Front Panel USB

[fadsarmy]

Hi. Just Bought a Gigabyte board from Scan. I had a front panel usb/audio/firewire adapter which I bought directly from Intel a while back.

I have noticed that the motherboard USB connector is a standard Intel one. The front panel USB connector has pin 2 missing. There is no wire in pin 2. Since pin 2 is for 5V power where is the power coming from?

[rabbid]

USB2 is typically for 10 pin block with 8 or 9 connected thus:
red, yellow/white, green, black, (black/NA)
red, yellow/white, green, black, NA - no pin

Is your connector USB1 or 2? Or perhaps something else.
Be sure you have it the right way around as there will be no pin as shown above.

Can you describe more clearly with wire colours the layout of the plug you are attempting to fit? (as viewed from above as it will plug into the board)

[fadsarmy]

Hi.

Yes there are 2 rows of 5.

Row 1: red, white, green, black, no pin
Row 2: no pin, white, green, black, blue

So where does row 2 get power from since red pin (5V) is missing.

Thanks.

[rabbid]

Interesting, one side seems normal usb2 which you may be able to slip on without using the other side, depends on your board space around the connector.
I would hazard a guess that the row2 is an Intel bespoke layout for certain types of board (maybe USB/FW combo port). Until we know more do not plug that row onto the normal USB connector pins or you may end up shorting something.

If you have any part numbers for that FP adapter or web pages maybe we can look it up.

[fadsarmy]

Hi. Thanks for help. I plugged it into the board and the front usb work fine. The problem is that When I install a graphics card the usb cable will not reach the connector because it is on the extreme bottom left of the motherboard. I have therefore purchased 2 internal usb extension cables:

http://www.frontx.com/cpx512.html

One row is OK but the other row I am not sure how to connect it.

Thanks.

[fadsarmy]

Here is the link of the exact item I have:

http://www.cwc-group.com/enlarge.htm..._2052_28289719

http://www.cwc-group.com/infrpaus3mop.html

As you can see there is no red wire going into pin 2. You can see a blue wire going into pin 10.

[rabbid]

Can you please repost the first link without the redirect on it?

[rabbid]

OK I see its not you putting the redirect, great new feature...

Anyhow, what does the other end plug into, what connector(s) inside the hub? Try to see how they pinout and where the contact is soldered to.

I see from the second page:
"This module is compatible with Intel Desktop Boards D925XCV, D925XBC, D915PBL, D925XECV2, D925XEBC2, D945PVS, D975XBX"

Well, it looks like a Foxconn OEM for Intel part for the headers on a few specific boards.
If you can match the hub port contacts with the alternative colour wires to the port with normal colour wires then move the wires to match in sequence on the board end, maybe you can get both ports working.
Just be very careful about shorting wrong pins. Else live with just one port working as we established before.

[fadsarmy]

It's actually compatible with a standard usb motherboard connector, even without pin 2. I've used it successfully on Asus and Gigabyte boards without any issues. The problem is that the cable is 2cm short for my Gigabyte board and I have to use an internal usb extension, but I don't know how to wire it.

[rabbid]

OK, but an extension is just that? Its straight wired right, no crossovers? So just plug the extension into the board and then the hub header into the extension pins in the same orientation as you would into the board.

If you are happy that connector is fine into a mobo header then its the same thing just on the free end of a wire.

[fadsarmy]

Thanks for help. Here is the USB extension:

http://www.frontx.com/cpx512.html:

red:white:green:thin black:thick black

I will be using two of these to connect to one front panel usb connector.

There is no problem with row one of the connector of my front usb.

Problem is row 2: pin missing 2: white 4:green 6:black 8:blue 10


I can remove red pin 2 of usb extension. Pin 10 is the problem. Should I leave it or connect it to to thick black cable of extension?

[rabbid]

What I don't get is that you said its fine plugged directly into a standard mobo header.
If thats the case there is no difference to plugging it into the combined 2 ends of the extention cables as its straight wired. Just keep the cable ends side by side in their matching colour order and this replicates the 9 pins of the mobo header.

Are there 9 pins on the mobo header?
OK there is a pin on the extentions where pin 9 would be, but there is no corresponding pin on the mobo header, so its not actually connecting to anything live. Actually you will have to press this out on the extention as your plug has that pin-hole filled in.