[ewalk123]

NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMP THIS! I HAD THE USB AND FIREWIRE CABLES MIXED UP!

I need to plug this (from a chieftec dragon case)


Into one of these green plugs (from MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum mobo)


Any suggestions?
Thanks.

[Rich_L]

Looks like you’ll need to do a major pinout change because no way do the signal labels on the connectors match up with the pinout on the motherboard connector shown in the motherboard manual. The first thing to do is to label each wire with a small piece of tape with the current signal name from the connector.

Now comes the fun part, you need to remove all the wires the connectors except for the single GROUND and 2+D (tan wire?). The wires are typically held in the connectors with a simple locking clip. This can be a bent metal tab on the pin or tab on the plastic connector. What you need to do is use a pin or other small object to gently pick the locking clip and slide the wire out. You need to be careful because you’ll be reusing these parts.

Once you have all the wires out you can now repin the connectors so they can be connected to the motherboard. Take the 3-position connector with the 2+D wire attached and insert one of the GROUND wires in the middle position and then insert the 1+D wire. Now take the other 3-position connector and insert the 1-D wire at one end and the other GROUND wire in the middle position and 2-D wire in the last position. Now insert the +5V wires in the 2-position connector. Now double check you work because if a +5V wire and GROUND wire get swapped you could damage something.

Ok now you can connect the connector with the 1+D wire so that the 1+D wire connects to motherboard connector pin #1 TPA+, GROUND wire to pin #3 GROUND and 2+D wire to pin #5 TPB+. Now connect the other 3-position connector so 1-D wire connects to motherboard connector pin #2 TPA-, GROUND wire to pin #4 GROUND and 2-D wire to pin #6 TPB-. Next is the 2-position connector with the +5V wires connected to pins 7&8 and lastly the single GROUND wire to pin 10.

[ewalk123]

Wow, sounds complicated. Thanks for the detailed instructions. Ill give it a try tonight.

[jcw122]

same thing happened with my AMS case...exept mabe only 3/10 (very rough estimation) plugs match with the mobo....

[winterhavok]

Most motherboards comes with a sticker that shows you (to a vague degree) of where the front side ports should connect into. My guess, if you want to try it (if all else fails) is to use the very last one, on most motherboards with a setup like that, the first set is for the hdd, power, reset, speaker, etc for the case. The second is usually reserved for frontside USB, which my guess is that its both the 2nd and 3rd set, probably if you have more than two front USB ports. So the firewire tends to be the last one. That's just what I have dealt with in my repair and building both on my own rigs and for my job.

[ewalk123]

Originally Posted by Rich_L

Looks like you’ll need to do a major pinout change because no way do the signal labels on the connectors match up with the pinout on the motherboard connector shown in the motherboard manual. The first thing to do is to label each wire with a small piece of tape with the current signal name from the connector.

Now comes the fun part, you need to remove all the wires the connectors except for the single GROUND and 2+D (tan wire?). The wires are typically held in the connectors with a simple locking clip. This can be a bent metal tab on the pin or tab on the plastic connector. What you need to do is use a pin or other small object to gently pick the locking clip and slide the wire out. You need to be careful because you’ll be reusing these parts.

Once you have all the wires out you can now repin the connectors so they can be connected to the motherboard. Take the 3-position connector with the 2+D wire attached and insert one of the GROUND wires in the middle position and then insert the 1+D wire. Now take the other 3-position connector and insert the 1-D wire at one end and the other GROUND wire in the middle position and 2-D wire in the last position. Now insert the +5V wires in the 2-position connector. Now double check you work because if a +5V wire and GROUND wire get swapped you could damage something.

Ok now you can connect the connector with the 1+D wire so that the 1+D wire connects to motherboard connector pin #1 TPA+, GROUND wire to pin #3 GROUND and 2+D wire to pin #5 TPB+. Now connect the other 3-position connector so 1-D wire connects to motherboard connector pin #2 TPA-, GROUND wire to pin #4 GROUND and 2-D wire to pin #6 TPB-. Next is the 2-position connector with the +5V wires connected to pins 7&8 and lastly the single GROUND wire to pin 10.

First of all, thanks for taking the time to figure this out. I tried it and it did not work. In fact, neither front panel USB nor FIREWIRE was working. Then I thought to re-check the connections on the front panel.

I realized that I had the usb and firewire cables mixed up (on the motherboard end not the front panel). In other words, the picture in my first post shows the firewire cable pluged into the USB (yellow) slot on the mobo and the loose cables in the close-up shot are the actual USB cables!

I undid all re-cabling that I did to the USB cables (which I thought were firewire) and plugged them into their correct spots. I just tested and everything works fine. Good thing I didnt damage anything by doing this!

Thanks again for the help!