3ds max 2017 viewport freezing and stopped working

[Anonymous]

Hello, i got some issues with my 3ds max. it always freezing when i click it and then the viewport turns black.

and sometimes it just showing and error and saved my file into backup folder.

i have i7-6700, GTX 970 and 16gb ram with windows 10 running.

please help.

[Anonymous]

Graphics Card: Quadro M5000

OS: Windows 7 Pro, SP 1

Driver: 354.13

[darawork]

"Try turning off autosave and see if that makes a difference."

-There's hope for us yet.
-A light at the end of the tunnel.

[Anonymous]

So Im not sure if anyone is still experiencing this issue but ive found that if you have viz park plugins installed it can cause the issue. I removed mine and it fixed the issue. Try it and see. 

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

Technically that is a different issue but I'm glad that you are so willing to help people like this.  I've been talking with the amazing folks at VizPark about the checkerboard issue you are describing and these two things may be related but in the other direction.  I've spent considerable time with those plugins by VizPark in Win7 and they not crash at all for me.  I was actually impressed overall with how great that plugin is.  The shaders do take a bit of time to appear in the viewport sometimes due to my settings but I had no crashing.  Therefore I'm starting to think that it's the issue in this thread that actually triggers this problem in the VizPark plugins and not vice versa.   Win 7 has been really stable for me though.  

Best Regards,

[Pac_187]

I got some good news 🙂

Nitrous DirectX 11 was unuseable for me as well (3ds Max 2017 and 2018), instant freeze of the whole application after a few seconds navigating in a 10 mio. poly file.

I took some time on the weekend and did a Graphics driver clean-up using DDU (http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html) and installed nVidia driver version 361.91 (Driver only, no GeForce Experience...)

It's the one that 3ds Max 2017 is officially approved with, see: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/sites/default/files/file_downloads/3dsmax2017_GFX_ResultsMarch2017.pd...

Since then I'm able to use DirectX 11 Viewport without any issues!

Here's one more thing you need to do after installing the new driver: Disable driver updates in Windows Update!

If you don't, Windows Update will just throw a newer driver onto your system, even while working... (got me a blackscreen during testing in Max...)

See: https://www.howtogeek.com/302595/how-to-stop-windows-10-from-automatically-updating-hardware-drivers...

My System:

Windows 10 Pro 64bit (Version 1607 Build 14393.1198)

Intel Core i5 2500k @ 3.30 GHz

16 GB RAM

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC (nVidia)

Hopefully this is going to work for others as well 🙂

[tarmana10]

---

@Pac_187 wrote:

installed nVidia driver version 361.91 

---

While I am glad down grading your driver worked for you Pac_187, this is NOT a satisfactory solution to the problem many people are having with 3DS Max.

Installing such an old driver leaves your system open to serious security risks!

More Info  - http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-security.html

I will not be installing such an old Nvidia driver on my system and I would caution others not to as well.

Working in Directx 9 view-port mode if possible is a much safer option till the problem is fixed.

[gregg_lagnese]

tamana10,  I agree with your assessment of the security risk.  I can also confirm that the problem exists with the Nvidia driver.  Using various Geforce drivers, my test results indicate that the problem is driver related.  I am hopeful the fix will be incorporated into the newer 382.33+ drivers.  In the mean time, I would agree that sticking with or upgrading to version 382.33 (the latest as of this writing), and using DX9, would be the correct approach for now. 

Note that any driver prior to 382.05 (GeForce) and 377.35 (Quadro) are vulnerable.  The vulnerability is rated very high.  Thank you tamana10 for posting that link!

Nvidia is very responsive, and I am confident we will see an update to address this issue.

[Pac_187]

Thank you for clarifying about the security risk. I did not know about this, nor that a graphics driver can cause vulnerability in the system.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello all,

I understand how frustrating this issue is and while the certification drivers do seem to work (and thank you very much @Pac_187 for your post), I would recommend people place the highest care in system security whenever possible.  

Please be patient, we are currently testing the fix to this viewport freezing problem.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

I have been following this thread since I have been having the same issues on both of my work systems as well as my home system using 3ds Max 2017. The only thing in common to the 3 is that they all use some kind of Nvidia card. Using DirectX 9 has helped the problem except when rendering. All 3 systems will periodically freeze while rendering regardless of the scene being rendered in 2017. I have had to go back to Max 2016 to use for any kind of production.

My problem now is that I have had a Maintenance Subscription on my home version as well as both of my work versions for practically as long as subscriptions have been offered, and I am now faced with the prospect of having to move to the new subscription plan for all 3 systems. My director at work is very concerned about moving to a new subscription that will be more expensive, and we can only rely on a 2 year old version of the software to use in production. I share the same concerns for moving to the new subscription service for my home license as well. I have used 3ds Max since the old DOS versions, and I have loved using it, but I am thinking now that this might be the end of the road. It is hard to justify the increased expense at this point for a 2 year old version of the software. I will have to do a lot of thinking about this.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

I appreciate your thoughts and feedback here.  In 2017 the viewports were designed to take more advantage of the technological leaps happening in the GPU market.  You'll notice from reading over the thread that this issue affects W10 the most.  When this issue is fixed, it will be in the form of a new driver update for the NVIDIA cards.

If your scenes are freezing when rendering this is something else entirely and I would suggest making a thread about it and I'll do whatever I can to help you.  This is not typical behavior and together I think we can find out why this is happening.  

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hi Alfred,

Please can you advise the community when the update is going to be live to fix this issue? It is effecting my ability to complete work for clients and can only wait so long before seeking alternative methods and software.

Regards,

Carl

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

I am not permitted to discuss release dates or contents.  I am not trying to stonewall you, it's an internal policy.  I apologize for the inconvenience.  You can use DX9 display driver mode for the time being which gets around this problem.  

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Service Pack 1 was released. Problem still appears. This is unacceptable. This time I am moving away from Max.

[Anonymous]

Hi, DX9 still caused crashes for me! Did not fix the problem at all! This is not a fix and cannot be used temporarily either! I feel you should know this before recommending others to use this feature.

[darawork]

Sorry, I pressed the 'Boo' button by mistake again.

[Anonymous]

darawork, no problem at all!

[darawork]

3Ds max 2016 on vRay 3.4 is solid. Production ready.

[ivanisavich]

2016 is "production ready" if you don't mind a completely broken graph editor and a million other little annoyances. Although considering the fact that 2017 isn't even "open your scene file and work on it for more than 30 seconds before crashing" ready, due to the bug discussed in this thread, that's not so bad.

[darawork]

If you need Nitrous working. It's only a suggestion. DX11