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certain that the CPU and RAM work well with the motherboard and with each other—without that, you have no hope of setting up a stable system. Second, installing these components first prevents the phenomenon of flexing the motherboard. Some cases don’t provide quite enough support for the motherboard, and pushing in RAM can make the board bend. Third, attaching a CPU fan can be a bear of a task, one that’s considerably easier to do on a table top than within the confines of a case. Finally, on motherboards that require you to set jumpers or switches, you can much more easily read the tiny information stenciled on the PCB before you add the shadows from the case. If necessary, set any jumpers and switches for the specific CPU according to information from the motherboard manual.

Once you install the CPU, RAM, fans, and so on, you’re ready to install the motherboard into the case. When you insert the new motherboard, do not assume that you will put the screws and standouts in the same place as they were in your old motherboard. When it comes to the placement of screws and standouts, only one rule applies: anywhere it fits. Do not be afraid to be a little tough here! Installing motherboards can be a wiggling, twisting, knuckle-scraping process.

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CAUTION Pay attention to the location of the standouts if you’re swapping a motherboard. If you leave a screw-type standout beneath a spot on the motherboard where you can’t add a screw and then apply power to the motherboard, you run the risk of shorting the motherboard.

Once you get the motherboard mounted in the case, with the CPU and RAM properly installed, it’s time to insert the power connections and test it. A POST card can be helpful with the system test because you won’t have to add the speaker, a video card, monitor, and keyboard to verify that the system is booting. If you have a POST card, start the system, and watch to see if the POST takes place—you should see a number of POST codes before the POST stops. If you don’t have a POST card, install a keyboard, speaker, video card, and monitor. Boot the system and see if the BIOS information shows up on the screen. If it does, you’re probably okay. If it doesn’t, it’s time to refer to the motherboard book to see where you made a mistake.

Wires, Wires, Wires

The last part of motherboard installation is connecting the LEDs, buttons, and front-mounted ports on the front of the box. These usually include the following:

Soft power

Reset button

Speaker

Power LED

USB

FireWire

Sound

Figure 9-25 Motherboard wire connections labeled on the motherboard

These wires have specific pin connections to the motherboard. Although you can refer to the motherboard book for their location, usually a quick inspection of the motherboard will suffice for an experienced tech (Figure 9-25).

You need to follow a few rules when installing these wires. First, the lights are LEDs, not light bulbs; they have a positive and negative side. If they don’t work one way, turn the connector around and try the other. Second, when in doubt, guess. Incorrect installation only results in the device not working; it won’t damage the computer. Refer to the motherboard book for the correct installation. The third and last rule is that, with the exception of the soft power switch on an ATX system, you do not need any of these wires for the computer to run. Many techs often simply ignore these wires, although this would not be something I’d do to any system but my own.

No hard-and-fast rule exists for determining the function of each wire. Often the function of each wire is printed on the connector (Figure 9-26). If not, track each wire to the LED or switch to determine its function.

Figure 9-26 Sample of case wires

Troubleshooting Motherboards

Motherboards fail. Not often, but motherboards and motherboard components can die from many causes: time, dust, cat hair, or simply slight manufacturing defects made worse by the millions of amps of current sluicing through the motherboard traces. Installing cards, electrostatic