[SOLVED] Basic PC build problem - - - power button wires won't stay connected ?

[spacelag]

I'm a beginner in pc building. I learned that there is a line or cable whatever you call it, that connects to the power button (plastic piece).
So if the line is not connected, the pc obviously won't turn on. Since it's just a plastic piece without the line to send the signal.
And I'm talking about that line.

Unlike other lines, strangely this is the most difficult line to connect to the pc. It's also the most important line because the power won't turn on and that means I can't use my PC.

It's because strangely this one is the only unique line that separates into 8 lines.
It's like (Not really sure about the color order but you probably know it.)

(blue) (white) (orange) (white)
(green) (white) (red) (white)

I was surprised when these all separated as I tried to disconnect them.
It was really difficult to connect these lines since it was all separated and the lines were short. Also it won't have that click like firm hold. Instead it felt like it won't even stick into it. With the help of my friend, it was connected. However problem is next day, the pc won't turn on because it's not sticked in firmly. So I opened the pc case and pushed it a little further in. The pc turned on. Then the next day and few day later it just keep happening.
I think I need to learn how to connect it firmly. I want to know what you call these lines. Power cable ? power cables are the power supply cables so no.
Power button cable ? I need to know so I can do some research.
Also I want to know why these are the only ones that are separated to give you a really hard time to connect when it could've been just combined like the rest of the lines inside the pc.
And how to put it firmly so it won't give me a problem everyday?
And for the last how to put it in easily. Like I couldn't do it at all. I needed help. I still can't do it. It's kinda clinging there so I can give a finger push. But if it got completely disconnected again, I have no confidence to put it back since it was absolutely impossible. There was no way it could stick.


I found out that it's called

power switch cable for pc case in the front panel. Simply power switch.

Found lot of videos on where to connect. Problem is there is not a single person who talks about
how these 8 lines never ever connects firmly. It's absolutely loose to the point even if you don't touch
it, it just disconnects.
I'm guessing maybe I got this F_Panel plastic that combines these lines and only then I can firmly connect it ?
It is absolutely frustrating nobody seems to see this as a huge thing to mention.

 

[Misgar]

Check out this YouTube video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ukCsgC3dSc


These wires are "fiddly" little devils and frequently drop off their pins when you tidy up the cableform or add/remove SATA and power cables.

The bunch of wires from the front panel to the motherboard "header" can be split up into four or five pairs:-

Power Switch (essential)
Hard Disk LED (useful - only flashes when hard disk/SSD is being accessed)
Power LED (useful - permanently illuminates when computer is switched on)
Reset Switch (optional - may not be fitted on many computer cases)
Loudspeaker (optional - for BIOS beep codes - may not be fitted in many computer cases)

Each pair of wires is colour coded.

The Power switch is the only vital connection. Without it, you cannot turn on the computer from the front panel as you have discovered.

It doesn't matter which way round you connect the Power and Reset switches. They are not polarity concious. N.B. Many computer cases come without a front panel Reset switch. Just leave the Reset lead disconnected.

You need to connect the LED pairs the right way round, otherwise the LEDs will not light up. If the Power LED or the HDD LED do not illuminate, pull them off, rotate through 180 degrees and refit. N.B. The HDD LED only illuminates when Windows accessing a drive.

The green and white Power LED pair is often separated into two discrete wires, because motherboard connections differ. Some boards have two adjacent pins for the Power LED, other boards have two pins spaced further apart with a blank pin in between.

If your case comes with a small loudspeaker (red and black wires) this is useful for reporting BIOS error codes in the form of long and short beep sounds. Many modern cases do not have this speaker.

If you're not familiar with pushing the plastic covered contacts down on the metal pins in a group on the motherboard, it can help to take the motherboard out of the case to get a close up view. This is especially important if you are working in cramped conditions. After a few builds, you learn to do this by "feel". Unfortunately, when you return the motherboard to the case, half the wires drop off again if you're not careful.

 

[spacelag]

Check out this YouTube video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ukCsgC3dSc


These wires are "fiddly" little devils and frequently drop off their pins when you tidy up the cableform or add/remove SATA and power cables.

The bunch of wires from the front panel to the motherboard "header" can be split up into four or five pairs:-

Power Switch (essential)
Hard Disk LED (useful - only flashes when hard disk/SSD is being accessed)
Power LED (useful - permanently illuminates when computer is switched on)
Reset Switch (optional - may not be fitted on many computer cases)
Loudspeaker (optional - for BIOS beep codes - may not be fitted in many computer cases)

Each pair of wires is colour coded.

The Power switch is the only vital connection. Without it, you cannot turn on the computer from the front panel as you have discovered.

It doesn't matter which way round you connect the Power and Reset switches. They are not polarity concious. N.B. Many computer cases come without a front panel Reset switch. Just leave the Reset lead disconnected.

You need to connect the LED pairs the right way round, otherwise the LEDs will not light up. If the Power LED or the HDD LED do not illuminate, pull them off, rotate through 180 degrees and refit. N.B. The HDD LED only illuminates when Windows accessing a drive.

The green and white Power LED pair is often separated into two discrete wires, because motherboard connections differ. Some boards have two adjacent pins for the Power LED, other boards have two pins spaced further apart with a blank pin in between.

If your case comes with a small loudspeaker (red and black wires) this is useful for reporting BIOS error codes in the form of long and short beep sounds. Many modern cases do not have this speaker.

