JPH09244966A - Checking device for computer peripheral equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve a checking function for monitoring communication conditions with a peripheral equipment such as printer or the like provided with a bi-directional communication mode operated on a host computer. SOLUTION: A required software is stationed on the OS 2 of the host computer. Thereafter, a status checking module 6 is activated and the situation of the printer connected to the host computer is monitored successively. At the time, when no abnormality is present in the printer, a state display module 3 is operated as an environmental software on a desk top and displays a clock or the like. When an error is detected in the printer, the status checking module 6 reports the contents to the state display module 3 and the state display module 3 displays a message instead of the clock corresponding to informed contents.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a check device for monitoring a communication status with a peripheral device of a computer such as a printer having a bidirectional communication mode which operates on a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art
Peripheral devices such as printers connected to the computer are monitored based on the monitoring of resident programs and operating systems.When a problem occurs, a pop-up dialog is displayed on the display or an alarm sound is generated to notify the user. However, the effect was light enough to alert the user.

In monitoring the status of the peripheral devices of the computer, particularly when monitoring the transmission status of the printer, even if the print manager is used, a dialog indicating the operation status occupies the display during the transmission. However, it was an obstacle to other work. In addition, the ability was limited to monitoring the error, and in fact it only notified that the error occurred, and did not help the problem resolution. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer peripheral device check device that improves the peripheral device monitoring function of the computer.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer peripheral device checking device for communicating with a computer peripheral device such as a printer having a bidirectional communication mode which operates on a host computer. A check device for monitoring the situation, which normally has a means for constantly displaying a predetermined display content such as a clock on the display screen, and must notify the user when the host computer and the peripheral device are in communication. A means for displaying a predetermined message in place of the predetermined display content when an event occurs is included.

A computer peripheral device checking apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, when the above-mentioned event is a failure whose cause is unknown,
In addition to saving a log of operations until the occurrence of the failure, a means for saving the cause of the failure as a failure stack by a user's input operation after recovery from the failure and using it for notification of the next failure is included. Characterize.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer peripheral device checking device for displaying the predetermined message for reporting to a user when there are a plurality of faults having the same operation at the time of fault but different causes. The feature is that the steps are performed in a predetermined order such as frequency.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a computer peripheral device checking apparatus, when the host computer is connected to a network, if the failure is not recovered for a certain period of time, the status is transmitted to another host on the network. It is characterized by including a means for doing.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of modules of an embodiment of a computer peripheral device checking apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is hardware of a computer body such as a CPU, and 2 is an operating system (hereinafter simply referred to as OS) such as Windows (trademark) that controls the basic operation of the computer. 3 in the figure
Is a peripheral device status display module including environmental software such as a clock operating on OS2, 4 is a network connection module operating on OS2, 5 is a peripheral device status log management module operating on OS2, Reference numeral 6 is a status check module for monitoring peripheral devices. Reference numeral 7 in the figure indicates an interface (I /
F).

Next, a first example of the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a host computer A in a network in which host computers A to D are connected.
In a case where the local printer P is connected to the bi-directional Centronics or serially, the software is installed in the OS2 by installing from a medium such as a floppy disk FD as shown in FIG.
When it is made resident above, the status check module 6 is activated after that, and the state of the printer P is sequentially monitored. At this time, if no abnormality is found in the printer P, the status display module 3 operates as environmental software on the screen (desktop) of the display and displays a clock or the like (FIG. 3B). When an error is detected in the printer P, the status check module 6 notifies the status display module 3 of the content, and the status display module 3 displays a message in place of the clock according to the notified content (FIG. 3C).

A flowchart of this operation is shown in FIG.
That is, the printer P is checked (step 1), the presence or absence of an abnormality is judged (step 2), if there is no abnormality, the clock is displayed (step 3), and if there is an abnormality, the details of the trouble are checked (step 4). ), The display of the clock is hidden (step 5), and the error content is displayed (step 6).

A second example of the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described. In this example, the status check module 6 sequentially monitors the state of the printer P, and the log management module 5 saves the monitored contents as a status change log for a certain period of time. In the case of an unknown fault, the status display module 3 displays "A fault of unknown cause has occurred" or the like.
After that, when the status check module 6 notifies that the user has processed the failure and returned to the normal state, the log management module 5 prompts the user to input the failure content and saves it together with the status change log.
This way logs are saved every time an unexplained failure occurs. Next, when a similar failure occurs, the status display module 3 notifies the user of the failure content by referring to the stock of the status change log in addition to the failure identification database of the status display module 3.

