Question I found a tiny 6-pin component on my workbench - - - what could it be ?

[bit_user]

After upgrading a machine, I moved it from my work area to its normal location. Afterwards, I noticed a tiny, black, rectangular surface-mount component with 6 pins. It's 2 mm long and small enough that I almost didn't recognize it as an electronic component. I tried to take photos, but it looks totally nondescript. There might be some writing on it, but it's extremely faint, in even my best photos in the brightest light.

I searched out the highest-res board photos I could find and looked for anything like it, then tried to check my own board, to see if it looked the same. So far, I have yet to find any spot on my motherboard where such a component is missing, but it does have lots which look similar.

It doesn't seem to be from my old motherboard or the graphics card, neither of which have similar components which are quite that small. It can't be there from before the upgrade, since I dusted off the work area before I started. It's also not from the SSD, since I had completely encased that in a wraparound-style heatsink, previously. I always try to be careful about dropping things on the board or hitting it with screw drivers, but I think that probably happened a couple times. I thought I got lucky, but maybe not.

So, I guess I'm wondering what sorts of malfunctions I might keep an eye out for, which could be related to a chip like that getting knocked off of the board.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I tried to take photos, but it looks totally nondescript.

Can you share any of those photos?

 

[Moonstick2]

Looking up 6-pin ICs, there are (unsurprisingly) lots of possibilities. Most seem to be power-related: some form of driver, corrector, convertor or switch. Did find a flip-flop that happened to be 2 mm.

So...feels unlikely that it would be utterly critical. Chances are that it has some kind of regulation purpose where you won't even notice its absence. Some people might say at this point 'but why would they spend money putting it there if it's not important??', but (a) such components can be merely the difference between something purring along super smooth or running slightly rougher in a way you'd only detect with an oscilloscope, and (b) you're unlikely to stretch every single function of your motherboard so if this is related to e.g. SATA port 6 or a USB that never runs anything more taxing than a mouse it might never effect you.

All you can do is look out for any abnormal behaviour, and even then that doesn't mean it's related to this specific component. If the PC boots and doesn't start falling over immediately you're probably already 95% of the way there to not needing to worry about it.