Internal USB connectors (motherboard)?

pickarooney

The specs of my new motherboard list 10 USB ports. However, there are actually only 4 ports on the outside and 4 USB connectors on the inside of the motherboard. One of these is connected to the front-side USB ports on my case but I've no idea what the other ones are for or if there's some way to use them to add more external ports. I'm using all 4 at the rear already and although there are 2 PCI slots on the board one is covered by the graphics card's heatsink and the other holds my TV card so I can't add a PCI card with USB ports.

tman

Does the case itself have any unused PCI covers? (they don't have to line up with an actual PCI slot)

If so, you'll need one of these, which should have came with the motherboard...


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0021XSLB4/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=122GX051GXWV31NKT2B6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

(try searching for USB 2.0 PCI Header 2 Port)

pickarooney

Ah, that's exactly the kind of thing I need. Cheers. I'll check again but I'm pretty sure this was not supplied with the motherboard. I've loads of unused PCI covers.

IrishMetalhead

obviously what they meant is that theres 4 usb on the back panel and 3 usb headers which means you can get up to 10 ports most mobos are advertised that way unfortunatly

pickarooney

Damn these things are expensive here. 15 euros with P&P - it's actually cheaper to get it from the UK. I could just bust out the old USB hub and let it dangle off the back of the case I suppose

c-note

another option (more pricey) is to go for a front drive bay card reader device with usb ports on it.
This would give you a card reader and usb ports aswell which you can plug into the unused headers.
just a thought, i dislike usb hubs for some reason?

pickarooney

It would be handy but I'd prefer have the ports at the back for a printer and webcam. Yeah, I don't know what it is about hubs, but they're just kind of cluttery.

tman

I think I've got one to spare that I could chuck in the post for you if you just cover postage from the UK?

The back panel of my P8P67 pro has a ridiculous amount of USB ports already, so I don't really have a need for it...

pickarooney

If I don't manage to cadge one off a colleague by next week I might take you up on that, but if the post office is out of your way don't bother.

tman

It's no bother at all, we've got a franking machine in work so I wouldn't even have to leave the building

Just drop me a PM next week if needs be

pickarooney

So I ordered the PCI header and it's got a connector with a single row of 5 pins coming from each port. The motherboard has two free USB headers, each of which are double rows, one of 5 and one of 4. I tried connecting them both to one header, then just one to a header but the PC won't boot beyongd the BIOS error "USB device over current status detected".

I can'f figure out if there's a right and a left to the cables from the PCI header.