Patent ID: 8451468

Claim:
A processor comprising: an obtaining unit that obtains abnormality information related to an abnormality from an image forming device in which the abnormality occurs; an abnormality information storing unit that stores the abnormality information obtained by the obtaining unit as history information; a failure position information storing unit that stores failure position information for each phenomenon related to the abnormality; an extracting unit that extracts the failure position information corresponding to the latest abnormality information and abnormality information similar to the latest abnormality information among the abnormality information stored in the abnormality information storing unit from the failure position information storing unit; and an output unit that outputs an extracted result extracted by the extracting unit as specific deciding information of a cause related to the occurring abnormality, wherein the abnormality information includes at least information showing the occurring abnormality and information showing a position where the abnormality occurs, the failure position information for each phenomenon related to the abnormality corresponds to a result obtained by substituting parameters including at least the information showing the occurring abnormality and the information showing the position where the abnormality occurs for a conditional expression and calculating the conditional expression, and the extracting unit substitutes parameters of the latest abnormality information and the abnormality information similar to the latest abnormality information respectively for the conditional expression and calculates the conditional expression to extract the failure position information corresponding to the abnormality information from the failure position information storing unit.