A flowchart of this operation is shown in FIG.
That is, the printer P is checked (step 1), the presence or absence of an abnormality is determined (step 2), and if there is no abnormality, the check status is saved (step 3). If there is an abnormality, the status display module 3 has it. The failure content is checked in the failure identification database (step 4), it is judged whether or not there is corresponding data (step 5), and if there is the corresponding data, the failure content is displayed (step 6), and then the failure is recovered. It is judged whether or not the operation has been performed (step 7), and the process returns to the start after the recovery. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no corresponding in step 5, the past failure log stored is checked (step 8), and if there is corresponding data, the process proceeds to steps 6 and 7. A message such as "Unknown failure has occurred" is displayed (step 10). Then, in step 11, it is judged whether or not the failure is restored, the user inputs the details of the failure (step 12), the failure log is additionally stored (step 13), and the process returns to the start.

A third example of the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described. In this example, when the same status change causes a different failure, the status display module 3 calculates the frequency,
The failure with the higher frequency is displayed as "Problem of XX with probability XX%."

A flowchart of this operation is shown in FIG.
That is, the printer P is checked (step 1), the presence or absence of an abnormality is determined (step 2), and if there is no abnormality, the check of step 1 is repeated, and if there is an abnormality, the past failure log stored is checked. (Step 3), it is judged whether the cause of the failure is one (Step 4), and if there is one cause, the cause is displayed (Step 5). Check the number of occurrences in the past (step 6), calculate the failure occurrence probability (step 7), and based on that, "probability p% is cause A"
Are displayed (step 8). The calculation of the occurrence probability may be performed by an appropriate method. For example, if the cause A is x times, the cause B is y times, and x ≧ y.

## EQU1 ## It can be obtained as p = x / (x + y) * 100 (%).

A fourth example of the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described. In this example, when a failure occurs on the local printer P in the connection environment as shown in FIG. 2, the status display module 3 displays the failure content on the host computer A as described above and requests recovery. If not restored for a certain period of time, the failure content is transmitted from the network output module 4 to the other host computers B to D connected to the network.

A flowchart of this operation is shown in FIG.
That is, the printer P is checked (step 1), the presence or absence of an abnormality is judged (step 2), if there is no abnormality, the check of step 1 is repeated, and if there is an abnormality, the contents of the trouble are displayed (step 3). After that, a predetermined time is counted while determining whether or not the failure is recovered (step 4), and if the time-out occurs without the recovery of the failure during that time, the failure content is transmitted to the network and the host computer A Even if the user is absent, it is expected that the user of another host computer will be able to recover from the failure.

[0017]

Since the computer peripheral device checking apparatus according to claim 1 is as described above,
By hiding the status check dialog of peripheral devices such as printers with environment software such as clocks, it is possible to reduce unnecessary display on the screen (desktop) of the display and prevent it from disturbing work. There is an effect.

In addition to the above-mentioned common effects, the computer peripheral device checking apparatus according to the second and third aspects of the present invention can display a failure displayed as "unknown cause" because the user can easily save measures for the failure of unknown cause. This reduces the troubles and the trouble of investigating the cause makes it easier to deal with the trouble.

In addition to the above-mentioned common effects, the checking device for computer peripherals according to a fourth aspect of the present invention can prevent the occurrence of a trouble even if a trouble occurs at the time of leaving the seat during mass printing by the printer. This has the effect of making it easy for the user to know and being able to resolve the problem quickly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of modules of an embodiment of a computer peripheral device checking apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining the operation of the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
It is a figure showing the form which connected a plurality of host computers to a network.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing installation (A) of a program in a host computer and display contents (B) in a normal state and display contents (C) when a failure occurs in the apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first example of the operation of the device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a second example of the operation of the device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a third example of the operation of the device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a fourth example of the operation of the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Hardware consisting of CPU, etc. 2 Operating system 3 Module for status display of peripheral devices 4 Module for network connection 5 Module for status log management 6 Module for status check 7 Interfaces A to D Host computer FD Floppy disk P Printer

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A check device for monitoring a communication status with a computer peripheral device such as a printer having a bidirectional communication mode which operates on a host computer, and normally displays a predetermined display content such as a clock at all times. Means for displaying on the screen, and means for displaying a predetermined message in place of the predetermined display content when an event that must be reported to the user occurs during the communication state between the host computer and the peripheral device. A device for checking computer peripherals characterized by including. 2. When the event is a failure whose cause is unknown, a log of operations up to the occurrence of the failure is saved, and
2. The computer peripheral device checking device according to claim 1, further comprising means for storing the cause of the failure as a failure stack by an input operation by a user after the failure recovery and utilizing it for notification of the next failure. 3. When a plurality of faults having the same action at the time of a fault and different causes are displayed, the predetermined message for reporting to the user is displayed in a predetermined order such as frequency. The computer peripheral device checking device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. When the host computer is connected to the network, the system further comprises means for transmitting the status to another host on the network if the failure is not recovered for a certain period of time. A computer peripheral device checking device according to any one of 1 to 3.