A multifunction peripheral includes: a failure detection unit configured to detect a failure that occurs in a plurality of driven units; and a candidate extraction unit configured to collate, when the failure is detected, audio collection data collected by an audio collection unit with failure audio data and extract a first candidate for a component that causes the failure, to specify a component in a driven state immediately before the failure occurs based on operation history and correspondence data and extract the specified component as a second candidate for the component that causes the failure, and to set a candidate for the component that causes the failure based on the component extracted as the first candidate and the component extracted as the second candidate.

An information processing apparatus including a storage device obtains an energized time to the storage device in a standby state where no job is being executed and a number of accesses to the storage device during the standby state. The information processing apparatus provides a display relating to a lifetime of the storage device based on the energized time and the number of accesses to the storage device.

An information processing apparatus includes a display screen and a display controller. The display screen displays a first message corresponding to a first event occurring in the information processing apparatus. The display controller controls, in a case where a second event occurs while the first message is being displayed on the display screen, a display mode of a second message corresponding to the second event, based on a relationship between the first event and the second event.

A communication apparatus capable of wireless communication with an external apparatus includes at least one processor, and at least one memory storing a program which is executed by the at least one processor to cause the communication apparatus to broadcast an advertisement signal prior to establishing a connection by wireless communication with the external apparatus, set an output radio wave intensity for which an advertisement signal is broadcast for a type of error which occurs in the communication apparatus, and determine a type of error that occurred in the communication apparatus. When an error occurs in the communication apparatus, the type of error that occurred is determined and an advertisement signal that includes information indicating that the error occurred is broadcasted at an output radio wave intensity set for the type of error.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a first reader/writer device, a second reader/writer device, and a control unit. The first reader/writer device executes a wireless read/write operation on a wireless tag and is positioned in a sheet conveying path upstream of the image forming unit. The second reader/writer device executes a wireless read/write operation on a wireless tag and is positioned in the sheet conveying path downstream of the image forming unit. The control unit controls the image forming unit, the first reader/writer device, and the second reader/writer device. The control unit controls the second reader/writer device to perform an operation to detect a defect in a wireless tag that is included in a sheet as the sheet is conveyed along the sheet conveying path past the location of the second reader/writer device.

An electronic apparatus includes a plurality of processing devices, and a power controller. The power controller is configured to control power supply fed to each of the processing devices. Each of the processing devices includes a detector configured to detect occurrence of an anomaly and a notifier configured to send a notification of the occurrence of the anomaly. Upon receiving the notification from the notifier, the power controller restarts the electronic apparatus by turning off and thereafter turning on the power supply of the plurality of processing devices.

A billing system includes an operation unit, a determination unit, an extraction unit, a first calculator, and a second calculator. The operation unit receives an operation for executing a function provided by one device of a plurality of devices. The determination unit determines whether the one device is available for the function associated with the operation received by the operation unit. The extraction unit extracts another device that is available for the function as a substitute for the one device when the determination unit determines that the one device is not available for the function. The first calculator calculates a fee for the function to be executed by the other device. The second calculator calculates a total billed amount based on the fee calculated by the first calculator and content executed by the other device when the function is executed by the other device.

The invention backups job data, and detects and predicts the occurrence of trouble in a storage device. A gateway registers job data registered in a HDD and vibration-detection information of a vibration-detection sensor received from a user terminal in a memory, and then transmits the job data to a MFP. The MFP registers the job data in a HDD, and according to a request from the gateway, transmits the job data registered in the HDD and vibration-detection information of a vibration-detection sensor to the gateway. The gateway compares the data amount of when the job data is registered in the memory and the data amount of the job data from the gateway, and when there is a difference, registers trouble information related to the HDD in the memory.

A system and method for communicating printer errors from a small printer to a nearby NFC-enabled device are provided. A printer has an NFC tag which is configured to store information on a recent print error. A nearby NFC-enabled device (such as a cell phone with a suitable app) can read the print error from the printer, and so identify the print error for a user or technician. Once the print error has been fixed or corrected, the error is cleared from the NFC tag, enabling the tag to store the next printer error that may occur. In an alternative embodiment, the tag may store multiple print errors, with an oldest error being deleted as the tag's memory becomes full, to make room for new error data. In an embodiment, the NFC tag may store other printer status data as well, and the NFC-enabled device may be configured to report the additional data.

A fax function diagnosis method and an apparatus for performing the method are provided. The fax function diagnosis method includes receiving a diagnosis request to diagnose a fax function of an image forming apparatus, diagnosing the fax function of the image forming apparatus by transmitting or receiving a test page, and performing an operation based on a result of the diagnosing.