Tom Bennett

This post comes in two sections. The first is a description of the problem / general rant about it, and the second is how I fixed it. Hopefully they’re marked clearly enough so that people can skip ahead if they need to.

Problem / rant
A strange thing happened last night – I’d just configured my new Wii to connect to my wireless network, and was toying around with it’s email function (which is basic to say the least). I sent a couple of test emails to a friend of mine, and all seemed fine. That was until, having got bored with simple one-liners, he decided to reply with an entire copy of Kant’s ‘Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals’ as plain text in the body of the email (don’t ask why, I don’t know myself ). Despite only being 350k in total size (and the Wii’s maximum email limit being 1MB) it killed the console. And I mean, not just froze it, it properly broke it. Holding the power button down to reset it, and then turning it back on, took me to the black screen where you have to hit A (which I could do without any problems), and then to the channel screen. At this point you can move the cursor for approximately 1 second before everything freezes, the blue cd tray light flashes, and thats it.

A couple of hours online searching for people with similar problems dug up this forum. Needless to say, I wasn’t overly thrilled with the resolution put forward of sending the whole thing back to Nintendo for a complete replacement – can a single email really tank an entire console? I would hope not.

So after google didn’t seem to throw up any answers / suggestions, the next port of call was Nintendo’s own support pages and forums. One word for them. Rubbish.

My next step was to phone Nintendo on their customer support line (UK: 0870 6060 247 | website) – the 247 in the number gave me hope that even though it was 2am on a saturday night, I still be able to get technical support. Not the case, the opening times are 8.30 – 5.30pm, Mon – Fri. Grrr.

Solution
So here’s how I fixed it. Note, these steps worked for me for this particular issue and should be used as a guide only!

1. The Wii actually has a maintenance mode (which I found through this post, which allowed me to get into the channel screen without it freezing up. To access this, on the initial black loading screen (that asks you to push A) hold both the + and – buttons on your Wii controller and then push A. You should be greeted with a message telling you that you’ve entered maintenance mode.
2. Insert an SD card into you Wii, and copy across all of your saved games and channels (instructions can be found here
3. Transfer your Mii’s to your Wiimote through the Mii channel
4. Format the Wii system memory, instructions here

And voila, you should (or at least I did) have a fully working Wii again without having to send the entire thing back to Nintendo. All that’s left to do is copy back your saved games and mii’s from the SD card / controller.

On a side note, you may be able to delete the offending email message through the maintenance mode to save you the hassle of most of the steps. If you can, i’d appreciate it if someone could let me know, and I’ll update this post accordingly.

Bootnote: A lot of forums have suggested that unplugging the Wii and leaving for a duration of anywhere between 30 seconds and 10 minutes will reset it. I’ve found this not to be the case.

This has to be the best newsboard headline that I’ve ever seen.

It turns out the TV star in question is Alan Davies, as reported by Sky News. The episode occured because the homeless guy called him Jonathan Creek. Davies’ response was

‘My name’s Alan. You know my name – Alan. What’s my name? It’s Alan’

And then he bit his ear. Amazing.

My parents have just come back from the States, complete with a story about one of their friends almost marrying an englishman with the surname Chicken. Needless to say, it became the subject of much hilarity. Incredulity shortly followed and they, along with the rest of their group, started to proclaim that that surname couldn’t possibly exist.

A quick search of ancestry.co.uk has settled the argument.

Who are your chicken ancestors?

We’ve found chicken in the following databases:

• 2515 matches in UK Census Records
• 3937 matches in UK Birth, Marriage and Death Records

Needless to say, my rather schoolboy sense of humour led me to search for other strange and unwanted surnames. Did you know that there are 158 Bum’s, 103 Tit’s, 71 Bollock’s, 4 Arse’s, and no less than 1608 Poo’s recorded on the UK Birth, Marriage and Death records? Poor sods (yeah, there are 21 of those too).

A spot on spoof of the current Mac adverts from the guys at TrueNuff.

Further spoofs can be found on YouTube.

Just came across an article in todays Computing magazine saying that it was worthwile asking Google Maps for directions from New York to London. The picture below shows Google’s suggested route.

I particularly like the following instructions

20. Turn right at Long Wharf
21. Swim across the Atlantic Ocean

Suggested journey time is 29 days 10 hours. Love it.

I’ve just found out that the last 8 episodes of the Sopranos are to begin being screened in the States on the 8th April. Looks like I’m going to be revisiting season 6 part 1 shortly to reacquaint myself with the story.

As I see it, the last season(s) have all been setting the scene for this last set of episodes. And it all has to come to a resolution. I’m not one to make predictions, but I hope that the show’s producers and directors make it satisfying for us viewers.

I can’t wait…

Yes, I’ve finally given in and succumbed to using Wordpress to create/run the website.  I’ve never used PHP before so, as you can see, there’s a lot of default settings and styles floating around, but i’ll look to change these over the next few weeks.

First impressions?  As much as I hate to say it (it is PHP and all), I love it.  Unbelievably easy to configure - I think it took me no more than 5 minutes – and the management interface is fast, slick, and simple.

Big thumbs up!

Update: 26th March 2007. And now with a nice new theme!