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Setting Internal Headers on my new Motherboard
racketboy - Sep 6, 2003

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  racketboy Sep 6, 2003
I'm trying to hook the internal headers on my first mobo installation on an Intel D875PBZ

My case is a Chieftec Dragon full tower.

I'm a little confused with some of the connections.

I attacthed the diagram from the mobo's manual below

Here's my questions:

I have a plug labeled "Power Sw" -- I'm assuming that goes to the pins labeled "On/Off" -- just want to make sure.

I have a 4 pin plug labeled "Speaker" but I have no clue where that goes or what it does. However on the mobo itself there is some text printed between item A and B of the diagram that says "Speaker" -- but the only plug near it are the ones on the diagram.

I have one 3-pin plug labeled "Power LED". However there are two items on the diagram labeled Power LED -- Item B and a section of Item C.

Then of the plugs for the front UBS Panel, I have all of #1-8 on Item A, but also 2 labeled "2 Ground" in addition to 2 labeled "1 Ground". What's up with those? What are all those for?

Finally, does it matter which way I plug the pins in? (With the text on the left or right?)

Sorry for all the questions, but I don't want to screw anything up.

Thanks in advance!!!

edit: removed the diagram for bandwidth purposes

 Curtis Sep 6, 2003
Pins 6 and 8 go to the power switch - polarity doesn't matter. 5 and 7 are for the reset switch - again polarity isn't important here. 1 and 3 are for the HD activity indicator LED (you know, the one that flashes when your HD is accessed). The pins on your case may be labeled "IDE LED" or something. Polarity is important here, if they dont work one way, flip 'em round the other. Ditto for the power LED connector. Both B and C (power LED bit) should do the same thing - it looks like B is setup for a three pin plug, rather than a two pin plug.

The "speaker" plug is for the case's internal speaker. Usually these are used for the system beeps on start up and for error reporting. If your motherboard doesn't have a connector, it probably has one onboard. No need to worry about this one.

Not too sure what is going on with your USB. Just line the "grounds" up as best you can should do the trick.

 racketboy Sep 6, 2003
ok cool thanks!

These headers are such a pain to hook up all together I taped them together lightly with regular scotch tape to make things easier.

Is that ok? It won't cause any problems will it?

While I'm here, I'm noticing on my mobo diagram it has a hookup a "VREG Fan". What the heck is that? Do I need it?

 Curtis Sep 7, 2003
VREG FAN? Sounds like "Voltage Regulator Fan", or something. No idea what it does - I don't have one and my motherboard works fine. :huh

Usually you'll have "case fan" and "power fan" (or similar) on the motherboard...maybe this is meant to be one of those. I wouldn't worry about that one.

 racketboy Sep 7, 2003
I already got two fans hooked up in the back that use the normal 4-pin IDE power plugs. Then there's the CPU fan. PLus there's two other mobo power plugs for another back fan and a front fan

what about the scotch tape thing?

 Curtis Sep 7, 2003
I'm 99% sure scotch tape is non-conductive, so you should be fine there. The only problem I can see is that yo might be left with a sticky mess in a few months time as the tape breaks down. Nothing serious, I wouldn't think.

What exactly are you doing with the stuff again?

 racketboy Sep 7, 2003
I had to tape those USB headers together otherwise they were impossible to get all 8 hooked up. It was too cramped and there wasn't much slack on the wires

 Scared0o0Rabbit Sep 7, 2003
Actually, after you do those usb wires enough times... it gets really really easy... but yeah my first few times was a real pain in the arse. Even if your mobo doesn't have a pc speaker built on, and it has no header, it's not a real big deal (unless it doesn't work right and you happen to know the beep codes for your manufacturer). I mean system beeps were useful back in dos before we had sound cards and stuff... and in windows 3.1 if you didn't have a sound card there was a driver that would let you play wav's (heavily distorted, but still recognizable) out of your pc speaker, but that shouldn't really be an issue. If your sound card is onboard, that may be why it is missing, it may dump the system beep's out through your sound card, I've seen more than 1 pc do that.

 racketboy Sep 7, 2003
there is an onboard speaker -- so its all good.

Now I'm kinda freaked out about turning the machine on.

I'm afraid I'm gonna mess something out.

I've done just about every PC part before other than a mobo and CPU...

