I am building a new system but the front panel connections in thr mobo manual need clarification for me .

Front panel connections jfp1 & jfp2

jfp2 -- 4pin speaker wire 2-8
3pin power led 1-5

jfp1-- 2pin hdd led 1-3
2pin reset sw 5-7
2pin power sw 6-8

In the manual it has a 2pin power led 2-4 but there is no wire do I take it that you do not need this .

USB 2 & USB 3

4 pin connector vcc , usb- , usb+, gnd 2-8 or 1-7
this cable has an extra gnd wire I would imagine you just leave this unconnected as there is no 9pin & 10 is usboc .

Front audio

pins 5-6 & 9-10 not to be used .

So that leaves me with 5 connections but manual does not say where they connect .

ear left
ear right
mic vcc
mic in
grd

Hope I have explaine myself ok but woulsd rather be suree before I go any further , I have the rest of the pc in place .

Regards Ian

Sounds like you have it under control

Do you have the + and - correct on the speaker, power led, etc.
I have seen a small triangle in the plastic to assist with orientation.

I had a MB that supported front sound connections but then you lost the rear connections. I made the choice to not use the front. Sounds like yours doesn't offer front sound hookup at all.

I hope everything goes well

Enjoy your computer

I'm not quite sure what you attempted to get across about the front panel connections, it sounds like you are describing a single connector designed for a different motherboard. Compaq and Dell made those, others may have too. Since not all motherboards have identical pinouts, the connector becomes useless on many other boards.

Generic cases have individual connectors for each function - one for power switch, one for power LED, one for speaker etc. If you get a motherboard with two instead of three pins for the power LED it's not hard to swap the plastic connector to the other type.

The USB connectors have extra ground wires because some motherboards use a 10 pin header instead of 8 pin like yours. The extra ground wire is not needed on 8 pin headers and usually can be simply left disconnected with no problems.

I can't help with the audio connectors, I'm not familiar with them in general.

Thanks lads I have taken onboard your answers & all looks fine still waiting on couple parts for new set up so will let you know when I get fully set up . My board is a MSI 865pe neo2-v & it looks like the 3pin power led is all I need .Cyber there is a small cross in the plastic so would assume thats positive & will match spk & pw/led adjacent .The mobo manual is pretty crap with no audio help other than to leave 5-6 & 9-10 jumpered to allow back audio .

Many Thanks
Ian

Found these on an other site much more explicit than manual . There was connection diagram on manual but no direction as to + or - so would imagine 1for example is hd led p for positive .


PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION
1 HD_LED_P Hard disk LED pull-up
2 FP PWR/SLP MSG LED pull-up
3 HD_LED_N Hard disk active LED
4 FP PWR/SLP MSG LED pull-up
5 RST_SW_N Reset Switch low reference pull-down to GND
6 PWR_SW_P Power Switch high reference pull-up
7 RST_SW_P Reset Switch high reference pull-up
8 PWR_SW_N Power Switch low reference pull-down to GND
9 RSVD_DNU Reserved. Do not use.
JFP1 Pin Definition


PIN SIGNAL PIN SIGNAL
1 GND 2 SPK-
3 SLED 4 BUZ+
5 PLED 6 BUZ-
7 NC 8 SPK+
JFP2 Pin Definition


PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION
1 AUD_MIC Front panel microphone input signal
2 AUD_GND Ground used by analog audio circuits
3 AUD_MIC_BIAS Microphone power
4 AUD_VCC Filtered +5V used by analog audio circuits
5 AUD_FPOUT_R Right channel audio signal to front panel JUMPERED
6 AUD_RET_R Right channel audio signal return from front panel JUMPERED
7 HP_ON Reserved for future use to control headphone amplifier
8 KEY No pin NO PIN
9 AUD_FPOUT_L Left channel audio signal to front panel JUMPERED
10 AUD_RET_L Left channel audio signal return from front panel JUMPERED

So I have 5 wires left
ear right ?
ear left ?
mic vcc pin4 ?
mic in pin1 ?
grd pin2 ?

Sorry if I am dragging this out but waiting on graph card to come so just making sure everything is ok as you guys do a great service .


Ian

I'm not sure about USB or Firewire front ports...

However, as far as the Start and Reset connections, they are momentary switches and the polarity is not important...they simply make a completed temporary circuit.

The LEDs are polarity "conscious" and if they don't work after you hook them up simply pull the connector and turn it around.

I do remember on one build where I had a three pin connector and had to change a wire on the connector to match the motherboard orientation. I used a safety-pin to push the elevated metal "lock," remove the wire and reposition by sliding it into the correct slot forward enough to lock it once again...

Whyzman that is spot on many thanks have the USB sussed so everything is go .

Cheers Ian

USB is probably the least standardised and important because if you get it wrong you can do real harm.

I got the following note inserted with the last case I bought and though it might be of value:

There are different ways of connection with different MBs and you will find the most normal and popular ones as follows:-

Type1: 8 Pins Series This USB port is usually version 1.1 (for MBs Produced before 1999). Operation: please connect our red cables (+5v) with pins 1 and 2 on USB port of the MB and our black cables (ground) with the rest pins on the USB.
Type2: 9 Pins Series This USB Port is usually Version 2.0 for PIC VC11 MBs for example. Operation: please connect our red cables (+5v) with the pins marked with 1 and 2 on the USB Port f the MB and our black cables (ground) with the pins marked with 8 and 9 on the USB Port.
Type3: 10 Pins Series This USB Port is the lates product of Version 2.0 such as 72 VIA KT 133. Operation: please connect our red cables (+5v) with the pins marked with 1 and 10 on the USB Port of the MB and our black cables (ground) with pins marked with 2 and 9 on the USB Port.

Note how different the 10-pin is from the other two and how the data cables always sit on pins 3 through 6.

I think that if you arrange the 8-pin arrangement on a 9-pin header that the thing will work OK but you will have USB 1.1 and not USB 2.0. The reason I think this is that I have a Kingston USB flash drive that shows a red and green led depending on which USB version it is connected to and this is how it reacts when the wiring is altered on a 9-pin header.

NB Firewire is different again.