Max disconnects on "F3"

[Mr Max]

Hey guys

we have those (hand assembled) computers at work with quad core, 4 gig ram and the 9500 nvidia VGA, so they should perform pretty good!

but every time i'm modeling a project from scratch, I get to a point when I press F3 (smooth+highlight), max desplays an error msg and shuts down so I have to stay in wireframe mode all the time unless I isolate the objects (alt+q).

Any clue why this is happening although I rarely have this problem on my old toshiba satellite laptop!!

Thanks for any incoming reply:D

[Ricardo Eloy]

One question: are you using VRay?

[Mr Max]

yes I'm using max 9/64 bit with vray SP1 1.5

[Ricardo Eloy]

Then, the problem is that you are turning the Show Standard Map in Viewport option at the material level. It doesn't work. In order to see the maps in the viewport without crashing, turn it on at the maps level (ie, if you want to see the map you used for diffuse, select the diffuse map and press Show Map in Viewport). It's annoying, but you get used to it.

[Mr Max]

sorry for replying late but i was away for couple days.

Thanks a lot for the advice rick! I think I should try that out. Maybe the reason is that i have so many maps enabled in viewport that this happens with me, but i'm still confused why I don't get this problem on my laptop! could it be the graphics card on the assembled desktop that is not too original?!