Every laptop motherboard carries a code from the company that designed it, and that code — not the laptop model — is what schematics, boardviews and BIOS dumps are filed under. Five formats cover most Windows laptops; a handful more cover Apple, Samsung, Asus and desktop boards. Here is how to read each of them.

Why ODM codes exist

Most laptop brands do not design their own motherboards. They contract original design manufacturers (ODMs) — Compal, Quanta, Wistron, Inventec, LCFC, Pegatron, Foxconn and others — who design and build the board and number it in their own system. The brand then puts its own sticker on it with a spare-part number for its service network.

For repair work, the ODM code wins: one design may be sold under several brand part numbers and fitted to several models, but it has one schematic. Our guide on who makes laptop motherboards covers the companies themselves.

Compal: LA-xxxxP

Compal codes are LA- followed by four characters and a closing P:

  • LA-6753P, LA-9912P — older designs with four digits;
  • LA-B091P, LA-D312P, LA-F401P, LA-L246P — newer designs where the first character is a letter.

Small boards that belong to the same project — USB/audio boards, power button boards, touchpad boards — use the LS-xxxxP pattern. Do not confuse an LS- daughterboard code with the motherboard.

Compal file names usually add a platform name before the code (AAU30 LA-D312P, ZIWB3 LA-B091P, Q5WV1 LA-7912P) and a revision such as Rev 1.0. Dell boards also carry a build stage in brackets, for example (A00) or (A02). Browse all Compal LA- boards in the catalog.

LCFC: NM-xxxx

LCFC is Lenovo's laptop manufacturing company, which grew out of a joint venture with Compal. Its boards are numbered NM- plus a letter and three or four digits: NM-A841, NM-B451, NM-C711, NM-D362, NM-E481. You will find this format on most recent IdeaPad, Legion and Yoga boards and on many ThinkPads.

File names usually put a platform code first — CG521 NM-A841, DY720 NM-B151, ET481 NM-B471 — and one NM- board often covers several model numbers in the same series, such as the 14-inch and 15-inch versions.

Quanta: DA0xxxMBxxx

Quanta part numbers pack several pieces of information into one string. Take DA0R63MB6F1:

DA0 R63 MB 6 F 1Quantaboard platform mainboard PCBinfo revisionletter
Anatomy of a Quanta part number. The revision letter (F here) usually matches "REV F" in file names.
  • DA0 (or just DA when the platform has four characters, as in DAG35AMB8E0) marks a Quanta board.
  • R63 is the platform code. Quanta engineers and file names often refer to the board by this alone — "Quanta R63".
  • MB means mainboard. Other letters in that position mark smaller boards of the same project on some designs.
  • The suffix carries PCB details; the letter in it usually indicates the revision, so …MB6F1 is revision F.

Boards that differ only in the revision letter share one page in our catalog, with each file's revision shown next to it.

Inventec: 6050Axxxxxxx

Inventec board numbers are 6050A followed by seven digits — 6050A2412601, 6050A2945701 — usually with -MB-A01, -MB-A02 and so on after them. That suffix is the board revision. Inventec projects also have codenames (city names and other words) that appear in schematic titles and file names. Inventec designs are common in HP laptops and in older Toshiba and Acer machines.

Wistron: project numbers and 448 part numbers

Wistron uses two kinds of numbers, and a file name may contain either or both:

  • Project number — five digits plus a revision: 13269-1, 15341-1, 17841-1. The first two digits roughly track the year the project started.
  • PCB part number — 448.0AB06.0011 on newer boards, 48.4xxxx.xxx on older ones.

A file named MB 16820-1 448.0AB06.0011 refers to one board by both numbers. Wistron also uses project codenames, which show up in Dell and Lenovo file names.

Other formats you will meet

FormatWhoExampleNotes
820-xxxx(x)Apple820-00244, 820-2915-BThe A-number on the case is the model, not the board
BA41-xxxxxASamsungBA41-01662ACodenames like Petronas or Scala in schematic titles
MBX-xxxSony VAIOMBX-258An ODM code may also be printed on the same board
60Nxxxxx-MBxxxxAsus60NB0IQ0-MB1100First part = design, tail = configuration
MS-xxxxMSIMS-16J1, MS-78217xxx desktop, 1xxx laptop
6-71-xxxxx-xxxClevo6-71-NH5P0-D02Used by many white-label gaming laptops
Model + REVAsus, Gigabyte, ASRockX540MB REV 2.0, GA-H61M-DS2 rev 1.1Board named after the model

Three codes read from real file names

File names in the catalog show how these formats appear in practice:

  1. DELL_Latitude_7370_AAU30_LA_D312P_REV_3_0A02 — a Dell Latitude 7370 board designed by Compal. AAU30 is the platform, LA-D312P the board code, revision 3.0, build stage A02. Search LA-D312P; the platform name is a useful fallback.
  2. HP_G6_Inventec_RKY15DN_6050A2412601_MB_A02 — an HP Pavilion g6 board designed by Inventec. RKY15DN is Inventec's project name, 6050A2412601 the board number, MB-A02 the revision. Search the seven digits after 6050A if the name is written oddly.
  3. Lenovo_Thinkpad_T570_LTS_1_MB_16820_1_448_0AB06_0011 — a ThinkPad T570 board designed by Wistron. 16820-1 is the project number with revision 1, and 448.0AB06.0011 the PCB part number. Either number finds the board.

Notice how much the names vary even when they describe the same kind of information. Underscores replace dashes, revisions are glued to build stages, and codenames appear in different places. That is why the catalog normalises names before matching, and why searching the bare code usually works better than pasting a whole file name.

Common misreadings

  • Reading O for 0. Quanta codes start with DA0 (zero), but file names often show DAO. Both mean the same board.
  • Taking the daughterboard code. An LS- code on a small board under the keyboard is not the motherboard.
  • Ignoring the revision letter. DA0R63MB6D0 and DA0R63MB6F1 are revisions D and F of the same Quanta board; files for one are usually close to, but not identical with, the other.
  • Mixing the Wistron project number with a date. A five-digit number followed by -1 is a project code, not a date or a serial number.

How to use the code when searching

  1. Search the code exactly as printed. Dashes and spaces do not matter in the catalog search.
  2. If nothing comes up, search the platform part alone — R63, AAU30, CG521.
  3. For Quanta, try both DA0R63 and R63; for Wistron, try both the project number and the 448 number.
  4. When you find a board page, compare the revision of each file with the one on your PCB.

The full process, including how to confirm a schematic matches your board, is in How to Find the Right Schematic for Your Laptop Motherboard.

FAQ

Is the board code the same as the FRU or spare part number?

No. The FRU (Lenovo), DP/N (Dell) or spare part number (HP) on the sticker is the brand's ordering number for a specific board variant. The board code printed on the PCB comes from the ODM and is what technical documents use.

Can two different brands use the same board code?

Yes. Compal and Quanta in particular design boards that end up in machines from different brands, and acquired or sister brands (Acer, eMachines, Packard Bell, Gateway) often share boards.

What does the P at the end of a Compal code mean?

It is simply part of Compal's numbering format for printed circuit board projects; every motherboard code ends with it. Daughterboards use LS- with the same closing P.

Why does one model have several board codes?

Because the brand used different designs for different CPUs, graphics options or production runs. Each design has its own code and its own schematic.

Bottom line

Learn to spot the five big patterns — LA-, NM-, DA0, 6050A and Wistron's project numbers — and the code on any laptop board tells you who designed it and where to find its documents. Note the revision alongside it, and searching becomes a matter of seconds.