Patent ID: 8547200

Claim:
A method for operating a home appliance, the method comprising: comparing, when an operation setting is input and an activation key is input, a post-error operation count with a reference count and maintaining stored diagnostic data included in product information when the post-error operation count is equal to or less than the reference count; starting operation of the home appliance according to the operation setting and temporarily storing data generated during the operation; discarding the temporarily stored data and maintaining the diagnostic data when the operation is completed according to the operation setting; storing, when an error has occurred before the operation is completed, the temporarily stored data as the diagnostic data to update the diagnostic data using data regarding the error; generating, when a command to perform fault diagnosis is input, the product information using the diagnostic data and encoding and modulating the product information and then outputting the product information as a sound signal through a sound output device; initializing the diagnostic data excluding count related data when the post-error operation count has exceeded the reference count; and temporarily storing data generated during the operation according to the operation setting after initializing the diagnostic data and storing the temporarily stored data as the diagnostic data in a memory when an initial operation time has elapsed.