mobo jumpers don't match front panel case wires

The pwr led goes to usually a rather large block of pins on most mainboards carefully noting in your manual which two specific pins are for 'pwr LED', vice 'pwr sw'... (the pwr led will not stop you from functioning if ommitted, however)


The USB pinouts vary, as some cases give you 3 individual wires to hook up for each USB connector, which is rather a pain compared to a simple USB header conector, but, again, find the USB1/2 headers on the mb, and look in the manual for which case wires go on which pins on the mainboard (usb1 data+ , usb1 data'-' , and usb1 'pwr' for each USB front panel connection, I think) The mb manual will have a detailed pinout/orientation of usb connector header layout

Should be the right place to ask.

The USB wires can be connected to any USB header on the motherboard (don't have to be connected onto the FPANEL jumper array) and there can be several headers scattered around. Most are normally on the "bottom" of the mobo, as it sits when installed in a case, near the slots. What type of board do you use? I can try and look at the manual if I can find it online in .pdf format. Just give me the maker/model. Thx-

Okay...thank you for a prompt reply...now I can get down to specifics. I have the mobo manual with the switch layouts.

I've successfully connected all the wiring for the power on switch, the reset switch, the speaker, and the hdd led, however the power on led is problematic. It's two wires (white and green) with two connectors which are not marked with polarity. (Manual stresses that you must know the polarity, however either way I attach these 2 connectors the led doesn't light up). The mobo jumper diagram shows two possibilities: using a 3 pin connector or a 2 pin connector. I've tried the 2 pin as shown, and as I said either way I connect these two wires on the appropriate spot - either green white or white green on the pins supplied - the led doesn't light up.

Perhaps the led is bad? It hasn't been hooked up yet as this is a new system I'm building. I realize that this is just a light and not a switch, however, I'd like to see it working.

I'd like to show the diagram here...will get back to this later...as well as the USB hook-up - there are 4 wires each and 9 pins on mobo and what's printed on wire connectors isn't same as mobo manual.
Thank you.

You can test it by connecting it to the power LED connector to see if it lights up. It won't hurt anything. Also, you do know it will only light up when the disk is being accessed, right? It might be lighting up and you can't tell.

As for the USB, the connectors will be marked with a +V (voltage) +d, -d (data) and possibly a ground or -V. Match it up with what ever the manual says for the MB, keeping in mind it may not be exact, but it will have some similarity. The 9th pin can be ignored.

Have you checked on the MOBO web site? MSI had the wrong direcitons in the supplied manual for connecting something from the case to the board, think it was the USB wiring, on their web site they had the correct connections.

what is the make/model of your motherboard?

(Regarding the 2 pin vs 3 pin pwr led discrepancy, others have encountered it as well, where the case wires are designed for a 3 pin, but mb uses only 2....)

Some have suggested splitting the cases header connector in two and superglueing the remaining insulated pieces together at the proper distance, or, cut both wires and use a new 2 pin header to match pin layout required by your mainboard...

If your mb requires a 2 pin connector, but case has 3 pins, where the middle is unused, this might be problematic, unless you can relocate the two pins to being beside each other if thats what's required by your mb,,,

A quick few seconds with a soldering iron, and you can fabricate two insulated but separate female pins aswell...


you can substitute the IDE/SATA activity LED and power led (if on similar 2 pin headers) during your troubleshooting, as either will work in either location if the pinout is the same...

Thank you all for your replies. This is a FIC AZ11 v1.2 mobo, Socket A AMD Athlon 900mhz. The manual can be found here:
ftp://ftp.fica.com/manuals/motherboards/Socket A/az11
file: az11_a3_eng.zip 2.62mb 6/12/2001

Manual shows the front panel block connector layout on page 2-13. Again, the power on led (a green light that should be on all the time when the system is powered up - as opposed to the hard drive led which flashes when hard drive is working) that is attached to the front panel on the case consists of two wires - one white and one green with little square connectors that are not marked with polarity. I've connected them to the power led 2 pin locations as shown in manual diagram. As suggested, I will test them on the IDE LED to see if the green light works, since the hard drive led is working. If it isn't I'll pull one from another machine and test that one.

Now, as to the front USB connectors labeled J5 on mobo. The manual shows these on page 2-14. I checked at the fica website and found a new FAQ showing a diagram that is different than the manual. This can be found here:
http://www.fica.com/site/html/services/faq_detail.asp?c...

The case panel has 2 front USB sockets - there are 4 wires on each one. They are labeled as such:
Black wire = grd
Green wire= port +
White wire = port -
Red wire = VCC

Since the wires on each connector are like a band (not twisted together or separate) I thought they would go on the mobo connector in the order the wires are together. But this new diagram looks like the wires are going all over the place on the mobo J 5 connector. I will attempt hooking these suckers up using the new diagram and report back.

Thanks for helping me with this, folks. I know this isn't the latest and greatest system, but it's one I had all the components for so I'm using it.

I've tested the power on led...it lights up on the hdd led spot so it does work. But doesn't work on the pins designated in mobo manual.

Thank you for sending me back to fica website. I checked on this about a year ago re the USB jumper pins and they didn't have the answer for what I had. But today they had a new diagram with all the possible labels for each pin and EUREEKA I got it working.

Thanks to all for input. Still don't know how to resolve that pesky power on led, tho.

I have exactly the same problem. I have a Cooler Master Centurion 5 case with a 2 pin power LED (one green +/one white -). The Asus K8n-SLI Premium Mobo has a space for the pins. Far left has a plus on it and 'apparently' the third is the minus. There is a central pin for I don't know what. I've tried all combinations of the three spaces but to no avail. The LED does work after trying it out on HD LED. Any soution for this one so far?

Is there any difference between a 2 pin PLED and a 3 pin, or is there no reason for the central hole?

Thanks in advance.

I was hoping that someone would come up with a solution. I finally closed up the case and decided that I knew it was running because I could hear the various fans and see the neon light thru the clear side. I'd open it up if someone told me how to hook it up properly.