Fail safe recovery

• US 20020095615A1
• Filed: 10/11/2001
• Published: 07/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Digital Networks North America, Inc. (DEI Holdings Incorporated), Replay Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Digital Networks North America, Inc. (DEI Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wang, Ruxiang, Hastings, Jeffrey S.
• Application Number:
  US09/976,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20020095615A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

A consumer electronic device, such as a digital video recorder (DVR), has a media storage storing program code modules and content and a network interface for interfacing with one or more remote servers. Content is stored in a content area, modules for monitoring and controlling the consumer electronic device are stored in a system area, and recovery modules are stored in an error recovery area. The monitoring modules activate the recovery modules in response to the detection of an error. The recovery modules diagnose the error and attempt one or more solutions. One solution attempted by the recovery modules is to activate a network recovery module that downloads and installs new program modules for controlling the consumer electronic device from a remote server.

Claims

1. A consumer electronic device, comprising:

a network interface for communicating with a remote server; and

a media storage for storing program code modules for controlling an operation of the consumer electronic device, the program code modules comprising;

an error recovery module for utilizing the network interface to

communicate with the remote server and attempt to recover from an error experienced by the consumer electronic device; and

a monitoring module for monitoring the operation of the consumer

electronic device and determining whether to activate the error recovery module.

2. The consumer electronic device of claim 1, wherein the consumer electronic device is a digital video recorder.

3. The consumer electronic device of claim 1, wherein the media storage comprises:

a system area for storing the monitoring module and a control module for

controlling the operation of the consumer electronic device; and

an error recovery area for storing the error recovery module.

4. The consumer electronic device of claim 3, wherein the error recovery area comprises:

data modules for storing backup copies of the monitoring and control

modules;

wherein the error recovery module is adapted to restore the monitoring and/or

control modules from the data modules to the system area.

5. The consumer electronic device of claim 1, wherein the error recovery module comprises:

a network recovery module for downloading and installing new program code

modules from the remote server.

6. The consumer electronic device of claim 1, wherein the network interface is adapted to communicate with a diagnostic server and wherein the error recovery module further comprises:

a diagnostic module for communicating with the diagnostic server to diagnose

the error experienced by the consumer electronic device.

7. The consumer electronic device of claim 1, wherein the error recovery module is adapted to:

attempt a first-level solution to the error; and

responsive to a failure of the first-level solution, attempt a second-level

solution to the error.

8. The consumer electronic device of claim 7, wherein the first-level solution comprises attempting to recover from the error by performing a minor repair on the program code modules stored by the media storage.

9. The consumer electronic device of claim 7, wherein the second-level solution comprises activating a network recovery module for downloading program code modules from a remote server and installing the program code modules on the media storage.

10. The consumer electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a nonvolatile memory for storing the monitoring and/or error recovery

modules.

11. The consumer electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

a status module for displaying a status of the error recovery module.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of attempting a solution to the diagnosed error comprises the step of:

attempting to execute backup copies of program code modules for controlling

the consumer electronic device stored on a media storage associated with the device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of attempting a solution to the diagnosed error comprises the step of:

downloading program code modules for controlling the consumer electronic

device from a remote server in communication with the consumer electronic device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of attempting a solution to the diagnosed error comprises the steps of:

attempting a first-level solution to the error; and

responsive to a failure of the first-level solution, attempting a second-level

solution to the error.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of attempting a first-level solution to the error comprises the step of:

attempting to recover from the error by performing minor repairs on a media

storage associated with the consumer electronic device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of attempting a second-level solution to the error comprises the step of:

activating a network recovery module for downloading program code modules

from a remote server and installing the program code modules on a media storage associated with the consumer electronic device.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

displaying a status of the consumer electronic device.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer-usable medium comprises:

a system area for storing the monitoring module and a control module for

controlling the operation of the consumer electronic device; and

an error recovery area for storing the error recovery module.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the error recovery area comprises:

data modules for storing backup copies of the monitoring and control

modules;

wherein the error recovery module is adapted to restore the monitoring and/or

control modules from the data modules to the system area.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the error recovery module comprises:

a network recovery module for downloading and installing new program code

modules from the remote server.

23. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the network interface communicates with a diagnostic server and wherein the error recovery module further comprises:

a diagnostic module for communicating with the diagnostic server to diagnose

the error experienced by the consumer electronic device.

24. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the error recovery module is adapted to:

attempt a first-level solution to the error; and

responsive to a failure of the first-level solution, attempt a second-level

solution to the error.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the first-level solution comprises attempting to recover from the error by performing minor repairs on the computer-readable code for controlling the operation of the consumer electronic device.

26. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the second-level solution comprises activating a network recovery module for downloading program code modules from a remote server and installing the program code modules on the computer-usable medium.

27. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer-usable medium further comprises:

a nonvolatile memory for storing at least a portion of the monitoring and/or

error recovery modules.

12. A method of attempting to resolve an error suffered by a consumer electronic device, comprising the steps of:

attempting to diagnose the error; and

attempting a solution to the diagnosed error suffered by the consumer

electronic device, the attempt performed automatically responsive to a detection of the error.

19. A computer program product comprising:

a computer-usable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein

for controlling an operation of a consumer electronic device having a network interface, the computer program product comprising;

an error recovery module for utilizing the network interface to

communicate with a remote server and attempt to recover from an error experienced by the consumer electronic device; and

a monitoring module for monitoring the operation of the consumer

electronic device and determining whether to activate the error recovery module.