Error reporting and correcting method for peripheral

• US 20070006014A1
• Filed: 08/16/2006
• Published: 01/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Transpacific IP Group Limited
• Inventors: Huang, Wen-Yung
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,667 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0733 in a data processing system embedded in an image processing device, e.g. printer, facsimile, scanner
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0745 in an input/output transactions management context input/output processing in general G06F13/00
• 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 11/0769 Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow
• 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 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00973 from a remote device, e.g. receiving via the internet instructions input to a computer terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32609 Fault detection or counter-measures, e.g. original mis-positioned, shortage of paper
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32625 Fault detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32662 remotely, e.g. to the transmitter from the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32667 Restarting a communication or performing a recovery operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0081 Image reader H04N2201/0091 - H04N2201/0094 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0082 Image hardcopy reproducer H04N2201/0091 - H04N2201/0094 take precedence

Abstract

An error reporting and correcting method applied to a peripheral. The peripheral can be connected to the user terminal via the network. In the error reporting and correcting method, an error record file is generated immediately after an error operation occurs to the peripheral. The error record file is uploaded via the network by the user host, and a correction program corresponding to the error file is downloaded to the user host via the network. After being downloaded, the correction program for automatically performing error correction is automatically installed in the user host.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. An article comprising a storage medium, having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, result in:

in response to detecting an error in a peripheral, generating an error record in a user host communicatively coupled to the peripheral;

in response to a comparison of a portion of said error record with a message table, uploading the error record to a network;

downloading a correcting program associated with the error record to the user host via the network; and

automatically installing the correcting program in the user host.

23. The article of claim 22, wherein the error comprises a software error caused by a driver program of the peripheral.

24. The article of claim 23, wherein the error record includes an error code of the driver program.

25. The article of claim 23, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the driver program.

26. The article of claim 22, wherein the error comprises a software error caused by an application program of the peripheral.

27. The article of claim 26, wherein the error record includes an error code of the application program.

28. The article of claim 27, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the application program.

29. The article of claim 22, wherein the instructions, when executed, further result in:

determining whether the error record is to be uploaded;

determining whether the correcting program is to be downloaded; and

determining whether the correcting program is to be installed.

30. The article of claim 29, wherein the instructions, when executed, further result in determining whether the error record was generated.

31. An article comprising a storage medium, having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, result in:

in response to a detection of a software error in a peripheral, generating an error code;

in response to the generating, automatically obtaining a correcting message associated with the error code from a message table stored locally with respect to the peripheral; and

displaying the correcting message on a display of a host system communicatively coupled to the peripheral.

32. The article of claim 31, wherein the message table comprises a plurality of error code columns and a plurality of correcting message columns corresponding to the error code columns.

33. The article of claim 31, wherein the correcting messages identify a plurality of hardware error causes and a plurality of hardware correcting steps.

34. An article comprising a storage medium, having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, result in:

in response to a detection of a software error in a peripheral, generating an error code;

generating an error record based at least in part on the error code;

providing the error record to a network in response to a comparison of a portion of the error record with a message table;

in response to the providing, automatically downloading a correcting program associated with the error record from the network; and

utilizing the correcting program to at least partially correct the detected software error.

35. The article of claim 34, wherein the software error comprises a software error of a driver program.

36. The article of claim 35, wherein the correcting program includes function code generated according to an error code generated from the driver program.

37. The article of claim 34, wherein the software error comprises an application program error.

38. The article of claim 37, wherein the error record includes an error code associated with the application program error.

39. The article of claim 34, wherein the correcting program includes function code generated according to the error code.

40. The article of claim 34, wherein the error record is provided to the network via one or more of:

email, network communication, telephone and facsimile.

41. The article of claim 34, wherein the instructions, when executed, further result in:

determining whether the error record is to be uploaded;

determining whether the correcting program is to be downloaded; and

determining whether the correcting program is to be installed.

42. The article of claim 34, wherein the instructions, when executed, further result in:

detecting whether the error code is generated; and

comparing an error table with the error code to determine whether the error code is caused by an application program.

43. An apparatus, comprising:

means for generating an error record in a user host communicatively coupled to a peripheral when an error operation occurs in the peripheral;

means for uploading the error record to a network in response to a comparison of a portion of said error record with a message table;

means for downloading a correcting program associated with the error record from the network; and

means for automatically installing the correcting program in the user host.

44. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the error operation comprises a software error caused by a driver program of the peripheral.

45. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the error record includes an error code of the driver program.

46. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the driver program.

47. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the error operation comprises a software error caused by an application program of the peripheral.

48. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the error record includes an error code of the application program.

49. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the application program.

50. The apparatus of claim 43, further comprising:

means for determining whether the error record is to be uploaded;

means for determining whether the correcting program is to be downloaded; and

means for determining whether the correcting program is to be installed.

51. The apparatus of claim 43, further comprising:

means for determining whether the error record was generated.