3Ds Max 8 Alpha issue, anyone got ideas?

I do a bit of model ripping from games here and there and I've ripped the Mushroom castle from the N64 game Super Mario 64.

My main issue is that the textures are ripped with the Alpha channels separate to the texture, and when I re-apply the Alpha channel to the texture and save as a .tga file and apply it to the model, it looks like it only half works. What I mean is:

Here's what it looks like when there's no Alpha channel on the texture;

http://users.tpg.com.au/aphius//No-Alpha.jpg

And here's what it looks like with an alpha channel on the texture;

http://users.tpg.com.au/aphius//Alpha.jpg

It gets lighter, but doesn't go away. If I tick the 'Pre-Multiplied Alpha' checkbox, it gets closer to white instead of grey, but is still there. :?

Since there's a few people here who know a bit about 3D modelling and it's associated quirks, I just thought I'd ask if anyone knew. :content:

Oh, and hellooo to those I haven't talked to in a while. :aphiusiscrazy:

What are all your options? Is there like a solid render mode?

I know that in Hammer for Half-Life if you set the render mode to Solid it gets rid of all the black and keeps the normal texture.