Unplugged PC Motherboard in a Hurry, Now in Trouble...

January 6, 2014 12:44 PM

I finally broke down and bought a new CPU fan for my PC, which had sounded like a monster truck filled with ball-bearings playing the drums. Things are much quieter now, but in my rush to get it installed I had to take out my motherboard completely and now can't figure out how to put the connections back! Help!

I managed to plug in one of the USB activating connectors, and one for the audio, and my hard-drives - but not the power or any of the other cords which I don't know what they do. Strangely I can get the PC to turn on by plugging in one of the power/power-buttons connectors to the motherboard and the PC will 'jumpstart' and boot (assuming the power cord is in), but the power buttons itself doesn't work or light-up, meaning to turn the thing on I would need to have the case open and fiddle with the motherboard every time.

I am also worried about whatever connectors I am missing out and what they might do...

The PC is a Gateway DX4320, and I found someone selling the motherboard itself online (DX4320-02E AMD Motherboard RS880M05G1), but I couldn't find the manual on the Foxconn website nor any indications on how to proceed or any other manuals.

I would feel pretty silly having to bring my PC into a tech. only to have them take 3 seconds to put things right, but I am unsure what else to do. Any ideas? I am in Brooklyn, NY if that matters.

posted by rosswald to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

This appears to be the front panel connector diagram for that motherboard. Have you tried plugging the wires from the front panel of the case into this motherboard in this config?
posted by selfnoise at 12:53 PM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Wow, that looks like a great start, thanks! The pics. don't look the exact same, and some of the links appear to be broken, but it at least gives me a something to toy with. I will take a look and report back.
posted by rosswald at 12:57 PM on January 6, 2014

Actually I don't think that's the same MB, since it says Intel, but if you google "Front panel connector motherboard" there are some generic articles. Usually they aren't too different system to system.
posted by selfnoise at 12:58 PM on January 6, 2014

Response by poster: Okay, thanks! I took a class as a kid on building PCs - but that was over 15 years ago and aside from the occasional memory or HD swap I usually don't do much inside a PC.

At the very least I can get the machine on, and I guess keeping it on always is an option now since I can hear myself think when its on, but obviously that is not the preference...
posted by rosswald at 1:01 PM on January 6, 2014

Best answer: Here's another chart (not sure what the deal is with that website, so proceed with caution) purporting to show the pinout for that exact mobo. You want to connect by color code, so the plug for the power switch for example should go across the two red pins.
posted by selfnoise at 1:17 PM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for your help! I didn't get a chance to do this last night unfortunately but will try tonight.
posted by rosswald at 7:56 AM on January 7, 2014