I'd just like to add to this message - I am a new user too; have Silo, Hexagon and Poser as well as Vue Infinite and no problems there but I am having the same difficulties that PixelZapGames is experiencing. Right from the get-go, when I attempted the rat from scratch tutorial and selected a sphere, nothing happens. I then tried a few other things but I get the error messages saying my machine is unstable.
I am going to try chingchong's suggestion but would appreciate help on correct setup of 3D Coat.
Thanks.