We run Max 2009 x64 and regularly (much more regularly than in the past) have problems closing down max. It just sits there doing nothing. You can even continue working in the scene after you’ve hit the ‘x’ to close it.
Ram usuage isn’t chaging and there is no processor use on the 3dsmax.exe process. Only way to exit it is to end the process, which I hate doing.
Can’t be sure why this is happening, but our scenes are certainly getting more complex these days with quite a few ForestPro objects kicking around that hold lots of meshes and proxies.
I got that under max 2010 sp1 x64 too - I found that max stayed resident in memory even after the ui had closes too. Had a fair few plugins installed and it was on a copy of windows that hadn’t been wiped in a good few years. Unfortunately no answers for you but I’ve had the same experience.
The Color Correct plug-in for max2010 on XP 64 bit was causing max to stay resident in memory after the UI had closed down at one stage. Not sure if that’s been fixed now though.