If V-Ray crashes when you attempt to load in a texture/material it is likely that one of the issues listed below is occurring. First, run a quick test: find an alternative bitmap (ideally one known to work well) and load that in to V-Ray. If that works, you know you have an issue with your original bitmap.
Possible issues with Bitmaps:
- The Bitmap is Too Large
If your bitmap is large, it can cause V-Ray to crash. The size at which problems may occur can vary depending upon the specification of your PC and the version of V-Ray. Compare file size to other (successfully) imported bitmaps. Monitor your RAM usage - make sure you're not running out of memory when you import the bitmap.
The Bitmap is Corrupt
Try opening in another application (eg. Photoshop/Painter). In this instance, try re-sourcing the bitmap or at least re-saving in Photoshop.
V-Ray Does Not Have Permission to Access the File
It may be the case that the file itself is fine but access to it is restricted. Check the permissions are correct on the file, that your machine has full access to all files in the drive and directory where the bitmap is located. One way to test this is to save a completely fresh version of the file in a different (local) folder.
V-Ray is Out of RAM (Memory)
If you are running a 32 bit modelling application (eg. Sketchup), the maximum ram available to the application is 4Gb. When running particularly RAM intensive processes, it can cause V-Ray to crash as it runs out of memory.
The Machine is out of RAM (Memory)
Use Task Manager (PC) or Activity Monitor (Mac) to check you have plenty of spare RAM.
How to fix these issues
The quickest solution is to change your bitmap. Swap it out for one that is known to be good and that isn't excessive in size. It should not be necessary to look at hardware to get round this issue - because even where RAM shortage is an issue, it should be resolvable by re-sizing your bitmap.