Patent ID: 6879206

Claim:
A formatter in a printer, said formatter comprising: a disabler circuit, the disabler circuit including: a switch electrically coupled to an input voltage and ground; a fuse electrically coupled in series with the switch between the input voltage and ground; and a resistor electrically coupled in parallel with the switch and in series with the fuse between the input voltage and ground, wherein if the switch is off, then current flows from the input voltage to ground through the resistor and the fuse, and the current is too small to blow the fuse, and wherein if the switch is on, then current flows from the input voltage to ground through the switch and the fuse, and the current is large enough to blow the fuse; an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), the application specific integrated circuit connected in series with the switch and the fuse; and a memory, the memory coupled to the application specific integrated circuit and capable of storing a value indicating that the fuse is blown, wherein the formatter will write the value into the memory indicating that the fuse has been blown.