Front-panel case connector and motherboard seem incompatible

ZephZeph In geosynchronous orbit.
edited September 2009 in Hardware
I've been working on setting up a new computer, and everything was going swimmingly until it was time to plug the front panel connector from the PowerSpec TX-366 case into the motherboard, an ASUS M2A-VM board. Instead of the familiar gaggle of two-pin connectors, though, I was faced with a single 5x2 connector with eight wires plugged in laid out something like this (x's represent wires):
x x x [closed]
x x x [empty]

Whereas the connector on the motherboard looks something like this:
frontpanelconnectorga2.jpg
This, as one can see, presents problems for wanting to actually turn the damn thing on. Is there any way I can reconfigure the wires or something in order to plug it in, or are the two simply incompatible and I should replace one of them?

Comments

  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited July 2007
    If you can figure out which wires in that integrated plug go for the power switch, hard drive led, power led and reset button, you can break them out of that integrated plug and hook them up to the proper connector posts on the motherboard. I've done that several times when upgrading oem built (Compaq, Dell, etc) machines with a new motherboard.
  • ZephZeph In geosynchronous orbit.
    edited July 2007
    Is there any way to tell which goes to what, as well as the polarity of the wires? Also, is there any risk of damaging the components with trial and error?
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited July 2007
    The way I did it was to trace the actual wire pairs to their respective switches or leds. And the only ones that are polarity sensitive are the leds and they just won't light up if you have them reversed. It won't hurt them though; just switch polarity around on them if they don't light up.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2007
    Silly me. All this time, and I thought front panel connectors and the corresponding motherboard pinouts were mostly standardized across the industry. To be more specific, the motherboard pinouts will be arranged differently on different motherboards, but the layouts will be quite similar, at least aftermarket motherboards. But "single 5x2 connector with eight wires plugged in." Huh? It's as if the case company made the case for only one motherboard or for only one proprietary design.

    Zeph, how and where did you acquire that "PowerSpec TX-366" case? It's rather small and is a rather obscure brand. Perhaps the quality is qood and it suits your needs. I'm just wondering if that's a case that was designed primarily for OEMs but not for retail customers.
  • ZephZeph In geosynchronous orbit.
    edited May 2008
    ICRONTIC_USER wrote:
    Did you find out the front panel pin assignments?

    I just received the TX-366 and there's no manual.

    The front panel doesn't appear to be that accessible and there's an IC that does some sort of processing on the signals.

    I ended up removing the wires from the connector and tracing the wires as best I could. Worked out just fine.
  • tacojew22tacojew22
    edited September 2009
    Zeph wrote:
    I ended up removing the wires from the connector and tracing the wires as best I could. Worked out just fine.

    You just connect the first eight plugs or holes. The bottom of the panel plug has only one hole, so you overlap it (not connected to anything). Hope that makes sense.
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