Case mobo connectors.

[CaseyV9]

I recently moved and at the last minute I took my PC out of it's big airy case and slapped in into an old Packard Bell case. The packard Bell case was crap. No mounts for fans at all. Just a vent on the side of the case. So in my hotel I found an old 120mm fan in my bag and tacked it on to the side of the case on the vents with elastic bands to keep the temp resonable. Although there is no point in mentioning that I'm proud I bodged it and it worked well.

But this new case. I've changed PC cases before and had no difficulty working things out.
This new case - Silverstone TJ08S has the bits you connect to the mobo like: LED + and LED minus as well as the usual HDD led and power switches. With the ones displaying the + and minus on the end of the cables I can pretty much figure out which pin to stick into on my mobo thanks to the markings.

But others have several pinds together that do not display + or - on the lead making it possible for me put it in the wrong way around. So, being me I just stuck them in roughly the way I thought best. I powered up my PC and it all seems to be working fine. Lights, buttons and everything.

If I have these around the wrong way is there any danger of me doing damage or would it simply not work?

[Infinite]

If u got it wrong then it simply wont work =)

[GaryRW]

probably not the reassurance you're after, but I'd be surprised if it did any damage - I think it's all lower power stuff (based on the flimsiness of the wires!). Google suggests the power one isn't polarity specific, and that would've been the one I would worry about. (Edit: & the case led one is polarity specific though - took me 2 months before I realised the power led on my new build wasn't working...)

someone who knows what they're talking about will come along soon

[Infinite]

Light Emitting Diodes only let current flow one way otherwise it has a very high resistance and the resistance drops once a voltage of 0.6V-0.7V is reached.

[ConTRo13R]

LED's are diode's so electricity will only pass through them one way, so have it the wrong way it simply wont work, have it the right way and viola you have light

As for the power on switch all that is needed is for a connection to be created so again there is no specific way round it should go, and the reset switch works the same just in reverse, breaking the circuit momentarily rather than making it.

EDIT: Beaten to it lol

[CaseyV9]

It's weird they are not more specific on the leads themselves. I could hunt down my old manual and see exactly what pins are marked as but it is a waste of time if the leads are not as specific.

I would have thought getting it the right way around would be important though even though they are low power?

[GaryRW]

Light Emitting Diodes only let current flow one way ...

LED's are diode's so electricity ...

told you someone would know what they were talking about

[pepsi_max2k]

Are the wires different colours? Usually if there's a bunch of black, or a bunch of white ones, and the rest are different colours, then the one there's most of will be ground / - .

[Powderhound]

Well usually the leads are colour coded (Black is +ve IIRC- don't quote me on that).

[pepsi_max2k]

black's -ve, red's +ve. but in headers, +ve's usually a bunch of different colours, -ve's usually black or white.

[CaseyV9]

I think there were black and white ones.

Does anyone else on this forum feel this is something you would really need to know?

If you worked for Scan computers and built computers for customers, how do they train you to go about this when building PCs?

[Will404]

Probs just the power/reset switches, and (if your case has one) the speacker, as these can go in both ways.

If speacker, there will possibly be 4 wires, or space for 4 wires

[pepsi_max2k]

>> Does anyone else on this forum feel this is something you would really need to know?

i did a couple years ago fwiw i think i got some the wrong way round anyway and as said above, they still worked. anyway... are they all just black and white? in which case black is probably ground.