TWI493458B - Computer apparatus and reboot method thereof - Google Patents

Description

Computer device and restart method thereof

The invention relates to a computer device and a restarting method thereof, and in particular to a computer device capable of automatically restarting and a restarting method thereof.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet, the improvement of software and hardware technology, users have more and more demand for information services, and cloud technology has grown rapidly. Cloud technology represents a large computing power and storage capacity, which can use the network to obtain remote computing resources, storage resources or services when the local resources are limited.

For example, Acer Cloud, a cloud service provided by Acer, allows users to serially use PCs, tablets, smart phones and other products through the cloud system, allowing users to share and manage devices in a secure environment. Various products used by individuals. For example, users can play or browse audio and video files or files stored on their personal computers at home or in the office. Even when they are away from home, they can enjoy their favorite videos, music and photos, or instantly query and browse important documents. .

However, because the stability of the general computer is not perfect, sometimes it is due to software or hard. The defect of the body causes the computer to crash. Usually, the peripheral device such as the keyboard or the mouse is also ineffective, and the user has to manually restart the computer to return the computer to the normal state. However, because users access the computer through the cloud service, they are often not at the computer, so they cannot be manually rebooted. If the computer is dead, the user will not be able to remotely access the computer. Access, so how to make the computer automatically reboot and return to normal operation, which must be overcome for cloud technology applications.

The invention provides a computer device and a restarting method thereof, which can automatically restart the computer when the state of the computer device is abnormal, so that the computer maintains a normal working state, thereby avoiding the situation that the cloud service cannot be provided to the user.

The computer device of the present invention includes a microcontroller and a central processing unit. The microcontroller counts down the count time and restarts the computer device after the counting time is counted down. The central processing unit is coupled to the microcontroller for executing a reset program, and the reset program resets the counting time every preset period, wherein the preset period is less than the counting time.

In an embodiment of the invention, the reset program is an operating system program or a cloud service program. When the computer device is in a sleep state, the operating system program or the cloud service program periodically wakes up during a sleep period. During the period, the count time is reset during the check.

In an embodiment of the invention, the microcontroller includes a watchdog meter The timer is used to count down the time. When the computer device is in the sleep state, the microcontroller resets the counting time every preset period.

In an embodiment of the invention, the reset program is a cloud service program, and when the computer device is in an active state, the cloud service program resets the count time every preset period.

In an embodiment of the invention, the central processing unit further receives a data access request from the cloud server, and controls the computer device to transmit the data corresponding to the data access request to the cloud server.

In an embodiment of the invention, the cloud server further executes a cloud service program, and when the computer device is in an active state, the cloud service program resets the counting time every preset period.

In an embodiment of the invention, wherein the reset program enables the microcontroller to begin counting down after the computer device is turned on.

In an embodiment of the invention, wherein the resetting process disables the reciprocal executed by the microcontroller when the central processing unit receives the shutdown command.

In an embodiment of the invention, the microcontroller is an embedded controller, and the embedded controller outputs a restart signal from its general-purpose input/output to control the computer device to restart.

The method for restarting a computer device of the present invention, wherein the computer device comprises a microcontroller, and the method for restarting the computer device comprises the following steps. Enable the microcontroller to count down the countdown time. A reset program is executed, and the reset program resets the count time every preset period, wherein the preset period is less than the count time.

In an embodiment of the invention, the step of resetting the counting time every preset period includes the following steps. Determine the state of the computer device. When the computer device is active, the counting time is reset every preset period, wherein the reset program is a cloud service program.

In an embodiment of the invention, when the computer device is in a sleep state, the reset program periodically controls the computer device to wake up during an interval of sleep, and resets the counting time during the check, wherein the weight is The program is a operating system program or a cloud service program.

In an embodiment of the invention, when the computer device is in a sleep state, the counting time is reset by the microcontroller every preset period.

In an embodiment of the invention, the cloud service program is stored in a computer device or a cloud server connected to the computer device.

In an embodiment of the invention, the method for restarting the computer device further includes the following steps. It is judged that a shutdown command is received. If the shutdown command is received, the countdown performed by the microcontroller is disabled.

Based on the above, the present invention resets the counting time of the microcontroller by the operating system program or the cloud service program, so that the computer device can be automatically restarted when it is dead, thereby preventing the computer device from being in a state incapable of providing the cloud service to the user. .

The above described features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.

