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Rocket science: season 1, ep 1 - how to plug in the power and reset connectors.

S

-Slacker-

Golden Member
So, since my motherboard's manual is, apparently, trying to be as cryptic as possible about how to properly install it into my machine, I thought I'd ask people who had to deal with this kind of bullshit; I almost finished putting my new build together (no thanks to the manual), except for plugging in the power and reset connectors from the case.

Granted, I know where they're supposed to go in, but I have no idea what way they're supposed to face because they're perfectly symmetrical and can fit in fine in both directions.

Here's the manual of my mobo; The power and reset switch slots are item #22 on page 10.

http://europe.asrock.com/manual/M3A770DE.pdf

Edit: the connectors are marked with "power sw" and "reset sw" respectively.

Halp!
 
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Yeah so I figured out just now ... I can pretty much plug them in to face any direction ... but now I have another dilemma: the LED power and HDD connectors need to be arranged according to their "+" (red wire) and "-"(black wire) charges. I'm stomped.
 
-Slacker- said:
Yeah so I figured out just now ... I can pretty much plug them in to face any direction ... but now I have another dilemma: the LED power and HDD connectors need to be arranged according to their "+" (red wire) and "-"(black wire) charges. I'm stomped.
Click to expand...

Just as a rule of thumb, when i assemble machines, i ALWAYS face the wording on the plastic connectors themselves OUTWARD from the center of the pin cluster, so for example, top row wording faces UP, bottom row faces down, etc. I've never had one on the wrong way following this practice. Course, even though ive dealt with, and built hundreds of machines, its still a small percentage of all boards. But, as far as I know, if you put one on wrong it wont fry anything.
 
The details of the connector are shown later in the "System Panel Header" diagram on Page 25. Note that the plastic connectors on the wires pretty much NEVER go ACROSS these connectors. The plastic connectors on the ends of the wires are all parallel to the long direction of the connector.

If you get the + and - pins backwards, the worst thing that will happen is that particular LED won't light up properly. In that case, flip the connector the other way.

Note also that there's one particular wire connector (the Power LED connector) that used to always be a three-pin connector with wires in pins 1 and 3. Later, the connector on the motherboard became a two-pin-only connector, and the three-pin wire connector won't work. In that case, seach the motherboard for a separate substitute three-pin connector (sometimes provided), or use a cutter to cut the three-pin plastic connector lengthwise so that the two wired connectors can now be plugged into two side-by-side pins.
 
Page #25 of your manual details the Front Panel Header connections, including the Polarity of the Power and Hard Drive LED ... Red from each LED will go to the connection marked with "+" .. see photo below:

Front&
 
There's 2 ways, pick 1, Power Up, check Lights, try the other way if necessary.

Mobo in Sig was real convenient, had the +/- printed right on the Board under the Pins.
 
bruceb said:
Page #25 of your manual details the Front Panel Header connections, including the Polarity of the Power and Hard Drive LED ... Red from each LED will go to the connection marked with "+" .. see photo below:

Front&
Click to expand...

Ah, now I see. Should have been obvious what "pled" and "hdled" stand for, but, oh well. Anyway thanks for taking up the time to read the pdf and even mspaint that image 😀
 
This is easy to figure out the first time with no having to switch the connectors around if things don't light up.

Look at the wires going to all the connectors and you'll see that they all have a common color on one wire. It's often white but could be a different color. Think of that wire as negative (-). That makes the other wire, which will be a different color for each connector the positive or (+). Works every time.
 
boomerang said:
This is easy to figure out the first time with no having to switch the connectors around if things don't light up.

Look at the wires going to all the connectors and you'll see that they all have a common color on one wire. It's often white but could be a different color. Think of that wire as negative (-). That makes the other wire, which will be a different color for each connector the positive or (+). Works every time.
Click to expand...

It only works if the + and - are depicted on the board. If you know positive and negative of one, but not the other, its still a 50/50 crap shoot.
 
what if your power, reset switches and led pins from your case no longer match your new mobo?(case has 3 pin connectors on some) and new mobo only has room for 2 pin connections?
 
aftershokk86 said:
what if your power, reset switches and led pins from your case no longer match your new mobo?(case has 3 pin connectors on some) and new mobo only has room for 2 pin connections?
Click to expand...
It's been spoken of in this thread. Sometimes you need to cut the connector to make two from one. A sharp utility knife and some patience should do the trick.

What I like to do is move the metal contact to a different cavity. If you look carefully you'll see that there's a tab that springs out and retains the contact in the cavity. This assumes that there in physical room on the motherboard for the plastic connector. If not, split it.
 
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