That is allot of wires

quad_red

Hi Folks,

So for the first time in a very (very) long time I started a new PC build yesterday. The components were selected with the assistance of K.O.Kiki and ED E here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=100718206

And with some messing I've mounted the drives, the motherboard etc. Everything is done now except finishing the wiring.

I've a few questions that I'd love some help with - I know many are probably silly but I'm terrified of damaging the components so I just want to be 100% clear.

ftp://europe.asrock.com/Manual/B150M Pro4.pdf





I've connected the ATX power connector at point 5 in the motherboard. Is this all that needs to be connected or do I need to connect the PSU to the ATX 12V socket at point 1 as well?

I've connected fans at point 9 and 22 but there are five more fan cables from the front of the case. Where do these guys connect to?

I've connected the cable that comes from the USB ports at the front of the case to point 8. But I'm also fitting a multiple card reader in one of the bays and it has 2 USB ports in it that require attaching to something. Or is it a case of just not using them?

Thanks lads. I tell ye - twas a sweaty night last night. Am a bit disappointed with the Nanoxia case. Very solid but it took me a while to realise why I couldn't slide the drives into the 'tool free' bays. The screws used in the cradles of the drives on one side are too long - hence they stop drives sliding in. Obvious in hindsight but when you're peering in trying to figure out why you're being so stupid you can't figure out a 'tool free' installation, it's pretty annoying! :pac:

Cheers,
Quad

TerrorFirmer

You need to connect the 24pin cable and the 4/8pin at point 1 as well. You'll know the requisite cable as the 8-pin is two 4-pins on the same cable, not to be confused with the solid 8pin power cable for graphic cards.

Fans wise, if you only have two fans, then you're grand. The other five connectors you're talking about I'm not sure, maybe for fan controller or similar? But if the case only has two fans and both are connected to the boards 4-pin fan headers, you're fine.

Your card reader would connect to point 17, the USB2 header. Regards the toolless bays I'd say you are doing something wrong there if they won't fit in!

Tool-free means just that - no need for screwdrivers or screws for that matter. Uusually there are plastic retainers that hold the drive in place and it slides in - some will have space for screws to further secure if required but if they're blocking it from sliding it, they're just the wrong screws.

quad_red

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

You need to connect the 24pin cable and the 4/8pin at point 1 as well. You'll know the requisite cable as the 8-pin is two 4-pins on the same cable, not to be confused with the solid 8pin power cable for graphic cards.

Fans wise, if you only have two fans, then you're grand. The other five connectors you're talking about I'm not sure, maybe for fan controller or similar? But if the case only has two fans and both are connected to the boards 4-pin fan headers, you're fine.

Your card reader would connect to point 17, the USB2 header.

Thanks Terror. I'll update later when I'm at it again.

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Tool-free means just that - no need for screwdrivers or screws for that matter. Uusually there are plastic retainers that hold the drive in place and it slides in - some will have space for screws to further secure if required but if they're blocking it from sliding it, they're just the wrong screws.

That's what paralysed me. I've swapped enough drives in work desktops and even in the servers to know they should just pop in and out. But the only way the drive would slide in was with the retainers on both sides open AND the screws on the right side brackets half screwed out. You could feel that it was a smooth slide in on one side and on the right side all the screw heads were jutting through the metal stopping the drive from sliding in.

Shlippery

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00M49SNVI/?tag=pcp05-21

The 5 cables seem to be from fan controller that is built into the case according to the Amazon page!

So maybe they're adapters to plug your two fans into the controller? Or maybe you can just use some cable ties and keep them hidden away in the case if not needed!

quad_red

Shlippery wrote: »

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00M49SNVI/?tag=pcp05-21

The 5 cables seem to be from fan controller that is built into the case according to the Amazon page!

So maybe they're adapters to plug your two fans into the controller? Or maybe you can just use some cable ties and keep them hidden away in the case if not needed!

They're from the built in fan at the front alright.

I'll post proper pics later - it could have been pure exhaustion was confusing me last night :pac:

Shlippery

quad_red wrote: »

They're from the built in fan at the front alright.

I'll post proper pics later - it could have been pure exhaustion was confusing me last night :pac:

Ha, don't worry about it, as fun and all as building a PC is, just like everything, if you spend too long looking at something it'll just end up frustrating you!

Once you peek back inside the case I'm sure it'll all make sense!

