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.

A communication device includes a first holding unit which holds a disk-like first recording medium capable of storing information and a second holding unit which holds a second recording medium which is different from the first recording medium. The communication device further includes a request reception unit configured to receive a request for information indicating a recording medium which is usable by the communication device from a terminal device, and a transmission unit configured to transmit information indicating the first recording medium and information indicating the second recording medium held by the second holding unit to the terminal device when the request is received.

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 communication apparatus comprises: a sending unit that sends data to a designated destination; a receiving unit that receives a response to the send by the sending unit; a recording unit that records information relating to a send when the send is performed by the sending unit, and associates and records, when a response to the send is further received by the receiving unit, information of a send-source of the response; and a control unit that causes the sending unit to resend data based on information recorded in the recording unit, wherein the control unit causes the sending unit to resend data to a destination indicated by information, among the recorded information, for which a predetermined time has elapsed since the recording and for which a response has not been received by the receiving unit.

A control method for an image forming apparatus configured to perform transmission of information includes performing retransmission of the information a predetermined number of times in a case where the transmission of the information fails, wherein an entry about the retransmission of the information is added to a notification table managed by the image forming apparatus, clearing the entry from the notification table, in a case where the retransmission of the information is completed the predetermined number of times or a case where the image forming apparatus receives a response to the retransmission of the information, and clearing the entry from the notification table in a case where user information necessary for the retransmission of the information is changed.

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 method to diagnosis an electro-mechanical part on an image forming device comprises: determining an incident count for a first time interval for the electro-mechanical part; determining if the incident count for the first time interval exceeds a first threshold level; marking the incident count as a high rate if the incident count exceeds the first threshold level; marking the incident count as a low rate if the incident count is more than 0 but equal to or less than the first threshold level; marking the incident count as a zero rate if the incident count is equal to 0; monitoring the electro-mechanical part for a second time interval, wherein the second time interval is a plurality of first time intervals; cumulating a number of first time intervals with the low rate during the second time intervals; and marking the electro-mechanical part as needing to be one of repaired or serviced when the number of first time intervals with the low rate during the second time intervals exceeds a second threshold level.

A method of diagnosing a printer's status using an encoded image printed and/or displayed by the printer. The printer can produce an encoded image, such as a barcode, that indicates status values in one or more categories. A client device with a camera, such as a smartphone, can take a picture of the encoded image and transmit it to a printer status server. The printer status server can analyze the status values encoded in the encoded image to diagnose problems with the printer, and can return applicable user instructions indicating how to fix and/or prevent the problems.

An image output apparatus includes an image printer, a history memory, and a history display. The image printer prints an image based on image data in accordance with adjunct data for each job including a set of the image data expressing one set of images and the adjunct data necessary for image printing based on, the image data. The history memory records and stores printing history of printing performed, for each job in the image printer. The printing history includes recording of whether or not any one of predetermined types of errors has occurred and the type of error when occurred. The history display displays the history such that an icon corresponding to an error occurred in a job is displayed in correspondence with the job. The icon is one of icons respectively corresponding to groups obtained by classifying the predetermined types of errors into multiple groups.