3dsmax giving me errors (texture bake/actorx)

[kalamity]

i have 3dsmax 5.1, and it is not letting me successfully export meshes with actorx, or use the Render to Texture (texture bake) feature. this is... well... basically locking me down as far as i know in terms of getting animated meshes into unrealed.

when i go to Render to Texture, it gives me an error:

>> MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception: -- Unknown system exception <<

in the baketextures macro at the line:

AddSubRollout gTextureBakeDialog.rollouts selectedObjectProps rolledup:false --pSelectedRolledUp

i can see the first 'General Settings' rollout, but the rest is not there.

when i try to export a mesh using actorx (i know i have the right version), it gives me three windows: File Creation Error, Texture Creation Error, and finally it tells me that 3ds max must shut down. it gives no details as to what went wrong other than that. and yes, i am sure i have the right version of actorx.

i tried uninstalling, clearing the registry and old files, and reinstalling to no avail. it also seems to work on my laptop, but not this computer.

thanks in advance.

[Cursed_Soul]

hey, i got max 6 and max 5 (5.1) also had this problem after a reinstall in max 5 and again in max 5.1

i think it happened somewhere after i got windows service pack 2 (sp2)
did you have that service pack as well?

let me know becouse atm its totally borking up for me as well.

[Cursed_Soul]

3ds max and Windows® XP SP2
Posted: August 31, 2004

Although Discreet Testing and Product Support have not identified any specific problems to date, in some cases 3ds max 6 may not function as expected under Windows XP Service Pack 2. Therefore, Discreet recommends that 3ds max 6 be run under Windows XP SP1.

NOTE: Discreet has identified major issues with the functionality of 3ds max 5 and older on Windows XP SP2, and support advises all clients to not install this service pack due to software stability problems that will occur.

so basically thanks to microsoft we are screwed and forced to reinstall xp with only sp 1.