Hi,
I’ve seen this bug on several different computers, and on mine with many different graphic cards.

Perspective view port, which is shaded (smooth+highlights), will often just be too bright. It’s like you turn up the default lights 10 times. Then it will dim, and then switch back and forth. Usually selecting or deselecting an objects triggers it, also making that view port maximized.

Sometimes I turn on default lighting and switch from 1 to 2 to get rid of it, but only partially and for a short time.

Does that happen to you guys? I hope I explained it well enough.

2xAMD Opteron 275, 4GB RAM, Tyan K8WE, 8800 GTX, MAX 2009 64 bit on Vista Ultimate 64

I’ve run across several scenes, in both 2009 and 2010, where it either doesn’t seem to respect the Exposure Control, or it appears to switch between Default Lights and Scene Lights in the viewport.  And as you said, selecting objects or maximizing/minimizing views can cause it to change.

3DS Max Design 2011 64-bit - Advantage Pack
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Maybe I found a solution. I think if you use a shader model 2.0 or 3.0, you can turn off shadows, it won’t happen. Will see.

2xAMD Opteron 275, 4GB RAM, Tyan K8WE, 8800 GTX, MAX 2009 64 bit on Vista Ultimate 64