If you're not familiar with pushing the plastic covered contacts down on the metal pins in a group on the motherboard, it can help to take the motherboard out of the case to get a close up view. This is especially important if you are working in cramped conditions. After a few builds, you learn to do this by "feel". Unfortunately, when you return the motherboard to the case, half the wires drop off again if you're not careful.

Thanks for the reply. The video seems like it's demonstrating how to carefully put it in. It seems like I have to put 1 by 1 carefully and then these all push them all together to stick right in.
I don't have the courage to take them out to try though.
Since it's already in with the help, I tried to put it in but it still is shaky.

It's good to know I'm not the only one at least. And it's normal that it's difficult and shaky.

Front panel leads coming loose

The front panel leads keep falling out of the motherboard header as I route and re-route other cables, etc. It's a real pain to try and get those single pin wires back in the right place. I recall seeing some motherboards have an extension header to make connection easier and more resilient...

www.overclock.net

Feels great to see somebody saying he wants to glue it and expresses the frustration instead of saying it's extremely easy which is not the reality.

Also somebody suggests these.

Pololu - 0.1" (2.54mm) Crimp Connector Housing: 2x10-Pin 5-Pack

These 2×10-pin housings work with our wires with pre-crimped terminals to let you quickly make custom cables that mate with various 0.1"-spaced connectors, including male or female headers and solderless breadboards. They are sold in packs of 5.

www.pololu.com

Crimp Connector Housing​

I also am checking for videos on how to put the front panel connectors in this kind of plastic but no luck yet.
I think I do have some spare plastic things like these (which are connected with the power supply) but I'm not sure if I can put these front panel connectors in the what ? crimp connector housing ? plastic thing, so I want to first see somebody putting in it.

This is exactly why youtube tutorials seems so easy. Same goes to cooking recipes, they "make it seem easy" however the reality is not the same.

 

[Misgar]

Although I'm well versed in the art of using crimp housings and I have a professional crimp tool costing more than $100, I wouldn't recommend messing about with your cables.

You could buy a housing, carefully extract all the contacts from the existing housings, then pray the exposed metal contacts are the correct size to fit in the new larger housing. If not, you'll have to buy new contacts of the correct size and crimp them to the wires.

The most I do in a new build is to secure the front panel cableform with a few Ty-Raps to convenient points on the chassis, to keep them secure and away from other cables.

Once you've got the ends attached securely and provided you don't tug on them too hard, they should remain in place for years, or until you upgrade the motherboard.

Don't waste your time worrying about the cables. It's not worth it.

 

[spacelag]

Although I'm well versed in the art of using crimp housings and I have a professional crimp tool costing more than $100, I wouldn't recommend messing about with your cables.

You could buy a housing, carefully extract all the contacts from the existing housings, then pray the exposed metal contacts are the correct size to fit in the new larger housing. If not, you'll have to buy new contacts of the correct size and crimp them to the wires.

The most I do in a new build is to secure the front panel cableform with a few Ty-Raps to convenient points on the chassis, to keep them secure and away from other cables.

Once you've got the ends attached securely and provided you don't tug on them too hard, they should remain in place for years, or until you upgrade the motherboard.

Don't waste your time worrying about the cables. It's not worth it.

I found those crimping videos too. I saw them using a tool to actually cut things which is definitely something an expert would do. Not beginners.

Then I found this.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAMpxdVftwM


This seems easier except I was expecting the front panel connectors to combine into 1 plastic easily like a lego piece. I can't find anything about the information I'm looking for. I thought I could just put them into 1 piece of plastic that would combine them all without having to take the sensitive parts out and such.
This video suggests me to take the power sw plastic part out and put it in something else.
(This video is talking about something else but as in terms of how I need things to be done.)
Makes me want to tape them all together. =[ lol
The graphics card above is also blocking the path and the cables are short. Lot of these needs to go in.
And even when I successfully put it in, it is loose as it can be. I don't even need to put all of them if I don't
use the reset button and such, and what's funny is that if I put only the power switch, it is even more loose
because there are no other cables pushing each other to support in 1 place. Somewhat. It's loose anyways though.

I'm lost. Maybe I'm just really bad at this ?

 

[Misgar]

How old is the computer case? If the motherboard cables have been plugged and unplugged multiple times, the contacts can lose some of their spring pressure, making them loose.

Just get them "good enough" and leave it at that.

 

[spacelag]

How old is the computer case? If the motherboard cables have been plugged and unplugged multiple times, the contacts can lose some of their spring pressure, making them loose.

Just get them "good enough" and leave it at that.

8 years old pc. Didn't really unplug and plugged many times since every time I dare to open the pc case, something went bad. lol I'm sure I only unplugged 1 or 2 times when there was a problem with the cpu or accidentally got it unplugged.

 

[spacelag]

I had to open the pc case and push the switches again today.
This is really inconvenient. Must be really really loose just hanging on the cliff.
I think the pc engine machine sounds a lot louder as well.

 

[Misgar]

The contacts on the ends of the front panel wires should push down approximately 3mm (1/8") to fully engage with the header pins on the motherboard.

Are you certain you're pushing them down far enough so they all "bottom out" on the motherboard? If they're only partially engaged, you'll get intermittent contact.

This might be a good time to get a professional wireman to replace the contacts on the ends of the wires. They sound worn out.

Alternatively, invest in a new front panel wiring harness (which may involve soldering) or buy a new computer case.