Apologies if you the previous post appeared to appear and disappear like a broken Tardis, but I suddenly have problems with WordPress.

In particular, after finely crafting that last piece, I kept getting the error…

Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_substr()

… when trying to edit the post. No others, just that one.

As much as I’d loved to have spent all night trying to find the exact byte that was the cause, I didn’t. But, weirdly, I think it was to do with the original title – “Updating the BIOS on an Acer Aspire One”. A little bit of title changing and it appeared to be accepted. Of course, I could be way off the mark.

But it took a lot of editing and chopping about to get it all to work.

I have come across one item on Google Search that appears related to Search Unleashed. Coincidence?

Update: I should have followed that link a little further – it’s a known bug in Search Unleashed.

The BIOS on my Acer was horribly out of date and the change logs showed that a lot of useful fixes had been implemented since. As much as I hate doing BIOS updates, due to the possibility of catastrophic problems, I decided to give it a go.

I couldn’t find anything on the Acer site on how to do it, although they offer the BIOS updates, but I did find various forums and blogs¹ where it’s been discussed. In the end I found a combination of advice was the best solution.

In a nutshell, the BIOS has to be upgraded via DOS. And not the Command Prompt DOS-a-like that Windows offers. That means putting DOS on a USB stick and booting from it.

Bear in mind that I have a Windows XP A150 Aspire One. And that when I say USB memory, I also mean USB drive. And vice versa.² So, what you’ll need…

1. A USB memory stick. I read somewhere that recommended a 4GB one. No idea why as the files took up 3.2MB in total. Now, and this is where I went wrong initially, the USB memory has to be formatted as FAT32 and not NTFS.
2. A download of UNetbootin – this is a free program that will create a bootable USB device with one of a number of downloadable operating systems, including any your own. Simply click on the option to download the latest Windows version.
3. A download of the latest BIOS from Acer. Make sure you unzip it.

And here’s the process..

1. Ensure your memory stick is plugged in and run UNetbootin.
2. It will prompt for a “Distribution” – change this to “FreeDOS”.
3. At the bottom of the window ensure the “Type” is “USB Drive” and the “Drive” is the drive letter of your USB memory stick.
4. Click on “OK” and FreeDOS will be installed onto the USB drive.
5. Now copy the BIOS files onto the USB drive as well.
6. Reboot the Acer and press F2 at the “splash screen” to go into the BIOS settings.
7. Once in the BIOS select the Boot Menu and move the USB HDD to the top of the list (using F5 and F6 to move them up and down).
8. Press F10 to save and exit.
9. Your Acer should now boot from the USB stick.
10. The FreeDOS screen will appear with an option to select a default option. Do this.
11. You will now be presented with a list of boot options – select option 5 (FreeDOS Live CD).
12. I should have maybe said earlier that if you’re not literate with DOS, then you may struggle at this point FreeDOS will now have started and you’ll have a standard DOS screen. Go into C:\ (which is actually your USB memory stick) and find the BIOS files you saved earlier. In particular, find the .BAT file and run it.
13. The BIOS should now install and reboot your Acer. Make sure to change the BIOS back to boot from your hard drive in future (and, whilst you’re there, check the BIOS front screen to ensure the BIOS version number is correct!).

1. particularly this one [↩]
2. it’s confusing isn’t it? Different names for the same thing [↩]

With a lot of room changes to make (you know, moving the computer to the dining room, starting a nursery, etc) we visited our local Ikea last night. In total we spent… erm, quite a bit, and it’s seriously drained our savings.

We’d visited a few weeks ago and planned what we would buy to make last nights trip as quick and easy as possible.

It was always our intention to arrange a home delivery as many of the items were bulky and over-sized for my small car. However, after looking in their catalogue and on their website we weren’t much the wiser as to how you were supposed to arrange it. About the only thing we found out was that you pay for the items at the usual checkout and then take it to a special home delivery area. Ok. But do we pay for delivery at the checkout? We weren’t sure. I asked his particular question at the checkout and I was told we paid for it separately, when arranging the delivery. I was obviously not sure and by this time I had 3 unwieldy trolleys.

Eventually we get to the home delivery area. They ask for our postcode. Then they tell us it will be delivered next day. Oh, ok, that’s not possible as no-one will be at home. Can we have it next week¹? It’s at THIS point that we’re told that it costs £10 a night to store it. Excuse me? Yep, with no choice but to pay it, I stump up – delivery is on Saturday. We’d paid for the items so we could either pay up, take them home then (which wasn’t an option) or get them all refunded and come and do the whole thing again another day. I felt like I’d been mugged.

Anyway, I contacted Ikea. I was very friendly and explained what happened and suggested that they should have better explanations of how the process works. Today I received a prompt reply.

Hej Mr Artiss,

Thank you for your e-mail enquiry.

First let me offer my sincere apologies for your recent experience. It would appear that you have not received the level of service that both yourself and IKEA would expect.

I can assure you that IKEA takes customer service very seriously and will continue to employ all possible methods to ensure that the highest standards are achieved and exceeded in the future.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to IKEA and give us your comments. Objective feedback can only help us improve our customer service and your shopping experience.

I sincerely hope that any future contact with IKEA better reflects our commitment to Customer Service.

Assuring you of our best attention at all times.

Sue on behalf of the IKEA Customer Services Team.

How automated a response does that sound? I’m not impressed.

1. I’m off work [↩]