Just so you know, the first two bytes (255 254) is a FFFE byte code marker for unicode. It tells whatever is reading the file that it's a Unicode file and what order the bytes are in. For example, if it was FEFF then it would be in Big Endian order where the sequence of 0's would be reversed.

Example: 254 255 0 85 0 82 0 76....

I was guessing as to what the problem was without looking at the actual file, but since you posted a tidbit from the file, here's a Unicode FAQ, that should help you to understand how Unicode works.

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Is it fair to stick a link to my site here?

Thanks for you patience.