SMD code search: identify a part by its marking

1 part in X2SON is printed MM

Not sure which one you have?

Answer up to 4 quick questions and these 2 parts are ranked, with a meter test that settles it. It works on a dead part too.

TPS7A20135PDQNX2SONLDO regulator, Texas InstrumentsLDO regulatorTexas Instruments
What it is
LDO regulator
Maker
Texas Instruments
Package
X2SON
Pins
4
Details
300mA, Ultra-Low-Noise, Low-IQ, High PSRR LDO
Source
From the manufacturer's datasheet
Is it dead?
Voltage, board powered, black probe on ground. Then ohms with the power off.
Working, it reads
Input pin at the supply, output pin at its rated voltage, and the enable pin high if it has one.
Dead, it reads
Output equal to the input: the pass element has shorted. Everything after it may have taken the full input.
Input present, enable high, no output: failed open, or holding itself off into a shorted load. Power off and measure output to ground.
Power off, input to output near 0 Ω: shorted.
On the board:
An output at 0 V is often a shorted load with the regulator in current limit. Lift the output pin: if the short stays on the board, the regulator may be fine.
Compare:
The same regulator on another rail or another board shows the right voltages and the right resistances.
Watch for:
Makers put input, output and ground on different pins in the same package, so take them from this part's datasheet. Diode or ohms readings between its pins say little; check it powered.
A dead part still carries its marking. A short or an open says it has failed, not that it is a different part.
Datasheetfor TPS7A20135PDQN, opens in a new tab
1 more part has no package on record. Nothing rules it out, so it stays.
- BAR64-02LPIN diode, InfineonPIN diodeInfineon
  What it is
  PIN diode
  Maker
  Infineon
  Package
  Not recorded
  Pins
  Not recorded
  Source
  From the manufacturer's datasheet
  Is it dead?
  Diode range, part lifted or one leg off the pad. Red probe on the anode.
  Working, it reads
  About 0.6 to 0.9 V anode to cathode, and open the other way.
  Dead, it reads
  The same reading both ways round, near 0 V with a continuous beep or the same middling value: shorted.
  Open both ways: failed open.
  On the board
  this is a first look only: the meter reads every path between those pins, and a short can be a neighbour. Lift one leg before you condemn it.
  Compare:
  If an identical part sits elsewhere on the board, measure it the same way: that is what this one should read.
  Watch for:
  A varicap that has drifted in capacitance reads normal on a meter. Only a capacitance meter or the tuning itself shows it.
  A dead part still carries its marking. A short or an open says it has failed, not that it is a different part.
  Datasheetfor BAR64-02L, opens in a new tab

One code, several parts

Marking codes are not unique. In the standard code book, 6H on a SOT-23 is an NPN transistor, a varicap, an N-channel JFET, two digital transistors, a 3.6 V voltage detector: six parts from five makers. So a search shows the parts we hold under that code and under codes easily misread as it, with only the columns that tell them apart.

6Hon a SOT-23, in the code book

NPN transistor
Varicap
N-channel JFET
Digital transistor ×2
3.6 V voltage detector

When more than one is left

Tap Help me choose. Up to 4 quick answers: whether the part has failed, then what separates the parts left. Those get ranked with the reasoning and a test that settles it. That uses one identification: 2 a month are free without an account, and 3 with a free account.

When you cannot read it

Tap the camera in the field. We read the characters, keep the ones we are unsure of, and search every reading. A photo too soft to read is turned back on your phone first; if it is the only one you can get, you can still send it.