I keep getting a strange issue with backburner. Is anyone else having a problem with backburner server completing a submitted job with Houdini Engine for 3ds Max installed in the plugins folder? As soon as I remove HoudiniEngineFor3DSMax.dlu from 3ds max plugins folder, backburner server can render and complete jobs again. However, the houdini engine does open up just fine inside of 3ds max. I'm not sure if it's some kind of permissions issue or something else. Any suggestions?

Yes!

I suffered the same problem, I couldn't figure out what was it and was getting mad, with some strange “chinese like” characters.

2019/03/05 16:32:55 ERR Error message: 3dsmax adapter error : Autodesk 21.3 reported error: ؐ巤ɗ

deleting this file that you mentioned, fixed the issue.
I guess we can't use houdini Engine with backburner….