Max 2015 sp2 - No Cuda Devices

[JasonMartinIndy]

Ok, Iray on Max 2015 sp2 seems to be broken again....  It was working fine but I noticed max has gotten really laggy reciently studdering on simple things like panning with just one object. Then I check the render messages and it says I have no cuda capable devices but it shows the video cards in hardware resources.......???  So just to try and make sure it is not just a text error in the Render Message window I render a simple Iray scene with my cards selected and without. Render 30 iterations and time it. Guess what.......... No difference (1min 4sec for both). I reciently installed a couple of Max addons like corona render, mostly just simple plugins and a couple of others (all for Max 2015), I also installed Max Sp2, & Max Extension 1. So somthing in there broke Max again.... happened before with Sp2 but it killed max completely.

Troubleshooting:

I checked my Nvidia driver version to make sure it hadn't auto updated or something. It is the certified quadro driver version for max 2015, Win 7 64bit - Version 332.21

I reinstalled the Nvidia Suite - No Change

I removed the 3rd party software from max. - No Change

I did a clean install of the Nvidia Driver Suite (removed old driver and reinstall)

No Change

Next things to do

I will remove the Max Extension 1 - Then Check

Then I will remove SP2 - Then Check

Reload the driver

If that doesn't work then I will have to completly uninstall max and reload it and do the same for the driver.

Once I verify it is working again I will reload SP2 and check to see if it breaks it.

(ANYONE READING THIS IF YOU HAVE MAX 2015 SP2 AND A CUDA DEVICE CHECK YOUR IRAY RENDERING. OPEN THE RENDER MESSAGE BOX AND SEE IF YOUR CUDA DEVICES ARE ACTUALLY THERE. TRY RENDERING A SIMPLE SCENE WITH AND WITHOUT YOUR CARDS TO SEE IF THERE IS A CHANGE IN RENDERING TIME)

I have a feeling that this is actually happening to a lot of people and they don't know it. Let me know.

[JasonMartinIndy]

I started to uninstall sp2 but it takes so long to uninstall, I just canceled and uninstalled max altogether. I removed all of the settings files as well so it was a clean install. I have my cuda cores back now and it cut the rendering time in half. Now I have to see what broke max.

[JasonMartinIndy]

I have just confirmed it SP2 breaks Max and you loose your CUDA devices!!! I did a fresh install of max and checked. Cuda devices are there and working fine. I installed SP1 and restarted my computer, it worked fine. Installed SP2 and I no longer have my cuda devices and my rendering time is double.

This is a big problem!!!

[VishnuR]

Hi Jason,

Not sure what could have broken your 3ds Max / cuda setup but glad to read uninstall/reinstall

helps situation.

Something's to consider.

Verify you use this when resetting 3ds Max to defaults.

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max-design/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/...

You seem to have the correct certified driver as per below.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert/card?siteID=123112&catID=18254205&id=18844534&product=1...

Some 3rd party plugins can potentially cause issues with 3ds Max.

So don't reinstall all plug-ins at once. Do incremental installs, test each time one is installed

and see if problem recurrs.

Note this link for disabling plugins temporarily.

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/A-quick...

Also, disable any antivirus, firewalls, disk scanning protection utilities temporarily , if issue returns.
To see if any of above might be contributing to the issue.
Probably good to kill any programs running in background also, if issue suddenly pops up. 
That way you can use process of elimination and sleuth out any potential culprits.

Best Regards/VR

[JasonMartinIndy · Accepted solution]

I know what the problem is now. I was talking with people over at the Nvidia forums and found out that no one else had this issue but no one else was using the partner certified version number. I was using the partner certified Nvidia Driver version for Max 2015 for Quadro cards which is 332.15. SP2 does break max's cuda devices but for that driver version. SP2 requires you to update to the new driver version because of Maxwell card support which requires cuda 6.0.

(I have accidentally updated my nvidia video card drivers before and I lost my GPU's as selectable devices unless I was on the Partner Certified Driver version. Because of that, I have always stayed on that version only. (Which is what your suppose to do....)

So Nvidia needs to update their website for the Partner Certified SP2 driver version. Once I update to a new version everything works fine. I guess thats what I get for following the directions and doing what I am suppose to do.