never mind i found the answer on another site, it seems to be a graphics card issue,

anyway if anyone has the same problem go to this web site,

https://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=1328&

just in case the site doesn't work i'll copy and paste the solution to this problem,

Go to C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\maya\7.0 and open
maya.env with any text editor and put this line

MAYA_NON_POWER_TWO_OFF = 1

Save the .env file and launch Maya


it's times like this i miss my good old trusty laptop,