System for servicing electronic printers and printing systems

Claim 1

A process for enhancing diagnosing of faults by a service technician when servicing an electronic printing system, said system including a printer for making prints, an input station providing print jobs in the form of electronic pages for printing, compression means for compressing said electronic pages, memory means for storing said compressed electronic pages, and a user interface providing an operator dialog to enable system users to input print program instructions in the form of an electronic job ticket for printing said print jobs, said user interface including an interactive screen for displaying said job ticket with print program selections for selection by said users, comprising the steps of: a) controlling access to said system by requiring users of said system including technicians to enter a user identification number and password; b) on entry of an authorized user identification and password by a technician, enabling said technician to access said system and program a user type print job for use as a test job for diagnosing system faults; c) limiting access of said technician to said operator dialog by displaying a special job ticket with a restricted number of print program selections that said technician is permitted to make when programming said test job; d) using said operator dialog, selecting at least one said restricted number of print program selections from the special job ticket displayed in step c whereby to program said job ticket with print program instructions for said test job; e) running said test job on said system in response to said print program instructions from said special job ticket; and f) on completion of the last run of said test job by said technician, deleting said special job ticket for said test job.