Where do these case wires go?!!

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whatchamacallit

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Dec 20, 2006
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Hi!!

I built up my whole system, but unfortunately I cannot figure out where the following case wires go. These come from the front of the case and are to be attached to the motherboard:

Wire-clutter-1:
MIC-POWER
GND
R-OUT
R-RET
L-OUT
L-LET

Wire-clutter-2:
POWER SW
+
-
RESET SW
H.D.D. LED

Wire-clutter-3:
TPA-
VG
TPB-
TPB+
VP
TPA-

These are the slots/pins I have on my motherboard:

Slot/Pin 1:
POWER SW
RESET SW
H.D.D. LED
POWER LED

I have 2 more slot/pin connectors, but none of the name match up. Also the above slot/pin connectors has something called the Power LED. Is that where the + and - wires from my case (from wire-clutter-1) go?

Also, I have the MSI K9N Platinum motherboard.

The main thing is attaching the power on and off switch so I can at least start setting up my computer.

Thanks for the help!
 
Dude. I know that the names are supposed to match up with those on the motherboard, but they arent. Thats why I asked help here...
Click to expand...

you need to look at your motherboard manual, and study the diagram it has for you.
 
Yeah, and no case manufacturer has any particular motherboard in mind, so sometimes there's no place to stick em in, or you have to open the manual to figure that out.
My case has a firewire hole on the front, bt the mobo doesn't support it, so i just cut that wire off :). same with front audio. don't need that.
 
DO NOT CUT WIRES!

Alot of us can see Z-Z was joking but I'm not sure how clear it is that that is the case. Just to be clear,

DO *NOT* CUT ANY WIRES!

Because of the possible combinations of motherboards and cases those wires are labled in a sort of shorthand. For example, POWER SW wires go to POWER SW on the motherboard. While this concept may seem a bit nebulous at first, after you've done it 4899316 times it starts getting easier. Might I suggest you buy a case of Dew, order an XXL pizza and get the local geek to stop by and walk you through this one. One more time,

DO NOT CUT WIRES! And just for good measure, BUTTONS ARE NOT TOYS!
 
I was actually serious. I kept the wires for the frontal USb ports, and of course the necessary ones - hdd, led, powersw, reset, et cetera. The rest got literally cut off )).
I knew what I was doing, and I am aware of possible consequences (which are none coz I don't plug audio to the front, and have no use for firewire).

If you have no use for them - just fold em up neatly and stick em somewhere so that they don't hinder airflow.
 
Hi!!

Yeah. I've already referred to the manual, but it didnt explain anything, thus I decided to ask you experts here. The problem that I am facing is that the manual basically just has a diagram of what I can see on the motherboard itself with the names. It doesnt explain anything else, and thus its of no use to me. The issue is that the names do not match up with the case wire names. Here is my understanding so far:

1) I have 3 sets of wires coming from the front. One set contains my power/reset/hdd/led wires. Another set contains the Front Audio Connection wires. And the last set contains the Front panel USB and Firewire wires.

2) The motherboard has 3 different slots/pins for each of the above listed 3 sets of wires.

3) I know generally which set of wire should go into which slot. The problem is that since the names arent exactly the same, I'm not really sure:

For instance, the slot/pins "POWER SW, RESET SW, HDD LED and the POWER LED" is for the wire set which has the wires "POWER SW, RESET SW, HDD LED and '+' , '-' " wires from the front of the case. The issue here is that I do not know where the + and - wires go into. Do they go into the pins for the 'POWER LED' ??

Also if I accidentally attach the wires the wrong way round (like attach them to the motherboard with the polarity reversed) will something blow up? Or will the button just not work, so I can then reverse them and make them work?

Thanks for everything!!
 
The + / - doesnt matter for the pwr rst and so on. Example the manual shows PWR SW for pins 7 and 8 just plug it into those two pins. The power switch and the reset switch are momentary contactors meaning they complete the circuit for a breif time and then are released.

Note with the firewire and the usb connections DO NOT get them backwards as you will most likely fry something.

The audio is pretty straight forward and the manual will show you where to put them.
 
RTFM!!!

No, just kidding. I realize you have already read it and it left you with still unanswered questions. I looked at the manual, and it wasn't the best one I've seen. It's not bad, but it is a little cryptic.

The wires for the switches (buttons) shouldn't matter which way they are attached. The button just shorts the two pins, so polarity doesn't matter. The polarity of the wires for the LEDs will matter, but it won't damage anything if they are backwards. They just won't work if the polarity is reversed.

As far as the audio connector goes, I can tell you that my motherboard has a similar naming scheme and my case has just standard analog audio ports in the front. I plugged them together and everything works except the microphone. I don't know why.
 
Glad to see that someone else has read the manual and was left baffled as me! Makes me feel less of a n00b now!! 😀

Anyways, I'll be attaching the case finally when I get back from univ in about 2 hours. If I have any problems, I ask here. If anyone else has the same motherboard please lemme know how you set the wires up.

Thanks!
 
when you look at the connector that those wires are attached to - sometimes you will see a triangular arrow on one side - i would use that as the positive generally - also in terms of colours - white and black would generally be negative - whilst red and yellow and blue (not to be confused with psu wire colors but these are for those case wires) would normally be positive

though if you do plug those in the (supposedly) wrong way around they should still work
 
Funny thing. I used the directions listed in the manual for my ASUS mb, got the quickconnect thingy, put in all the wires, connected to mobo...and...
The diagrams turned out to be wrong. The power and hdd led wires had to be reversed. Well, maybe the wire labeling, not the manual is to blame.
Either way. If it doesn't work - it wont damage anything.
 
It's called "word association." It isn't difficult, I built a system around that board last Wed.
Unless you're going to use the front audio I wouldn't worry at all about those, just get your USB and buttons going.
Sometimes the manual and the board don't jive so you have to use past knowledge, and common sense.
 
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