Damn 3D Studio Max 9

I spent a night trying to install 3D STudio Max 9 and the activation page kept calling IE, and then kept telling me that the activation code is incorrect. Could it be some messed up installation on my machine before?

Anyway I am installing Winows 7 32 bit now and try to install Studio Max 9 again. Problem is Windows 7 has problem booting up from my machine. Sigh, probably more WTF time when I get back home :-< .