Error: “3dsmax adapter error – The pipe has been ended – 109 3dsmax adapter error – 3dsmax.exe process no response.”

Issue:

When working in 3ds Max, in the log file of the Backburner Server app, the following error appears:
ERR Error message: 3dsmax adapter error : The pipe has been ended: 109 3dsmax adapter error.

A variation of this could appear as:

3dsmax adapter error - The pipe has been ended - 109 3dsmax adapter error - 3dsmax.exe process no response.

Causes:

There could be multiple causes of this issue:

This is a generic error message indicating a Backburner component is missing when opening the scene file in 3ds Max. The component may be missing from the File > Archive process or from the network setup itself.
The message can also indicate there are older remnant files within the Backburner User folder from previously installed versions, however, this error may come from several different sources.
Mental Ray 2018 could be causing a conflict.

Solution:

To resolve the adapter error, do one or more of the following:

Remove or disable the Autograss plugin for V-Ray

If rendering using the V-Ray render engine ( from Chaos Group), removing or disabling the Happy Digital Autograss plug-in has helped to avoid this problem.

Uninstall old version of Backburner

If this has not already been done when installing a new version of Backburner, ensure that any older versions of the Backburner application has been uninstalled on all machines participating in the network render.

Uninstall Mental Ray 2018

In some instances, the third-party NVIDIA Mental Ray 2018 components can cause a job submission issue. Uninstall the plugin to test for improvement.

Reset Backburner

Resetting Backburner can help remove older files from the Backburner User folder which may cause adapter errors: Reset Backburner user settings to default.