Error reporting and correcting method for peripheral

• US 7,418,618 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2003
• Issued: 08/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Transpacific IP Group Limited
• Inventors: Huang, Wen-Yung
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr.; Robert W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Manoskey; Joseph D
• Application Number:
  US10/248,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20040153690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,057 Days
• Field of Search: 714/2, 714/3, 714/5, 714/7, 714/56
• 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. An error reporting and correcting method for a peripheral connected to a user host linkable to a network, the method comprising:

generating an error record file in the user host when an error operation occurs in the peripheral;

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

in response to the uploading, automatically downloading a correcting program associated with the error record file to the user host via the network.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the error operation comprises a software error caused by a driver program of the peripheral.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the error record file includes an error code of the driver program.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the driver program.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the error operation comprises a software error caused by an application program of the peripheral.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the error record file includes an error code of the driver program.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the driver program.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the correcting program provides correction for the application program.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the error record file is to be uploaded;

determining whether the correcting program is to be downloaded; and

determining whether the correcting program is to be installed.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining whether the error record file was generated.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising automatically installing the correcting program in the user host.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

detecting if the portion of said error record is in the message table; and

if the portion of said error record exists in the message table, not performing the uploading.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

if the portion of said error record exists in the message table, displaying a corresponding message from the message table.

14. An error reporting and correcting method for a peripheral, comprising:

generating an error code at least in part in response to a detection of an error in a peripheral;

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;

if the message table has an entry for the error code, displaying the correcting message on a display of a host system communicatively coupled to the peripheral; and

if the message table does not have an entry for the error code, processing the error as a software error.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the message table comprises a plurality of error code columns and a plurality of correcting message columns corresponding to the error code columns.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the correcting messages identify a plurality of hardware error causes and a plurality of hardware correcting steps.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the processing the error as a software error comprises:

uploading the error code to a network; and

in response to the uploading, automatically downloading a correcting program associated with the error code to the host system via the network.

18. A method comprising:

generating an error code at least in part in response to a detection of a software error in a peripheral;

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

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

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

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

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the software error comprises a software error of a driver program.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the correcting program includes function code generated according to an error code generated from the driver program.

21. The method according to claim 18, wherein the software error comprises an application program error.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the error record file includes an error code associated with the application program error.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the correcting program includes function code generated according to the error code.

24. The method according to claim 18, wherein the error record file is uploaded via one or more of:

email, network communication, telephone and facsimile.

25. The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether the error record file is to be uploaded;

determining whether the correcting program is to be downloaded; and

determining whether the correcting program is to be installed.

26. The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

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.

27. The method according to claim 18, wherein the automatically providing the error record file to the network comprises uploading the error record file to the network to elicit a remote device to send back the correcting program.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the correcting program corresponds to the error record file.

29. An apparatus, comprising:

a computing device communicatively coupled to a peripheral, said computing device adapted to;

generate an error code at least in part in response to a detection of an error in a peripheral;

obtain a correcting message associated with the error code from a message table stored on the computing device in response to a comparison of a portion of the error record file with the message table;

if the message table has an entry associated with the error code, display the correcting message on a display coupled to the computing device; and

if the message table does not have an entry associated with the error code, process the error as a software error.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the message table comprises a plurality of error code columns and a plurality of correcting message columns associated with the error code columns.

31. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the correcting messages include a plurality of hardware error causes and a plurality of hardware correcting steps.

32. An apparatus, comprising:

a computing device communicatively coupled to a peripheral and communicatively coupled to a network, said computing device adapted to;

generate an error code at least in part in response to a detection of an error in a peripheral;

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

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

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

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

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the error software error comprises a driver error, and wherein the record file includes an error code associated with a driver program.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the correcting program includes a function code generated based at least in part on the error code associated with the driver program.

35. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the software error comprises an application program error.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the error record file includes an error code associated with the application program error.

37. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the correcting program includes a function code generated according to the error code.