Need help buying something to light up when the computer turns on

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DarkSlayer356

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May 6, 2016
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So, I built a computer for my parents downstairs for a dedicated Plex Media server and the only problem is that the case I bought does not have a LED when you turn the computer on. So my parents will turn the computer on and since there is no indicator to know if it's on or off, they forget when it's on or off. The only real way to know is to put your head against the computer to hear that it's on, which is kind of annoying for them. I bought a USB LED because I thought it would turn on when the computer turned on but it just stays lit. Is there something I can buy for the computer that will help my parents know when the computer is on? Maybe an LED?
 
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On p. 21 of the case manual is the description of the Front Panel Connectors for LED's. The photos indicate that the HDD LED has a single white connector with two wires. The Power LED is two separate black connectors with one wire each. These need to be plugged into the appropriate pins of the mobo's Front Panel Header. Since the power LED leads are separate, it would be easy to plug them in to the wrong pins, or to simply reverse the polarity as they are plugged in. I don't know about your mobo. Mine has the two pins for this marked a PLED+ and PLED-, but with a third unused pin between them, so they do NOT go on immediately adjacent pins.

Even if that works, the glow may be too subtle to see from afar. So, as I said earlier, you...
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Paperdoc

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It's unusual for a case NOT to have a Power LED in it, but maybe this is an unusual case. I'd suggest three things:
1. The Power LED is one of several things that plug into pins on the mobo's Front Panel header, usually near the lower right corner of the mobo. It has 2 rows of 10 pins, missing one, typically. There should be labels nearby, but you might need the mobo manual for the pinout details. So, look there first to see if the already IS a connection to this header's PLED pins. If not, is there a disconnected set of wires lying close by that may be for that LED?
2. If there is something connected there but no LED is apparent, maybe the connection is backwards If you mistakenly connect the LED with reversed polarity, it will not damage the LED. The LED simply won't light up. So try reversing the connection to see if a LED suddenly shows up.
3. If there's nothing connected there and nothing obvious to plug in, this is still the right place to connect your own LED from a parts shop. Virtually all such LED's work on a standard 5 VDC supply from these pins.
 
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Paperdoc

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On p. 21 of the case manual is the description of the Front Panel Connectors for LED's. The photos indicate that the HDD LED has a single white connector with two wires. The Power LED is two separate black connectors with one wire each. These need to be plugged into the appropriate pins of the mobo's Front Panel Header. Since the power LED leads are separate, it would be easy to plug them in to the wrong pins, or to simply reverse the polarity as they are plugged in. I don't know about your mobo. Mine has the two pins for this marked a PLED+ and PLED-, but with a third unused pin between them, so they do NOT go on immediately adjacent pins.

Even if that works, the glow may be too subtle to see from afar. So, as I said earlier, you might rig an additional more obvious LED on the case and connect it to those header pins instead.
If you can find and connect those you should be able to get the power LED to light up. But where is it? It is not obvious on the case front nor on the top edge where the On/Off and Reset buttons are. BUT I notice an international I/O symbol on the On / Off button. SOMETIMES the LED light is inside the button and the glow comes through the I/O design.
 
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