Okay I am up to SP 3 in Max8. I down'oaded the demop version of Max 9 (good sign I can't tell by the interface that it is different, hot keys are all the same), but even in Max 9 the file still won't bake. I sent it to a friend, anim8or76, over at Sway, and He could not get the file to bake. Maybe something wrong with the…
Download the Max 9 Demo from autodesk site and render your maps with it. Try to solve the problem later, maybe your Max 8 version is broken and you mentioned a dealine, so its better to find a quick way to continue to work. By the way, which Windows version do you use? I can remember there was a bug with render to texture…