Question Connectors won't fit because of plastic doodads

[Fyrinn]

I'm installing a replacement motherboard but I've run into two snags:

1. I can't connect the speaker input because there's plastic around the pins, whereas on my old motherboard the pins just came directly from the motherboard

2. I'm not sure whether to install either of my optical drives because, conversely, said plastic is missing on the new motherboard, whereas on my old one they looked like this:

So I'm just wondering: is it safe to plug my optical drives into those pins even though they're missing this plastic "shield"? And is there a way to safely remove the plastic surrounding the speaker pins?

Thanks.

 

[Lutfij]

Are you working with an exact replica of your older board? That port you're talking about together with the ODD, is not the same as connecting to an optical out port/toslink/SPDIF header on the board. Might want to pass on a pic of the cable, the ODD's rear ports and the board in all entirety to understand you're not mixing one port with another.

 

[Fyrinn]

Yes, they are the exact same model of motherboard as far as I'm aware

Sorry for the crappy pictures and the 2-second MS Paint job:

This is the old one (sorry it's so blurry, I couldn't get it to focus no matter how hard I tried)

https://imgur.com/UlXIkYN

View: https://i.imgur.com/UlXIkYN.jpg


This is the new one

https://imgur.com/CEcXtPV

View: https://i.imgur.com/CEcXtPV.jpg