JPH05346863A - Control method for electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To search fault causes from the state of data and to facilitate the fault recovery of a device by preventing the data in a RAM from being erased by checking the data destruction of the RAM with the program operation of a CPU and immediately stopping the program operation after outputting an alarm when the data destruction is detected. CONSTITUTION:A ROM 3 stores the control program of this device or fixed data required for the operations. A RAM 4 is a nonvolatile memory and stores data to be fixedly set corresponding to each device in advance or data to be arbitrarily registered by a user as needed. When the power source of the device is turned on, the data destruction of the RAM 4 is checked by the program operation of a CPU 6 and when the data destruction is detected, the program operation is immediately stopped after error display and alarming so as to prevent the stored data in the RAM 4 from being erased. Thus, the executed abnormal operation can be estimated from the state of change of the data in the RAM 4, and the cause of the destruction can be searched.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control method for an electronic device that executes normal device control after checking whether the stored data in the RAM has been destroyed by the PU.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recent electronic devices are often controlled by a microcomputer. Such electronic devices are
A memory for storing control programs and control data,
And a CPU that executes the control program.

For example, in the case of a facsimile machine, a ROM and a RAM are provided as the memory. RO
In M, a control program and fixed data that need not be changed are stored. Further, when the RAM is configured by a non-volatile memory, the RAM stores fixed data according to the usage conditions of the device when the device is installed. Further, in the case of the RAM of the facsimile apparatus, in addition to the fixed data as described above, data arbitrarily registered by the operator after the apparatus is installed, such as speed dial registration information, is also stored.

By the way, a program operation may run out of control due to a bug in the control program and the data stored in the RAM may be destroyed.

Therefore, for example, in the case of a facsimile machine, it is generally checked whether or not the data stored in the RAM is correct immediately after the power source of the machine is turned on. When the stored data is correct, the normal operation is immediately started, while when the data is destroyed, a so-called serviceman call error is displayed and then the normal operation is started.

[0006]

Conventionally, when it is detected that data has been destroyed, in order to prevent an unexpected and unnecessary operation from being performed due to the destroyed data, the RAM has a I tried to delete all the stored data.

For this reason, when the service person searches for the cause of data destruction, there is a shortage of clues indicating the operating state at the time of a runaway, and there is a problem that recovery measures are difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a control method of an electronic device which facilitates recovery processing.

[0009]

To this end, the present invention provides C
When the destruction of the data stored in the RAM is detected by the program operation of the PU, an error is displayed and then the program operation is immediately stopped.

[0010]

Since the data stored in the RAM is not erased, the service person can infer the executed abnormal operation from the manner of change of the data stored in the RAM and search the cause of the data destruction. This facilitates the restoration of the device.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a facsimile image processing unit 1 compresses image information obtained by reading a document image at the time of transmission, decompresses the received data to the original image information at the time of reception, and prints the recording paper. It will be recorded in. The communication unit 2 is connected to a telephone line and performs predetermined line control when making and receiving a call,
The image information is modulated / demodulated and transmitted / received.

The ROM 3 stores the control program of this apparatus and fixed data necessary for its operation. RAM
Reference numeral 4 denotes a non-volatile memory, which stores data that is fixedly set in advance according to each device or data that the user arbitrarily registers as necessary. The operation display section 5 is for displaying various information such as the operating state of the device as the operator performs various operations. The CPU 6 monitors and controls each of the above parts.

As shown in FIG. 2, the storage area of the RAM 4 is divided into a fixed area where the user cannot rewrite the information content and a rewritable variable area. In the fixed area, check data is stored at predetermined addresses at fixed intervals, and fixed data is stored in the remaining area. The check data is constant data that is set in advance to check whether the stored data has been destroyed. The fixed data is, for example, information indicating the model name and hardware configuration of the device. In the variable area, variable data such as registration information for speed dial is stored.

With the above configuration, in the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment, when the apparatus power is turned on, the CPU 6 starts the control of each section according to the control program in the ROM 3, and the apparatus operation starts.

That is, when the power of the facsimile apparatus is turned on by the operator, as shown in FIG.
One check data in the fixed area of AM4 is read (process 101), and it is determined whether the check data is a prescribed constant data (process 102).

