System and method for identifying operational disruptions in mobile computing devices

• US 9,661,490 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2015
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Future Dial Inc
• Original Assignee: Future Dial Inc
• Inventors: Huang, George
• Primary Examiner(s): SCHELL, JOSEPH O
• Application Number:
  US14/660,736
• Publication Number:
  US 20150205656A1
• Time in Patent Office: 798 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0721 within a central processing unit [CPU]
• 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 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0787 Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection
• 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 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/124 where hardware is a sequential transfer control unit, e.g. microprocessor, peripheral processor or state-machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4027 using bus bridges G06F13/4022 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0869 : Validating the configuration within one network element
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 : by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/205 : Transfer to or from user equipment or user record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 : Transfer of terminal data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices

Abstract

A system and method for discovering fault conditions such as conflicts between applications and an operating system, driver, hardware, or a combination thereof, installed in mobile computing devices uses a mobile device running a diagnostic application. A list of applications that were launched or installed during a time period prior to an operational disruption is retrieved. A data table of combinations of incompatible programs and drivers is used to analyze the list of the applications that were launched or installed to create a list of potential fault-causing interactions due to software incompatibilities of software installed in the mobile computing device. A knowledge database is updated with data identifying at least one of the potential fault-causing interactions. Further disclosed is a computer program that identifies hardware-created or software-created problems and operational disruptions in mobile computing devices by collecting data on incompatibilities in particular mobile computing devices on the internet.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

collecting from the Internet, via a computing device, data on incompatibilities in a mobile computing device by scanning websites;

using, by the computing device, the collected data on the incompatibilities to create a data table of incompatible combinations of model IDs, OS versions, or other device characteristics that in conjunction with one or more programs negatively impact a user experience;

retrieving, via the computing device, from the mobile computing device a list of applications that were launched or installed on the mobile computing device during a time period prior to an operational disruption, the list of applications generated via a monitoring application on the mobile computing device;

using, via the computing device, the data table of incompatible combinations to analyze the list of the applications, to create a list of potential fault-causing interactions on the mobile computing device; and

updating, via the computing device, a knowledge database with data identifying at least one of the potential fault-causing interactions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the use of the data table is performed on one or more mobile computing devices coupled to the computing device over a network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the potential fault-causing interactions comprise problems between applications and one or more of:

an operating system, a driver, hardware, and another application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring application repetitively records multiple separate consecutive files listing applications that have been launched or installed within a time period.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the computing device, a notification to a user of at least one software incompatibility or at least one recommended modification of the mobile computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating firmware in the mobile computing device after a data backup on the mobile computing device; and

restoring data to the mobile computing device from the data backup after updating the firmware.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein a process running on one of a plurality of networked devices reads the list of applications and performs analysis on the list of applications to obtain statistical or heuristic patterns identifying a program creating problems.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising creating, by the computing device, a database that lists harmful combinations of model IDs, operating system versions, and other device characteristics that in conjunction with one or more programs negatively impact user experience.

9. A method, comprising:

retrieving, via a computing device, from a mobile computing device a list of applications that were launched or installed on the mobile computing device during a time period, the list of applications generated via a monitoring application on the mobile computing device;

using, via the computing device, a data table of incompatible combinations to analyze the list of the applications, to create a list of potential fault-causing interactions on the mobile computing device; and

updating, via the computing device, a knowledge database with data identifying at least one of the potential fault-causing interactions, and

wherein the monitoring application repetitively records files listing applications that have been launched or installed within a time period by repetitively writing three files in a process wherein;

a first file is opened, data is written to the first file, and the first file is closed;

a second file is opened, data is written to the second file, and the second file is closed; and

,

a third file is opened, data is written to the third file, and the third file is closed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the monitoring application is configured to selectively upload the files to a central data repository when a Wi-Fi connection is available to the mobile computing device.

11. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing executable program code thereon, the program code comprising:

program code for collecting from the Internet data on incompatibilities in a mobile computing device by scanning websites;

program code for using the collected data on the incompatibilities to create a data table of incompatible combinations of model IDs, OS versions, or other device characteristics that in conjunction with one or more programs negatively impact a user experience;

program code for using a diagnostic computing device running a diagnostic application to make a connection to the mobile computing device;

program code for retrieving from the mobile computing device a list of applications that were launched or installed during a time period prior to an operational disruption;

program code for using the data table of incompatible combinations to analyze the list of the applications to create a list of potential fault-causing interactions on the mobile computing device having a cellular connection; and

,

program code for updating a knowledge database with data identifying at least one of the potential fault-causing interactions.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the scanning websites comprises spidering which includes using a list to focus the spidering on specific programs, device characteristics, or models of smart phone computing devices.

13. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the spidering comprises using two different spiders to search two types of sites, respectively, each spider being optimized to search a respective type of site.

14. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the scanning websites comprises using a plurality of templates, each template being designed for a particular site or site subset to optimize extraction of data from the site or site subset.

15. A diagnostic computing device comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory memory storing computer-executable instructions executable by the processor, the instructions causing the diagnostic computing device to;

collect from the Internet data on incompatibilities in a mobile computing device by scanning websites;

use the collected data on the incompatibilities to create a data table of incompatible combinations of model IDs, OS versions, or other device characteristics that in conjunction with one or more programs negatively impact user experience;

retrieve from the mobile computing device a list of applications that were launched or installed on the mobile computing device during a time period prior to an operational disruption, the list of applications generated via a monitoring application on the mobile computing device;

use the data table of incompatible combinations to analyze the list of the applications, to create a list of potential fault-causing interactions on the mobile computing device; and

update a knowledge database with data identifying at least one of the potential fault-causing interactions.