3DS Max... help?

hi, i have a question for any of you out there that use 3ds max. im new to the program, and im having trouble with my lighting. the free lights are creating little light, but my omni and spot lights arent creating any light at all. it says they are turned on. the lights are inside of a building, i do have windows, the sun is on as well as the mr sky portals and they are working. any thoughts on what the problem might be? thanks!
Megan

Its been a while since I used Max (which version by the way?) but if I remember correctly raytraced (Mental Ray) and standard lights can't coexist in the mental ray render solution. I believe there are raytrace versions of all the standard lights although it may just be a setting in the lights themselves.

The other possibility is that all the lights are working but your mental ray settings are so high that your skylight is causing too much light in the solution and the standard light's output just can't complete.