INTEGRETED CIRCUITS

  

Letter that symbolizes the Integrated circuits (IC) on the motherboard is U and may have another letters PU.

EEPROM

An EEPROM short for (electrically erasable programmable ROM) it is an integrated circuit (IC). In terms of applications, stores information that can only be read. Modifying it is either very difficult, EEPROM is also a type of non-volatile storage, which means that the information is maintained even if the component loses power. In the picture below, is an example of what a EEPROM chip may look like on your laptop motherboard.

It contains the basic instructions for what needs to happen when a laptop is powered on. This is typically referred to as the firmware of a laptop. The firmware represents the basic code to get the laptop started. Firmware is also referred to as BIOS or basic input/output system. The BIOS also includes a test referred to as a POST (Power on Self-Test) which will ensure that the laptop meets requirements to boot up properly. If the laptop does not pass the POST you will receive an error message which may be text on the display screen and/or a series of coded beeps, depending on the nature of the problem. Since POST runs before the laptop's video card is activated, it may not be possible to progress to the display screen. The pattern of beeps may be a variable number of short beeps or a mixture of long and short beeps, depending on what type of BIOS is installed.

Three Common forms of EEPROM in the laptop motherboard

Some example of (EEPROM) BIOS chip and their location in the laptop motherboard

 

 

TSSOP-8 Package           PLCC32 Package