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Electronic device and program storage mediumElectronic device and program storage medium description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070217920, Electronic device and program storage medium. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001]1. Field of the Invention [0002]The present invention relates to a an electronic device which is cooled by an air flow generated by rotation of a built-in fan and a program storage medium in which a program executed by the electronic device is stored. [0003]2. Background Art [0004]In a conventional art, when a heat-generating part which generates heat with operation must be mounted in an electronic device, position arrangement of the heat-generating part in the electronic device is schemed, or, if the cooling is not satisfied by scheming the position arrangement, the heat-generating part is cooled by an air flow generated around the heat-generating part. [0005]For example, in an electronic device such as a server or a personal computer, heat generation from an LSI (Large Scale Integration: large-scale integrated circuit) constituting the circuit of a CPU is high. The upper-limit temperature of operation guarantee is not too high, for example, about 95.degree. C. When the LSI strongly generates heat, the operation of the LSI becomes unstable, or the LSI may be damaged by heat to make the electronic device nonusable. Some LSI has a function of degrading the performance to suppress further heat generation when the LSI generates heat to a predetermined temperature. In order to maintain the performance of an LSI and avoid damage, a cooling heat-radiating fin is attached to the LSI, and a fan is arranged in the electronic device. An air flow is generated by the fan to air-cool the LSI. [0006]As such a fan, a fan which blows air out of an electronic device through an exhaust port arranged on the housing of the electronic device or a fan which blows air into an electronic device through an intake port arranged on the housing of the electronic device are known. In addition, an electronic device in which a filter which removes foreign matter such as dust or dirt in air passing through an exhaust port or an intake port is arranged on the exhaust port or the intake port is known. [0007]However, even though such a filter is arranged on the exhaust port or the intake port, if foreign matter is collected on the filter to clog the filter, it is difficult to generate necessary, sufficient air flow in air-cooling by the fan. For this reason, a heat-radiating part is damaged by heat, or the heat-radiating part excessively generates heat, so that the heat-radiating part may take fire. Therefore, it is necessary to clean the filter regularly. [0008]As a technique related to clean the filter is proposed a technique which determines whether an accumulation of operation time for which an electronic device operates exceeds a predetermined threshold value and which gives a warning aiming at urging a user to clean the filter in response to a determination result that the accumulated operation time exceeds the threshold value (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 3-8407). [0009]As a technique related to cleaning of a filter, for example, the following technique is also proposed. That is, a rate of a change in an in-device temperature measured by changing a rotating speed of the fan in a cleaned filter state is recorded and stored in advance. In this state, when start of detection of filter clogging is designated according to an operation, the rotating speed of the fan is changed, and the in-device temperature is measured. A change rate of the in-device temperature is calculated on the basis of the measured temperature, and the calculated change rate and the change rate of the in-device temperature recorded and stored in advance are compared with each other to determine the necessity of filter cleaning. In response to a determination result that the filter cleaning is necessary, the necessity of the filter cleaning is displayed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-64329). [0010]According to the technique proposed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 3-8407, since a filter may be cleaned when a warning aiming at urging a user to clean the filter is given, the user can know time for cleaning without being conscious of the time for cleaning of the filter in use of an electronic device, and the filter can be periodically cleaned. [0011]In this case, as a fan mounted on an electronic device, a fan which repeats rotation and stop depending on a temperature of a heat-generating part and the rotation speed of which changes as needed in rotation is generally used. However, in the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 3-8407, time for cleaning of a filter is determined depending on only operation time of the electronic device. For this reason, the technique can cope with an electronic device in which a fan which always rotates at a predetermined rotating speed is arranged. However, when the technique is applied to an electronic device in which a fan which repeats rotation and stop depending on a temperature of a heat-generating part and the rotating speed of which changes as needed in rotation is arranged, correct time for cleaning of the filter cannot be determined, disadvantageously. [0012]According to the technique proposed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-64329, when detection of filter clogging is designed depending on an operation, a user can be automatically notified of a determination whether the filter must be cleaned. For this reason, even an ordinary user except for a maintenance people can know the necessity of filter cleaning. [0013]However, in the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-64329, since determination whether the filter must be cleaned is executed depending on an operation of designating detection of filter clogging, when a state in which the operation is not executed continues for a long period of time, foreign matter is collected on the filter without notifying a user of the necessity of the filter cleaning, and the filter may be clogged. As a result, it is difficult to generate an air flow necessary and sufficient for air-cooling by a fan. A heat-generating part may be damaged by heat, or the heat-generating part may excessively generate heat to take fire. [0014]Furthermore, in the technique proposed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-64329, at an environmental temperature at which an out-of-device temperature (to be referred to as an environmental temperature hereinafter) obtained when a change rate of an in-device temperature recorded and stored in advance is measured and an environmental temperature obtained when a change rate of an in-device temperature calculated depending on an operation are almost equal to each other, the necessity of filter cleaning is correctly determined. However, at an environmental temperature at which the environmental temperatures are considerably different from each other, the change rate calculated depending on the operation is influenced by the difference between the environmental temperatures. In such a determination result using the change rate, the necessity of filter cleaning may not be correctly determined. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015]The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides an electronic device which can correctly and reliably notify a user of time for cleaning of a fan itself arranged on the electronic device or time for cleaning of a filter arranged in an exhaust port or an intake port of the electronic device and a program storage medium in which a program which gives the function to the electronic device is stored. [0016]According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic device in which a fan is built to perform air-cooling by an air flow generated by rotation of the fan, including: [0017]an accumulated rotation number calculating section which calculates an accumulated rotation number of the fan; [0018]a determining section which determines whether the accumulated rotation number calculated by the accumulated rotation number calculating section exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and [0019]a warning section which gives a warning in response to a determination result that the accumulated rotation number exceeds the threshold value, the determination result being obtained by the determination section. [0020]In this case, the fan arranged in the electronic device generally repeats rotation and stop depending on a temperature of a heat-generating part mounted in the electronic device, and a rotating speed of the fan changes as needed in rotation. Therefore, a cumulative amount of foreign matter such as dust or dirt collected on a filter arranged on an exhaust port or an intake port of the electronic device is in proportion to a total volume of an air flow generated by the fan, i.e., the accumulated rotation number of the fan. [0021]The electronic device according to the present invention determines whether the calculated accumulated rotation number of the fan exceeds the predetermined threshold value and gives a warning in response to the determination result that the accumulated rotation number exceeds the threshold value. Therefore, according to the electronic device of the present invention, since the warning is given on the basis of the accumulated rotation number being in proportion to the cumulative amount of foreign matter collected on the fan itself or the filter, time for cleaning of the fan itself or the filter can be correctly and reliably notified. [0022]In this case, in the electronic device according to the present invention, Continue reading about Electronic device and program storage medium... Full patent description for Electronic device and program storage medium Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Electronic device and program storage medium patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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