Max 8 Freezing on Load After Video Card Upgrade

[bgiroux2]

So I have a really frustrating problem that I can't find a reason why it's doing this. I had been working on a project in max 8 for a while now and recently decided to upgrade my video card from a Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS to a Nvidia GTS 250. Upgraded the drivers, directx, and everything, but now when I open Max 8 it freezes when loading the viewports. I reinstalled Max several times, changed "graphics mode" to try everyone one (software, opengl, direct3d) and they all freeze max when bringing up the viewports. I figure it must be from upgrading to directx 11 but shouldn't I have been using the same drivers on the other card? To try and recreate the problem I tried out the demos for higher max versions and they run fine. Anyone run into this issue? Thanks for the help.

[AJLynn]

That sure does sound like an incompatibility between Max8 and the video card driver. Have you installed the Max8 service packs? I think there were 3 of them and they should be on the Autodesk web site in the Max support area under Downloads. There were a lot of bugs needing to be fixed and some were in the DX/Display area...

[bgiroux2]

Thanks for the reply. Yea I have tried with and w/o the SP, both deliver the same result. In reading the updates for the SP it doesn't mention anything about any video/viewport fixes. The only thing I can think of is Max 8 supports up to DirectX 9.0 whereas the new versions of Max go higher 10.0+. But if I take a newer Max down to DirectX 9.0, it works. Its the weirdest thing and I thought Nvidia and Autodesk were buddies.

 

As a side note, possibly related, I tried to switch the project to a Max 2009 demo, opening the native .max file, and I have missing geometry, normals flipped, and incorrect textures in the viewports (a multi-texture object would show a different texture in the same material list), however rendering it out would show everything correctly, as it was in max 8. So I'm thinking updating might not solve the problem now.

[AJLynn]

Is there a video card driver update available?

[bgiroux2]

Yea, got the latest set online when I installed the card.

 

I'm using Vista too if that helps. Already tried "run as admin" as well.

[AJLynn]

Ooh, Max 8 and Vista. That's bad news. I think what you've got is actually a Vista problem (that didn't show itself until you upgraded).