 ExCyber Sep 7, 2003
Pretty much the only probable ways to fry something are:

1) screw up installing the heatsink

2) put on a power connector backwards or mismatch one

(I've done #2 once, about 45 seconds after being prematurely awakened by the sound of a dying CPU fan; i.e. nicely pissed off and not really awake.)

Screwing up mainboard headers will subject you to the unimaginable horror of a non-functional hard drive access LED or a power switch that doesn't do anything.

 racketboy Sep 7, 2003
well all the important power connectors (Main power, 12V power, and CPU fan) all have distinquisable shapes and most have clips on one side that match up. So I'm probably good there (???)

But how do I know for sure if I have the heatsink on right.

I'm using the official Intel one. It's got all these levers and everthing to look it down, but I can see if the thing is actually touching the CPU.

How do I know if my CPU is frying before it's too late?

 racketboy Sep 7, 2003
BTW, I don't have to do anything with voltages, do I?

 ExCyber Sep 7, 2003
Actually, I think the P4 might be smart enough to not fry itself; ISTR reading some articles that mentioned that it has an integrated heat-controlled speed throttling mechanism...

 Gallstaff Sep 7, 2003
Dejavu...

Didnt i start a thread almost EXACTLY like this 4 days ago?

 Gallstaff Sep 7, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by racketboy@Sep 7, 2003 @ 11:18 AM



 well all the important power connectors (Main power, 12V power, and CPU fan) all have distinquisable shapes and most have clips on one side that match up. So I'm probably good there (???)



But how do I know for sure if I have the heatsink on right.



I'm using the official Intel one. It's got all these levers and everthing to look it down, but I can see if the thing is actually touching the CPU.



How do I know if my CPU is frying before it's too late?


Racket see my hsf thread cause that's exaxtly what my problem was (only on an amd). You probably wont be able to see if the thing is actually touching the processor or not, but if it's on right then it'll be fine. There is no real way to screw up installing a hsf. I mean as long as you dont put force on the fan itself it's ok. What scared me was that the metal clips would snap trying to lock them into plae but the metal is very malluable so you can put like all your weight on one side and it'll go down and lock without snapping or crunching on the cpu.

I know how you feel though. When you think you got everything set up and you are about to turn it on your palms start to sweat and you get really nervous. You think to yourslef "I know I fucked this up... bad"

Really though computers have comem a long way and unless something is actually physicall damaged all will be fine. Voltages are good and stuff and if you hook up like a wrong connector to a wrong place it'll be fine it wont fry the signal just wont be sent through.

While on the subject, can you guys just shoot over to my hsf thread and see what you can do about that last question?

 Scared0o0Rabbit Sep 7, 2003
Both Athlon and p4's these days are smart enough not to fry as long as they've got some kind of contact with teh hsf... The only real way to completely fry a cpu now is to not have it on there so that it destroys itself before it has time to shut itself off. You can tell when you've killed your cpu by the smell btw. There's this smell that I've never smelled anywhere except burned cpu. Burned motherboard smells slightly different

 racketboy Sep 7, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Gallstaff@Sep 7, 2003 @ 05:39 PM



 Racket see my hsf thread cause that's exaxtly what my problem was (only on an amd). You probably wont be able to see if the thing is actually touching the processor or not, but if it's on right then it'll be fine. There is no real way to screw up installing a hsf. I mean as long as you dont put force on the fan itself it's ok. What scared me was that the metal clips would snap trying to lock them into plae but the metal is very malluable so you can put like all your weight on one side and it'll go down and lock without snapping or crunching on the cpu.


Well I'm glad I didn't have to deal with those standard heatsinks.

I like Intel's heatsinks. makes it much easier, but I still worry.

I liked the PIIs.

Slot 1s were so easy to install. Especially when the heatsink are already on them.

All you have to do is slide them into th slot.

 Gallstaff Sep 7, 2003
Heh yeah but pII's are a case modders worst nightmare

 racketboy Sep 7, 2003
I flipped the switch and all seems to be well!!!

On to testing!

And recommended testing software?

 ExCyber Sep 7, 2003
Memtest86... would be the big one. For general reliability/stability testing, I also highly recommend taking your archiver of choice and repeatedly verifying large gobs (any set of files larger than your RAM) of zip/rar/7z/whatever files.

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