If there is no abnormality in the past operation of this facsimile apparatus, correct check data is held. If the check data is the specified data (Y in process 102), it is determined whether or not there is other check data (process 103). If there is (check 103 in process 103), the other check data is the same. Is checked (to process 101). In this way, when all the check data are normal (N in process 103), the process proceeds to the main process. The main process is a process of receiving an image in response to an incoming call or transmitting an image in accordance with an operator's calling operation.

On the other hand, in the past operation of this facsimile machine, a runaway of the program operation of the CPU 6 or the like occurs, and R
The data stored in AM4 may be destroyed. In this case, the contents of the check data are considered to have changed. In this way, when the check data is not the specified data (N in process 102), it is displayed that the memory data is in error, and the service call alarm is output (process 104). Then, the CPU 6 as it is
Stop the program operation of.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when the apparatus power is turned on, the program operation of the CPU 6 causes the RA
The data destruction of M4 is checked, and when the data destruction is detected, the program operation is immediately stopped after the error display and the alarm so that the data stored in the RAM4 is not erased.

Therefore, the service person can infer the abnormal operation executed from the manner of changing the data in the RAM 4 and search the cause of the data destruction. This facilitates the restoration of the device.

Next, a facsimile apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
3 stores model-specific setting data required for various models, and the model-specific setting data corresponding to the model is stored in the RAM 4 when the facsimile machine is manufactured at a factory or shipped to a user. It is assumed to be stored in the fixed area.

As in the case of FIG. 2, check data is stored in the fixed area at regular intervals, and fixed data is stored in other areas. Here, the block numbers b1 to b are assigned to each fixed data divided by the check data.
m is given.

With this configuration, when the power of the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment is turned on, as shown in FIG.
The check data is checked one by one in the same procedure as the case (step 201). When all the check data are correct, the process shifts to the main process.

On the other hand, when the destruction of the check data is detected (N in step 201), the block numbers b1 to bm are set.
While the fixed data of 1 is read, the corresponding corresponding data is read from the ROM 3 and the two are compared (process 202).

When an abnormality such as a program runaway occurs, it is considered that the model-specific setting data is also partially or wholly destroyed together with the check data. Then, next, as a result of the above-mentioned collation, the block numbers b1 to bm in which both data do not match and the number of data bytes in which they do not match are displayed, and a service call alarm is output (process 203). Then, the operation of the CPU 6 is stopped.

As described above, in this embodiment, when the data in the RAM 4 is destroyed, the block number indicating the area and the amount of data are displayed. It can be searched easily, and the restoration procedure of the device becomes easier.

Next, a facsimile apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, the facsimile apparatus of the second embodiment has the same structure and operates as shown in FIG. That is, when the power is turned on, the activation request such as the activation operation of the operator or the incoming call is monitored (process 30).
1). Then, if there is no activation request, the model-specific setting data is read from one of the blocks b1 to bm of the RAM 4 and collated with the corresponding corresponding data in the ROM 3 (process 302). Then, the collation result is judged (process 30).
3) If they match (Y in process 303), the same operation is repeated (to process 301).

Then, in the process 302, the block positions to be read are sequentially changed to blocks b1, b2 ... Bm, b1, ... And at the same time, after the final block, the block is returned to the first block. In this way, when the data inconsistency is detected (N in step 303), an error is displayed and the operation is stopped (step 304), as in step 203 in FIG.

If the above-mentioned error does not occur and a start request is made (Y in process 301), a predetermined main process is executed (process 305). This main process is, for example, an image receiving operation or an image transmitting operation. One like this
When one operation ends, the process returns to the monitoring of the activation request (to step 301).

As described above, by periodically checking the RAM 4 even after the operation of the apparatus is started, the operation can be immediately stopped when an abnormality occurs. This prevents the CPU 6 from continuing to operate in an abnormal state and further worsening the situation.

Next, a facsimile apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
It is assumed that the data d1 to dn are stored at the respective addresses of the variable area 4 of FIG.

With this configuration, the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment executes a predetermined operation according to various operations of the operator after the power is turned on. In this case, known registration / update processing such as speed dial or one-touch dial is arbitrarily executed.