Check the manual that came with the case though, I believe there's a separate controller for the fans.

It says there's 3 fans pre-installed in the case, so they should be connected to the controller, which will let you manually adjust the speeds on the front of the case - so they may not need to be plugged into 9/22, but instead connect directly to the controller which should be somewhere near where a cd drive would normally be located if i'm thinking correctly!

http://nanoxia-world.com/media/pdf/4d/ed/31/DS3_manual_english.pdf

quad_red

Shlippery wrote: »

Ha, don't worry about it, as fun and all as building a PC is, just like everything, if you spend too long looking at something it'll just end up frustrating you!

Once you peek back inside the case I'm sure it'll all make sense!

Check the manual that came with the case though, I believe there's a separate controller for the fans.

It says there's 3 fans pre-installed in the case, so they should be connected to the controller, which will let you manually adjust the speeds on the front of the case - so they may not need to be plugged into 9/22, but instead connect directly to the controller which should be somewhere near where a cd drive would normally be located if i'm thinking correctly!

http://nanoxia-world.com/media/pdf/4d/ed/31/DS3_manual_english.pdf

Ah that's it. All the individual fan cables connect to something else and that connects to the motherboard.

Will check it out later.

Cheers lads.

Jo Satan

All the case fans (not the cpu fan) connect to the controller, the controller connects to the power supply.
The controller has two channels, each channel can control three fans.
Probably best to use one channel to control fans sucking air in like the two front fans and fans mounted on the bottom or side of the case.
Use the other channel for fans blowing air out, the fan at the rear of the case and fans at the top.

Apparently if you have more air coming into the case, by having more/faster fans sucking air in than blowing out of the case you create positive air pressure within the case.
This helps reduce dust entering the case as air is escaping through any vents, mesh etc rather than entering.

It looks like a lot of wires alright but it should give you a tidier build as you will have no case fan wires running across your motherboard.

You probably have three fans at the moment, two at the front and one at the back, so just curl up the remaining fan wires, secure them with a cable tie and hide them away.

Building a pc can be a fiddly, anxious, sweaty ordeal at the start, but that kind of adds to the satisfaction of getting it done and looking good at the end.

Good luck with your build:)

quad_red

I'm still confused

Six small fan cables marked Fan A1, Fan A2, Fan A3, Fan B1, Fan B2, Fan B3 and a larger 4 pin molex connector that i've got connected directly to the PSU.


And two more braided nylon cables which appear to come from the front fans.



I can't see where these go

And the only 'spare' cable is:



Help!

Digital Solitude

Top picture is for connecting fans to, it's probably for the fan controller in your case.

Not sure what the second one is, do they say FDD on then?

Third one is just an adapter you probably don't need if the GPU is already hooked up

Shlippery

Ok, so this is an old video with a guy plugging in stuff to his fan controller - it's an older video but concept is the same, so your two fans at 9 and 22, the 3 pin plugs, would plug into the black heads there in your picture labelled a1, a2, a3 or b1,b2,b3.

https://youtu.be/CK_0Cj_ynGg?t=50

Or,

see this diagram if it makes sense.


I think the spare cable could be if you've a second graphics card maybe but not needed.

quad_red

Thanks lads. The six fan cables (Fan A1, Fan A2, Fan A3, Fan B1, Fan B2, Fan B3) all are connected back to the fan controller built into the front of the case (pictured below).



So I've got the power connected but for these six fan cables there are only two available connections as per below:



There is also an available connection on the motherboard called CHA_FAN2. And I've connected the rear case fan to the motherboard connector marked CHA_FAN1.

TerrorFirmer

Top picture is fan controller, you can optionally plug your fan headers into those, and the molex connector is connected to your power supply. This allows you control the speed of the fans via controlswhich I assume are on the front/top of the case.

The middle picture is fan headers, physically coming from the fans - they need to be plugged into the fan controller optionally, or plugged into the motherboard directly if you want the straight forward route and aren't bothered about controlling the speed of them. If you have more than 2 fans, there probably won't be enough headers on the motherboard itself for this method and you will have to use the controller or else forego a fan.

Last picture is just an extension cable for the 12v 8/4-pin power connector labelled part 1 in your diagram.

quad_red

I'm still confused

These cables


are already connected to the fan controller (ie. they're the other ends of the cables)



So I've connected the fans to overall power. If I do not connect Fan A1 etc. to anything will they remain controlled by the two power levers at the front of the case?

