

Hope this helps.