100‧‧‧ computer equipment

102‧‧‧Microcontroller

104‧‧‧Central Processing Unit

TS‧‧‧sleep period

TC‧‧‧ inspection period

S302~S314, S402‧‧‧Restart process steps

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer device according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the operating system when the computer device is in a sleep state according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method for restarting a computer device according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a method for restarting a computer device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer device according to an embodiment of the invention. The computer device 100 includes a microcontroller 102 and a central processing unit 104, wherein the microcontroller 102 and the central processing unit 104 are coupled to each other. The microcontroller 102 is configured to count down the count time and perform a reboot on the computer device 100 after the counting time is counted down. The microcontroller 102 can be, for example, an embedded controller (EC), when the computer device 102 is When the reboot is performed, the embedded controller can output a restart signal from its General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) to restart the computer device 100.

The central processing unit 104 is configured to enable the reset program to enable the microcontroller 102 to begin counting the countdown time after the computer device 100 is powered on. In addition, the reset program can also reset the counting time of the countdown of the microcontroller 102, which resets the counting time. The method is to reset the counting time every other preset period. The length of time of the preset period must be less than the length of time of the counting time to prevent the microcontroller 102 from performing a reboot on the computer device 102 before resetting the program reset counting time. In addition, when the computer device 100 is powered off, the central processing unit 104 disables the countdown of the microcontroller 102 by executing a reset program according to the shutdown command it receives, so as to prevent the computer device 100 from being turned off by the microcontroller 102. The countdown time is over and turned on.

Thus, when the computer device 100 is in a dead state due to a software or hardware error, the resetting program executed by the central processing unit 104 cannot reset the counting time, so the microcontroller 102 counts down after the counting time is completed. The action of rebooting will be performed. After the reboot is completed, the central processing unit 104 can normally receive the data access request from the cloud server, and control the computer device 100 to transmit the data corresponding to the data access request to the cloud server, so that the remote end can be Portable electronic devices (such as mobile phones, tablets, notebooks, etc.) can obtain the required information through cloud services such as Acer cloud. The dead situation of the computer device 100 can be, for example, the case of the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) displayed when the Microsoft Windows operating system cannot recover from the system error, or the other causes the computer device 100 to fail to provide the cloud. The situation of the service.

Further, the reset program of the reset count time executed by the central processing unit 104 can be, for example, an operating system program or a general application, such as a cloud service program. In this embodiment, the cloud service program can be used to perform heavy Set the count time. For example, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the operation of the operating system when the computer device 100 is in a sleep state according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. When the reset 100 is in the sleep state, the reset program executed by the central processing unit 104 may be an operating system program or a cloud service program, and the central processing unit 104 may wake up a check period TC every other period of sleep, and during the check period TC Execute the operating system program or the cloud service program to complete the task of resetting the counting time.

It is worth noting that the time interval during which the operating system program executes the reset count time must still be shorter than the count time to prevent the microcontroller 102 from performing a reboot of the computer device 102 before the operating system program resets the counting time. For example, if the sleep period TS is 30 seconds and the check period TC is 500 milliseconds, the count time may not be shorter than 30 seconds, in order to avoid the above-mentioned microcontroller 102 from operating the system program before resetting the counting time to the computer device. The case where the reboot is performed 102 may occur, for example, the counting time is set to be 1.5 times or 2 times the length of the sleep period TS, but not limited thereto.

In addition, the above method of resetting the counting time by using the operating system program can be applied to an operating system such as a Microsoft Windows operating system or an Android operating system without incurring additional cost, for example, it can be applied to Microsoft Windows 8 jobs. In the system's Connected Standby mode. In the Connected Standby mode of the Windows 8 operating system, the Windows 8 operating system wakes up to perform scheduled tasks after a period of sleep, such as checking for mail, documents to be printed, instant messages, and so on. After the preset task is executed, it will go to sleep again. By discharging the work of resetting the counting time of the operating system program into the task preset by the Windows 8 operating system, the computer device 100 can be in an abnormal state without increasing the hardware cost and without additionally consuming the power. Still able to The purpose of automatic reboot.

In other embodiments, if the operating system does not have a Connected Standby mode setting similar to the Windows 8 operating system, the microcontroller 102 can also reset the microcontroller when the computer device 100 is in the sleep state. The countdown time of the countdown of the watchdog timer in 102.

