3DS Max 2010 won't open

[DanielHolland]

I am on WindowsXP 32bit machine. 3DS Max 2010 stand-alone. Graphics card is ATI Radeon 2400 HD Pro with Catalyst version 11.6

recently my 3DS Max 2010 started having an issue...it will not open. When I open it I see the Splash screen and it stay on "initializing 3ds max"...

In the processes I see 3DS Max and LMU.exe (license mange utility?)...I have to close both to try again and still nothing. Previously 3DS Max worked fine on my machine.There are no logs in the adlm folder. No event errors in event viewer...nothing...it is like a completly silent FAIL!

Things I have tried:

- disabled symantec endpoint protection

- deleted autodesk files from Flexnet 'all users' folder

- installed all availble updates for 2010

- deleted 3ds max preference ini file

- clean removal and reinstall of 3DS max

- removal and reinstall of .net 3.5 sp1 framework

None of the above has solved the issue. This is my work machine and certain things such as security updates and firewall are out of my control...however I was able to run 3DS max previously. My IT department claims nothing new that would affect it has been added...any help would be appreciated.

[todd.kane]

Wow, nice work Daniel.  I have never heard of this issue, but I will be sure to share your findings with my team.  I'm happy you were able to figure this out as I was genuinely running out of ideas.

[DanielHolland]

It seems I rejoiced too soon. Today my 3dS Max will not open agian...just hangs on "initialiting 3DS Max" splash screen again. I Had it opened and closed twice yesterday...all was working well. I checked all the logs in the event viewer and no errors...this is very frustrating...I guess that fix and Max opening was a coincidence....

It seems to be a Windows 32bit issue as the forums have many peopel having the same issue with Autodesk products in XP...

[DanielHolland]

So, I installed 3DS Max 2012 to run as a trial...same thing!!! Hangs on splash screen at "Initializing 3ds Max..."...

What can this be???

[DanielHolland]

So I am using a Microsoft app called "process explorer" when I debug 3ds max I get the following error...

Event ID 4097

The application, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2010\3dsmax.exe, generated an application error. The error occured on 08/01/2011 @ 15:58:35:225. The exception generated was 80000003 at address 7C90120E (ntdll!DbgBreakPoint)

Any ideas?

[DanielHolland]

Okay it seems the error in the last post happens for any program I debug...so I'm gonna say it is not related. I started to play with Process Monitor again. I found a couple of things that seems to stand out. I will post a log in a few.

[DanielHolland]

I guess support gave up on me

Any way the log was too large to post :(.

None the less I have decided to reimage my machine. I'll post to let you know if that solved to issue...not my favorite thing to do...now a day or two of reinstalling everything...hopefully Max will run.