In the present embodiment, the interrupt processing as shown in FIG. 8 is repeatedly executed at regular intervals after the power is turned on, regardless of whether the above-mentioned various operations are being executed or in the standby state. That is, when this interrupt process is activated, the data di of one address i is read (process 401). Address i is
A counter (not shown) managed by this interrupt process gives an instruction. Also, in this interrupt processing, 1 byte of data is stored in a specific register of the CPU 6 at the end of one operation.

After reading the data di, the 1-byte data of the register stored in the previous interrupt process is read (process 402). Then, the two data are collated (process 403), and when both match (Y in process 403), the address i is updated to the next address value of the RAM 4. The address value to be updated is incremented by 1 when the address i is less than the address of the data dn, and is returned to the address value of the data d1 when the address of the data dn is reached (process 404). And
The data di is read from the updated address i, and the data di is stored in the register (process 405).
Then, one interrupt operation is completed.

As shown in FIG. 9, the above operation is repeatedly executed at each timing T of a constant cycle. By this operation, the data d stored in the previous operation, as shown in FIG.
It will be sequentially checked whether i has not changed during the current operation.

Registration information such as a speed dial and a one-touch dial is registered in this variable area. The interrupt process is executed even while the registration / update process is being executed.
Therefore, changes in the data di are detected during execution of the registration / update processing. In addition, even when an abnormality such as a runaway of program operation occurs, the data di
May be detected.

When a change in the data di in the RAM 4 is detected in the interrupt process (N in process 403),
It is determined whether or not the registration / update process is being executed (process 406). If the registration / update process is being executed (Y in process 406), the above operation is continued (to process 404).

On the other hand, if the registration / update processing has not been executed (N in step 406), the error occurrence of the memory data is displayed and the operation is stopped (step 407).

As described above, in this embodiment, the user constantly monitors the change in the data in the variable area of the RAM 4 in which information is arbitrarily registered by the interrupt process, and when the registration / update process is not executed, When a change in data is detected, an error is displayed.

As a result, even in the variable area of the RAM 4, the data destruction can be monitored, and the data is not erased when the data destruction occurs, so that the service person can easily search for the failure and perform the recovery procedure.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the facsimile apparatus has been described as an example, but it goes without saying that the present invention can be similarly applied to various electronic devices including a RAM and a CPU.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, the CPU
The data operation of the RAM is checked by the program operation of, and when the data destruction is detected, the program operation is immediately stopped after outputting the alarm, and the data of the RAM is not erased. Since the cause of the failure can be searched from the state of the data, the device recovery procedure becomes easy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a RAM data storage area and stored data.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of data stored in a ROM and a RAM of the facsimile apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile device.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of data stored in the RAM of the facsimile apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an operation flowchart of interrupt processing in the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the interrupt processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Facsimile image processing unit 2 Communication unit 3 ROM 4 RAM 5 Operation display unit 6 CPU

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] October 7, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Brief explanation of the drawing

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a RAM data storage area and stored data.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of data stored in a ROM and a RAM of the facsimile apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile device.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of data stored in the RAM of the facsimile apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an operation flowchart of interrupt processing in the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the interrupt processing.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 1 facsimile image processing unit 2 communication unit 3 ROM 4 RAM 5 operation display unit 6 CPU

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Figure 1]

[Fig. 2]

[Figure 3]

[Figure 4]

[Figure 7]

[Figure 9]

[Figure 5]

[Figure 6]

[Figure 8]

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. In a method of controlling an electronic device, which starts normal device control after checking whether stored data in the RAM is destroyed by a CPU operating according to a program, the CPU stores the data in the RAM. A method for controlling an electronic device, which stops the operation of the program immediately after an error is displayed when data destruction is detected. 2. The method for controlling an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the CPU displays an area where the data stored in the RAM is destroyed and a data amount when the error is displayed. 3. The method for controlling an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the check operation for the destruction of the stored data is periodically executed even after the normal device control is started. 4. The stored data for checking destruction is
2. The electronic device control method according to claim 1, wherein the data is variable data that is arbitrarily registered and updated after the normal device control is started.