[pcgirl]

A friend called me up last night saying she was having a problem with her computer. She said she installed 3d Studio Max or something like that and it installed fine. The problem is, when trying to open the program, an error message comes up saying something to the effect of "turn off hardware locks" and the program doesn't open.

I've never heard of hardware locks, so I'm stumped. I couldn't find anything on the Microsoft website about it.

She is trying to install this program on a laptop though....would that have anything to do with it maybe? Incompatibility with the video card or something? Or maybe she's just crazy.

About all I know about the laptop is that it's a Sony Vaio, 900 mhz celeron, and it's running Windows XP home.

[RZA]

A hardware lock is about 3DStudio, not XP. I've met it with 3DS and managed to make it work - it was ages ago though... Somewhere on a CD must ba a patch or at least a readme concerning this thing. Try to search for it.
If you won't settle it, email me or write here - I'll install 3DS and take a look around.

Hope this helps.

[maha_x]

The hardware lock is a "nob" that you insert in some of yer ports (like LPT1 for instance). 3DSMAX uses it to verify that you arent trying to use a copied software.

Usually a copied software would contain a patch file, and even then it is sometimes necesary to run the 3DSMAXs sentinel program, located in a subfolder in where U installed 3DSMAX.