well random suggestions i might give: i think it was somewhere in the installer or right after installing or when trying to launch the program after install. i just followed those instructions, did nothing else, and it worked like a charm (except that i still havent got to animating lol).
what i really can do to answer your questions (lazyxD):
a) uninstall 3ds max and reinstall again (takes a lot time, cause my computer is shit).
b) search the house for an empty cd, search my computer for nero or something like that, burn the image file to the cd, find a computer to install it to, install.