In addition, when the computer device 100 is in an active state, the counting time can be reset by the central processing unit 104 executing the cloud service program, that is, the counting time is reset every other preset period. It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the cloud service program may also be stored in a cloud server connected to the computer device 100 and executed by the cloud server.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method for restarting a computer device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 3. The method for resuming the above computer device 100 may include the following steps. First, after the computer device is powered on, the central processing unit executes the operating system program or the cloud service program enables the microcontroller to count down the time (step S302). Next, the central processing unit executes a reset program to reset the count time every other preset period (step S304), wherein the preset period is less than the count time. Further, step S304 may include steps S306-S310. First, the central processing unit determines the state in which the computer device is located (step S306). When the computer device is in an active state, the central processing unit executes the cloud service program to reset the counting time every preset period (step S308), wherein the cloud service program can be stored in the computer device or the cloud server connected to the computer device in. When the computer device is in a sleep state, the central processing unit executes the operating system program or the cloud service program to periodically control the computer device. The check period is woken up every sleep period, and the count time is reset during the check (step S310). The time interval for the operating system program to reset the counting time must be shorter than the counting time to prevent the microcontroller from restarting the computer device before the operating system program resets the counting time. After steps S308 and S310, the central processing unit then determines whether a shutdown command has been received (step S312). If the shutdown command has not been received, the process returns to step S306 to determine the state of the computer device. Conversely, if a shutdown command is received, the central processing unit executes a countdown performed by the cloud service program or the operating system program disable microcontroller (step S314).

It should be noted that FIG. 3 is an embodiment in which the operating system has a setting of a Connected Standby mode similar to the Windows 8 operating system, if the operating system does not have a Connected Standby similar to the Windows 8 operating system. The mode setting, the flow of the computer device reboot method can be as shown in FIG. 4. The restarting method of the embodiment of FIG. 4 is different from that of FIG. 3 in that step S310 in FIG. 3 is instead used in the embodiment of FIG. 4 to perform a work of resetting the counting time every preset period by using a microcontroller ( Step S402), the remaining steps are the same as the embodiment of FIG. 3, and therefore will not be described again.

In summary, the present invention resets the counting time of the microcontroller by using an operating system program or a cloud service program, so that the computer device can be automatically restarted in the event of a dead situation, thereby preventing the computer device from being unable to provide the cloud. The status of the service to the user. Moreover, since the above manner of resetting the count time can be applied to an operating system such as a Microsoft Windows operating system or an Android operating system, the hardware cost is not increased and additional power consumption is not increased.

S302~S314‧‧‧Restart process steps

Claims (15)

A computer device comprising: a microcontroller, counting down a count time, and performing a restart on the computer device after the counting time is counted down; and a central processing unit coupled to the microcontroller to perform a reset a program that resets the count time every preset period, wherein the preset period is less than the count time. The computer device of claim 1, wherein the reset program is an operating system program or a cloud service program, and when the computer device is in a sleep state, the operating system program or the cloud service program periodically A check period is woken up every interval of sleep, and the count time is reset during the check. The computer device of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller comprises: a watchdog timer, counting down the counting time, and when the computer device is in a sleep state, the microcontroller is preset every other time. The count time is reset during the period. The computer device of claim 1, wherein the reset program is a cloud service program, and the cloud service program resets the count time every preset period when the computer device is active. The computer device according to claim 1, wherein the central processing unit further receives a data access request from a cloud server, and controls the computer device to transmit data corresponding to the data access request to the cloud. server. The computer device according to claim 5, wherein the cloud server The device further executes a cloud service program, and when the computer device is active, the cloud service program resets the counting time every preset period. The computer device of claim 1, wherein the reset program enables the microcontroller to start counting down after the computer device is turned on. The computer device of claim 1, wherein when the central processing unit receives a shutdown command, the reset program disables a countdown performed by the microcontroller. The computer device according to claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is an embedded controller, and the embedded controller outputs a restart signal from the universal input/output port to control the computer device to restart. A method for restarting a computer device, the computer device comprising a microcontroller, the method for restarting the computer device includes: enabling the microcontroller to count down a count time; and executing a reset program, the reset program The counting time is reset every other predetermined period, wherein the preset period is less than the counting time. The method for restarting a computer device according to claim 10, wherein the step of resetting the counting time every other preset period comprises: determining a state in which the computer device is located; and when the computer device is in an active state The count time is reset every preset period, wherein the reset program is a cloud service program. The method for restarting a computer device according to claim 11, wherein the reset program periodically controls the computer device when the computer device is in a sleep state The computer device wakes up during an interval of sleep and resets the counting time during the check, wherein the reset program is an operating system program or the cloud service program. The method for restarting a computer device according to claim 11, wherein when the computer device is in a sleep state, the counting time is reset by the microcontroller every predetermined period. The method for restarting a computer device according to claim 11, wherein the cloud service program is stored in the computer device or a cloud server connected to the computer device. The method for restarting a computer device according to claim 10, further comprising: determining whether a shutdown command is received; and if the shutdown command is received, disabling the reciprocal executed by the microcontroller.