The two cables pictured below are directly coming out of the two big fans at the front of the cable.



I just don't understand the circuit here.

Surely the two fans should be connected to the bloody fan controller and THEN the fan controller be connected to the motherboard?

Currently I have:
A nylon cable coming from the rear case fan connected to CHA_FAN1
Two nylon cables coming from the front case fans as pictured above. There is one spare connector on the motherboard (CHA_FAN2).

Six cables coming from the fan controller (Fan A1 etc.).

A power cable coming from the fan controller which I have connected directly to the PSU.

TerrorFirmer

The fan headers plug into the female connectors coming from the controller - that's what allows the controller to control them!

When using a fan controller, all your case fans are not connected to the motherboard at all, but plugged into those female connectors labelled a1, a2, a3, etc.

The controller will then get all the power it needs from a single 4pin molex connector, which I think you already said you have plugged in.

quad_red

Aha! So in this case I can plug one front fan into the motherboard directly (FAN_CHA2) and the other leftover fan into one of the fan controller cables (FAN A1) and then just bind up the other five cables from the fan controller (fan A2 etc.)

TerrorFirmer

I'd say if you're using the controller you might as well use it for all the case fans. It's handy being able to control fan speed - when plugged directly into the board, depending on the fan, it might be quite loud.

From looking at pictures, there are two sliders at the front of the case, which control the fan speed - one would be for A1,A2,A3, the second would be for B1,B2,B3. So just plug all your fans into the A's and the one slider will control all 3 at once.

quad_red

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I'd say if you're using the controller you might as well use it for all the case fans. It's handy being able to control fan speed - when plugged directly into the board, depending on the fan, it might be quite loud.

From looking at pictures, there are two sliders at the front of the case, which control the fan speed - one would be for A1,A2,A3, the second would be for B1,B2,B3. So just plug all your fans into the A's and the one slider will control all 3 at once.

So I'm gonna plug the two fan cables into the open A1 and A2 cables coming from the controller?

Then Fan_Cha2 on the motherboard has nothing connected to it and the only motherboard connected fans will be the CPU fan and the rear case fan...

Is that ok then?

Thanks so much Terror Everything's ready to rumble now bar the fans. Who'd have thought the issue I would have would be the friggin fans.

TerrorFirmer

Yup - and the rear case fan should be plugged into the controller as well - what way you can control them all via one slider on the front of the case.

There's no need for any of the fans to actually be connected to the motherboard in this case. The vast majority of cases don't have a fan controller built in like your one does, hence the need for the headers on the motherboard.

quad_red

It powered up!!

Thanks so much to Terror and everyone on here.

Now I just realised that amongst all the components they didn't put in the bloody copy of Windows so I'm stuck. Just sent off an email to Mindfactory and hopefully they'll be decent.

quad_red

So Window's is installed and the basics are done.

Two problems are sound (which I think I know what's wrong) and this card reader thing.

I've read the instructions but I'm not clear on the all the connections. As per the image below - it's got a USB 3 connector, a USB male connection, a molex power connection, a USB 2 connector and a SATA 7 connector.

Off the bat - the motherboard only has one big USB 3 big blue port and that's used for the USB connections at the front of the case. There are no internatal USB male ports so don't know what to do with this. The USB 2 connector is connected to the motherboard as is the power (molux).

But none of the ports on the reader work.

quad_red

Seems like loads of people online have issues with card readers.

The USB 2 ports on reader work (I've the USB 2 connection hooked to the motherboard).

None of the card readers work and there are no status lights.

The reader is connected to the PSU via the 4 pin molex connection to no avail. There is actually a male and female molex connection on the cable coming out of the reader. I've connected the male molex connection to the female molex connection on the PSU cable. Nada.

The case fans are on the molex cable as well and they're drawing power.

Any suggestions? Most of the articles online focus on getting an unrecognised device working via drivers etc. But this isn't showing up in system and the status lights on the reader ain't working indicate that it's not getting power (the USB ports are working but presumably they're drawing power from the motherboard).

TerrorFirmer

The USB 2.0 header should connect to a free USB2 header on your motherboard - not sure how many of those are free on your motherboard, it's possible that the case has USB3/USB2 ports, and actually uses the available headers already. The USB3 male connector means that you can get an adaptor that goes from a back panel single USB3, into the case and connect to the USB male connector from the card reader.

quad_red

Hi Terror + lads,

So kinda gave up on the card reader - allot of people giving out about similar issues online. No matter what I couldn't get the light on the card reader to come on so I'm just going to return it.

