Patent ID: 7233406

Claim:
An image forming device management system in which a data communication device is connected to one or a plurality of image forming devices and a central control system is connected to the data communication device via a communication network and provides a remote maintenance of the one of the plurality of image forming devices through the communication network and the data communication device, the image forming device management system comprising the one or the plurality of image forming devices, the data communication device, and the central control system, wherein each image forming device comprises a power-source on/off control unit automatically turning on, when a communication request signal sent by the data communication device is received by the image forming device, a supplying of a power from a main power source to the image forming device concerned, and the power-source on/off control unit automatically turning off the supplying of the power from the main power source to the image forming device after a communication between the data communication device and the image forming device ends, the data communication device comprises a power-supplied portion selection unit transmitting a power-supplied portion selection signal to the image forming device concerned, so that any of a plurality of portions of the image forming device concerned are selected, in advance, in accordance with the power-supplied portion selection signal as being the power-supplied portions, and the power-source on/off control unit of the image forming device concerned automatically turning on, when the communication request signal is received by the image forming device concerned, the supplying of the power from the main power source to only the power-supplied portions of the image forming device concerned, for which power to the power-supplied portions was previously turned off, wherein the power-supplied portion selection unit is configured to contain the power-supplied portion selection signal in an internal parameter request signal with respect to the image forming device concerned, and to transmit the internal parameter request signal, containing the power-supplied portion selection signal, to the image forming device concerned, so that the image forming device concerned simultaneously receives both the internal parameter request signal and the power-supplied portion selection signal, and said internal parameter request signal includes a signal that requests information from the image forming device concerned.