Simple caustic rendering issue

[johnnymech]

I followed some simple steps from the caustic tutorial here "http://www.skol.ch/tutorials/caustics.htm#" and got this desired results and the render time was roughly one minute. However, I decided to begin adding more elements to the scene. I needed a textured grid to appear atop my cube that has the caustic effect. After adding this simple grid with texture image and a point light the render time for one frame goes over ten minutes. In fact I didnt wait beyond that. A message appears at the bottom saying "warning no photons stored after emitting 1000" . At this point the preview window/render region just sits there. Progress bar at lower right indicates 0% rendered.
This is a simple scene. Floor grid, cube, sphere encompassing scene, second grid with image, spot light emitting caustics, point light. Why is this scene having an issue rendering. I have started from scratch and had this same problem over and over. I am using the same rendering settings as the tutorial listed above and they work great until i add another light and some simple objects.

Thanks in advance,
RaiThioS

[johnnymech]

I just tested the scene by hiding that second grid object and the scene renders fine again...within 30 seconds. I tried creating a new poly grid with just plain lambert material and the render issue is back again with same warning msg. Im completly stumped....

RaiThioS

[atyss]

Are you sure that all the objects are set to receive caustics?

[johnnymech]

Yea, caustics setup on the grid object. It renders fine as long as its hidden in the scene. Since it was a simple scene i just bypassed the caustics this time around. I still dont understand though why this little grid would halt the whole scene.

Thanks though =o)

R