ya all my images are on the same harddrive as max, but I dont even get to the point where I can select a texture. I click on the box that brings up the browser and the computer thinks for a second and then freezes without even opening the file browser. I tried dragging a material from a folder into a diffuse and spec slot…
try to re-save the image to a different file format, different size, different bit depth. But I assume you mean any texture. maybe try to drag a texture into the viewport on a object - which should by default generate a default material with a difuse texture of that image. Maybe its also just like Seaseme suggested and you…