Crashing while in select bitmap dialog

[Anonymous]

I'm having an issue with Max constantly crashing while in the select bitmap dialog. I can repeat this error 100% of the time. I have never had this issue before I was upgraded onto a new computer at work. The only thing that is different about this computer compared to other machines, is this one has a Quadro K2200 in it. All of my previous or current at-home machies were GTX cards (GTX660 for the old work machine and a GTX970 for my current at-home machine). The previous machines were all Windows 10 pro just like this current one.

If I have just opened Max, if I go to the material editor and try to select a bitmap from a drive, as soon as I click on any drive letter (local or network) Max crashes instantly. My temp work around is to either open a Max file the long way (file-open-browse to file) or open a file using the recenly opened shortcuts and BEFORE trying to find a bitmap, either do a file-open or file-merge/import and browse around the drives. Then after doing that, I can successfully use the select bitmap dialog.

The select bitmap is the ONLY dialog that I get this crashing error. File open or file import/merge works normally. It almost feels like I have to wake up the drives first, then I can select a bitmap. Are there 2 different dialog boxes or processes between file-open and select bitmap?

[RobH2]

Since you just moved to a new machine I'm pretty sure it's a failed install of Max and may be due to some permission issues in Windows 10. Windows 10 is really troublesome at times with its permission adherence. 

As hard as it sounds, I'd uninstall Max and reboot. Then I'd uninstall my video drivers and reboot. Make sure you now download and install the latest NVidia driver for that card. Reboot. Now reinstall Max making sure you right click and do it "As Administrator." I'm guessing this will correct your issue. 

[Anonymous]

Ugh. Unfortunatly our IT department has in place highly restrictive user permissions. They also like to cut every corner possible when creating clone copies of our hard drives, so a failed install seems really likely. Maybe this is the final nail in the coffin to where I can finally convince them that while network security is good, it's bad when it gets in the way of progress. And for them to take their time when creating our workstations.

So a failed install can only affect one single dialog box out of the entire program? It makes no sense that permissions would stop the select bitmap but allow every other dialog box in max from open, import, merge, xref, load render preset, save render preset, etc. What does the select bitmap dialog do that everything else doesn't?

I'll keep this thread posted if this solves the issue.

[RobH2]

It does seem to make no sense that one aspect can be affected. I had the issue you have with Max 2008 I believe it was. Opening bitmaps crashed Max. The only way I solved it was by doing what I suggested. Granted, we are many versions past that but the symptoms are the same. If nothing else works, you might try my suggestion as a last resort. 

To your comment about network security, I consulted with a large Fortune 500 company last fall and worked onsite with them. IT set up a Boxx machine for me with Max 2016 on it with VRay and a few other plugins. It was a nightmare running across their permission crippled network. In the end, they had to just give me full Administrator access to my complete machine in order to get everything to work properly. They weren't happy about it but if I was going to be productive, someone was going to have to bend the rules in my case. Once they opened things up, I was able to work and configure my workspace and software successfully. 

What IT rarely realizes is that 3D guys needs are far different that standard users with Office and other productivity software. We need to be able to install plugins, uninstall things, reinstall things and do a lot of tweaking and configuration on a daily basis. Our work in 3d is never a software "set it and forget" it scenario. IT can't treat us the same way as other users who don't do visual work. If they do, it will just cause problems and headaches for all. 

[Anonymous]

In one of those ah-ha! moments, I realized that on install Max gives you a corrupt bitmap in the sceneassets/images folder (the default folder it opens for bitmaps, which is why only this dialog was affected). Or at least something corrupt goes in there, whether from a direct Max install or from the Max install image we've made internally. I would lean towards the internal one, since this issue has never presented itself on my home install.

To solve this without doing a full install, I simply hunted down all of the 3dsmax folders in the user directories. We had 3 of them. One from the admin account used to install max, one from the admin IT user to check the account, and finally my account. My account didn't have any images in it, but I suspect even though I had pathed Max to start from my own documents folder, there was something that was still trying to access one of the admin accounts that I obviously do not have default admin privileges to access. I have a separate admin account from my daily use account, which further might complicate things.

So far, this has fixed the problem and I will post if the problem re-occurs. If it does, it is a re-install full steam ahead for this machine.