i have turned it off (as i mentioned in my first post) and it didn't work. i don't really understand what you mean with your delete light comment...
the render didn't really fail, it just didn't use my lights, just one it created itself. by the way, if i try to do a batch render from within maya, it DOES use my lights. but the whole point is i'd like to render from dos, cause then all ram can contribute to the rendering. thanks,

tiz