I'm new to LiteStep and decided to give it a go on my old Windows 98. I used this installer...
http://beyondconvention.net/ohussain/lsinstaller/
...and everything was fine. I got around my files okay, and decided to try installing a theme. I installed this theme...
http://www.litestep.net/index.php?section=2&action=details&id=1007
As I was installing it, a popup notified me that I didn't have the neccessary downloads for that theme. I clicked "Download" and all the modules installed just fine.

Then the computer crashed. The failure message (I can get an exact word-for-word if you need) told me that LiteStep failed. I figured I'd reboot. When I started up the computer, the background image loaded finely, and MacAfee even booted up, but after I enter my Windows User password, I get the same error and the computer freezes.

In case I wasn't clear; I can't do absolutely anything. Right clicking, left clicking for that matter, ctrl+alt+del, alt+tab, alt+f4, nothing. All I have is a the cursor against the saturn background, and I have to shut down the computer by pressing the "off" button on the tower.

...

So...yeah; what the hell? Can I disable/uninstall LiteStep from my BIOS screen? Because unless I do, there's absolutely no way to use my computer, I'm going to have to reformat my hard drive. Any ideas on what to do? Ask me more questions if you need clarification.

uhhh...what is the error message?

To get back to explorer boot to DOS and edit system.ini and set shell= back to explorer.exe

Here's the exact error message. It has a buncha code, so I'm sure it'll be useful. Oh and thanks, I didn't know about the DOS thing. Now if only I could remember how to get my computer to boot to DOS...

Litestep
This program has preformed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If this problem persists, contact the program vendor.

details follow
LITESTEP caused an invalid page fault in module at 0000:00000091.
Registers:
EAX=81735fbd CS=0167 EIP=00000091 EFLGS=00010297
EBX=0066808a SS=016f ESP=00667ed4 EBP=0000022d
ECX=00000018 DS=016f ESI=00668008 FS=2fe7
EDX=7be4b82a ES=016f EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
00 93 0e bc 0f c9 00 c6 0f c9 00 d0 0f c9 00 6c
Stack dump:
0000022c 00000084 00000000 012c0190 00667f40
bfbb3ff9 0000022c 00000084 00000000 012c0190
00000000 01537070 00000000 00449524 0066808a
4f3017c7

icky...sounds like a buggy module. Switch back to explorer, delete the theme...install a different theme and reboot.

To boot to a command prompt in 98, press F8 after your computer POSTs, and pick command prompt only. (The window of opportunity is small, so start tapping F8 early.)

Ahh, I fixed it. I was able to get into DOS by pressing F8 and edited system.ini so that shell=C:/Windows/Explorer.exe, things are back to normal. I'm still puzzled as to why Litestep itself worked fine, but the Saturn theme messed things up. It just seems implausible that a shell overhaul would work fine, but something as largely-superficial as a theme would go and crash the system. Has this ever happened to anyone else? Should I contact the creator of the Saturn theme and let him know what happened?

Oh and thanks, DeViLbOi and xcal; I would've had to dig up my computer manual and skim through it to find that F8 brings up the safe mode, and even then I don't think I would've figured out to edit system.ini on my own.

Litestep itself is very stable and only loads two modules (jkey and NLM). It's not surprising at all that a theme would cause problems, since it is loading more modules and running the show.

I dont know, but someone might want to check what happens when you use true transparency on a win98 system (or a module that doesnt support 98 anymore...)...

just a thought.

Amejin

Oh that's simple. Win98 doesn't support true transparency.

That's exactly what happened to me when I tried to run my own theme on 98. It just isn't able to make things truetransparent resulting in a crash

... I hate you people.


:-D

... I love you people.

:p

ps: Seriously, wanna get married?