what problem am I encountering with my 3D program??

I am trying to run 3D Studio Max R3, and before the program has even begun to load an alert message says the following:

“Hardware lock is not attached, or you are using the wrong lock, or the lock device drivers are not running.”

Now I dont know whether its a problem with my system maybe its not beefed up enuff, its a celeron 466 with 128RAM and has a built-in graphics accelerator. Its a cheapy but it should run most programs as i have had no prob’s with other graphics programs… can anyone tell me what this alert message means??