I wanted to mess around with it tonight so I went to connect it to the main tv via HDMI. It powered on fine but nothing came up on screen. Not really surprising given I didn't set it up before but no loss.

Anyway, moved it back to the where the monitor is and now... nothing. The desktop won't start full stop. Have checked everything. Tried different plugs and different kettle leads.

Nothing. As dead as a door nail.

Any suggestions here? It was working 15 mins ago. Powered on straight away. I've opened the case and I don't see any lose leads or anything like that.

Shlippery

Sounds stupid, but start from the basic diagnostics, and work along,first thing is the power switch beside the psu, it's probably something REALLY silly.

is that on? I think there's a power button you can press somewhere on the actual motherboard itself, try that and see if anything whirs up.

quad_red

Shlippery wrote: »

Sounds stupid, but start from the basic diagnostics, and work along,first thing is the power switch beside the psu, it's probably something REALLY silly.

is that on? I think there's a power button you can press somewhere on the actual motherboard itself, try that and see if anything whirs up.

Thanks Shlippery.

Have checked that a 100 times. I've changed out leads (and confirmed both leads work on the monitor). I've changed plugs. I just picked it up and plugged it in another room. Using both leads.

Nothing. The PSU is definitely on (but I've been pressing the power button with it on and off anyway).

I really wish the ****ing PSU came with some sort of status light

Shlippery

quad_red wrote: »

Thanks Shlippery.

Have checked that a 100 times. I've changed out leads (and confirmed both leads work on the monitor). I've changed plugs. I just picked it up and plugged it in another room. Using both leads.

Nothing. The PSU is definitely on (but I've been pressing the power button with it on and off anyway).

I really wish the ****ing PSU came with some sort of status light

Hmm, the PSU fans should at least spin up, or make some sort of noise, and then the motherboard should beep if there's something holding it back or gives a small error number on the LED on the board.

It seems odd that there's no sign of life at all, but again, I'm not as experienced as the others here, so will have to wait and see what they think!

Everything should be OK soon

quad_red

Shlippery wrote: »

Hmm, the PSU fans should at least spin up, or make some sort of noise, and then the motherboard should beep if there's something holding it back or gives a small error number on the LED on the board.

It seems odd that there's no sign of life at all, but again, I'm not as experienced as the others here, so will have to wait and see what they think!

Everything should be OK soon

Nothing. Completely dead. Checked both power cables into motherboard are properly seated. Same with ram. Checked that power button wiring is still attached to motherboard.

Most of the stuff I've seen online is talking about that first power up. She'd been powered on a good few times over the last few days. Only two things that changed this evening was connecting to the HDMI port and moving it.

TerrorFirmer

Could be something basic if it's literally 100% dead. Are the 24-pin mainboard cable, and 4/8pin 12v connector fully locked-in? PSU is obviously switched on at the back via the switch?

To rule out the case button itself or wiring, use a screwdriver to start the PC - remove the cases front panel power connector from the board and use the screwdriver to make contact between the pins, that will boot up the PC.

the next option is to take everything out and try and boot it outside the case with the barebones attached - massive pain I know but a necessary evil if no life within the case.

quad_red

So, the regrets continue.

Kids away today so I took everything apart again. I did the steps here.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems



That's the motherboard with the PSU connected to the two ports and one stick of ram in the second slot.

I tried initially connecting the case's wires for the power button. And just in case it was the button, I then used a screwdriver to connect the two power button pins. Nothing.

Nada.

Dead.

I'm really worried now because I've used my relative's money to build this and I ordered from MindFactory in Germany and I can't even imagine how I'm going to play this when I really don't know what's wrong.

Anyone have any advice here on what I can try?

I don't get the fact that it all booted on for the first few days. Zero issues - installed windows etc. It all changed when I moved it and connected a HDMI cable from the tv. I don't know whether it was the moving (which I did myself and was extremely careful) or the HDMI did it? How could it?

Help!

Digital Solitude

Sounds like a dead PSU or motherboard.

Try resetting the cmos for the craic, it's the flat little battery, just remove it and reinsert it a few seconds after.

If that doesn't work, try the paperclip method to test the psu