Error reporting and correcting method for peripheral

• US 7,526,667 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2006
• Issued: 04/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Transpacific Systems LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Huang, Wen-Yung
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel; Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Manoskey; Joseph D
• Application Number:
  US11/505,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20070006014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: 714/2, 714/3, 714/5, 714/7, 714/56, 714/44
• 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. A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, if executed, result in:

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

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

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

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the error comprises a software error caused by a driver program of the peripheral.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the error record communication includes an error code of the driver program.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the driver program.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the error comprises a software error caused by an application program of the peripheral.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the error record communication includes an error code of the application program.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the application program.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, if executed, further result in:

determining whether the error record communication is to be uploaded;

determining whether the correcting program is to be downloaded; and

determining whether the correcting program is to be installed.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions, if executed, further result in determining whether the error record was generated.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions, if executed, further result in:

automatically installing the correcting program in the host.

10. An computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, if executed, result in:

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

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

providing an error record communication 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.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the software error comprises a software error of a driver program.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the correcting program includes function code generated according to an error code generated from the driver program.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the software error comprises an application program error.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the error record communication includes an error code associated with the application program error.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the correcting program includes function code generated according to the error code.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the error record communication is provided to the network via one or more of:

email, network communication, telephone and facsimile.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, if executed, further result in:

determining whether the error record communication is to be uploaded;

determining whether the correcting program is to be downloaded; and

determining whether the correcting program is to be installed.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, if 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.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

means for generating an error record in a host communicatively coupled to a peripheral in response to an error operation occurring in a computer system including the host and the peripheral;

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

means for automatically downloading a correcting program associated with the error record from the network in response to the uploading.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the error operation comprises a software error caused by a driver program of the peripheral.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the error record communication includes an error code of the driver program.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the correcting program includes functional code associated with the error code of the driver program.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the error operation comprises a software error caused by an application program of the peripheral.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the error record communication includes an error code of the application program.

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

26. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

means for determining whether the error record communication 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.

27. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

means for determining whether the error record was generated.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, further comprising:

means for automatically installing the correcting program in the host.

30. 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 associated with the 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.

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

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the correcting messages include a plurality of hardware error causes and a plurality of hardware correcting steps.