OK, here are more things I've managed to discover playing with AS:
1. Render sometimes stucks at sample 1 EVEN with AS disabled.
2. Changing some AS settings (i.e. Group pixels) with AS disabled restarts rendering;
3. And - most important -
when changing Expected Exposure exactly to 1 - rendering starts - both with AS enabled and disabled.
4. Changing Expected Exposure to any other value than 1 effect in rendering stuck again.
5. [EDIT] Just discovered that rendering resumes when Expected Exposure is multiply of 1, without fraction values
Can you confirm this?
I've posted the same info in OctaneRender® for 3ds max® v3.06 TEST 4 - 4.32 thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=60629&p=310246