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CompTIA A+ Lesson 4 -Motherboard PIN outs , Jumpers,External Ports ,Connectors

if you look at motherboard you will see many Pins , Ports and connectors on ,today i’m going to explain all ofthose one by one .f irst of all let we check Connectors

Connectors

Audio front panel: This ten-pin connector links to the f ront-panel headphone and microphone inputs. Theparticular connector shown is an AC97 connector, which existed prior to multichannel HD audio. It ’s still incommon use today.

Azalia digital audio header: You rarely f ind this connector, used to t ie the motherboard to multichannel digitaloutputs on the case, on current motherboards.

Serial-port header: This connector isn’t physically present on the board shown–you can just see the solderpoints f or it. But this header does appear on a f ew modern boards. It supports a nine-pin, RS-232 serial port,usually as a bracket that occupies a slot space on the back of the case. A number of RS-232 connectionsremain in use today, mostly in point-of -sale devices or specialized test instruments. Consumer boards typicallydon’t have them.

FireWire (IEEE 1994a): Once common as a digital camcorder interf ace, FireWire has largely been supplantedby USB, and the motherboard makers are gradually phasing it out. Some prof essional audio hardware still usesFireWire, though; you may also occasionally f ind higher-speed IEEE 1394b headers, but they are even rarer.

USB 2.0 front panel: These connectors are used to link to the f ront-panel USB ports on PC cases.

SATA connectors: These components connect via cables to various storage devices, including hard-diskdrives, solid-state drives, and optical drives.

IDE connector: Rarely f ound today, IDE connectors were used to link to older hard drives. In addition, until acouple of years ago, many optical drives supported IDE. Today, all new storage devices ship with SATA.

Floppy disk connector: The venerable 3.5- inch f loppy disk drive survived f or nearly two decades–an eternityin the tech universe. But unless you have a pile of old f loppies, you won’t need a f loppy drive. And if you dof ind yourself needing a f loppy drive, you can always pick up an external, USB-connected drive.

sockets

DDR3 memory sockets: Current-generation PC systems use DDR3 memory, but in many instances theysupport dif f erent operating speeds. The P67 chipset used in this board maxes out at DDR3-1600, but toachieve that level of speed you’d have to overclock the chipset–of f icially the P67 supports only DDR3-1333.Here, we see f our memory sockets. The system supports dual-channel memory, meaning that the system ispopulated with paired memory modules, which are mounted in sockets of the same color.

CPU fan header: This connector is specif ically designed to link to the CPU cooling f an. The system BIOSmonitors CPU cooling f an speeds; and if the f an isn’t connected to this header, you may get an error atbootup.

Eight-pin ATX12V (CPU power) connector: Back when the Pentium 4 processor f irst shipped, Intel realizedthat high-perf ormance CPUs needed their own source of clean, dedicated power beyond what the standard24-pin power connector could deliver. Thus was born ATX12V. You’ll see f our-pin connectors on lower-endboards supporting CPUs with lower thermal design power (TDP), but the eight-pin version of the connector isused with higher-end processors and on boards that users may overclock.

Power for secondary fans: Many motherboards with secondary-f an power headers; these connectors aremainly used to power and monitor various case f ans.

PCI Express x1 connector: PCI Express is a serial interf ace, though multiple lanes may be ganged together.The “x1″ ref ers to a slot supporting a single PCI Express lane; it is used f or I/O devices that don’t requirebidirectional bandwidth greater than 500 megabytes per second (gen 1 PCIe). Sound cards, f or example, aretypically PCIe x1 devices.

PCI Express x16 (graphics): PCI Express x16 slots are used mostly f or graphics cards, though they can beused with any PCI Express card. Conf usion may arise, however, because not all PCIe x16 slots are true PCIex16. Occasionaly, you’ll see PCIe x16 connectors that are physical slots f or accommodating graphics cards, butare actually eight- lane (x8) or even f our- lane (x4) electrically.

On some boards, even slots that support true 16- lane PCI Express f or graphics may revert to eight lanes ifyou install a second graphics card into a second PCIe x16 slot on the motherboard. The P67 chipset, f orinstance, has only 16 total PCIe lanes f or graphics. So if you drop in two graphics cards to run in dual GPUmode, each card will have just eight lanes available to it. This situation isn’t as bad as it sounds, though, sinceeven eight lanes in a PCIe 2.0- or 3.0-based system delivers plenty of bandwidth f or most games.

32-bit legacy PCI slot: The now-classic 32-bit PCI slot has been around since 1993. A host of expansioncards support 32-bit PCI; and to accommodate them, most motherboards are likely to have at least one 32-bitPCI slot going f orward. You may see some system boards conf igured so that a particular back-panel casebracket can support either a PCI slot or a PCIe slot, with some overlap between the two because they’re veryclose together.

Front-panel switch header: This header connects various wires to the f ront panel of the case, where theylink to power and reset buttons, and status LEDs f or power and storage-drive activity.

PIN Outs

NOW Lets go some deeper on Motherboard PINS : you can find below pins on all ofMotherboards .

Here are the computer connections we need to plug in:

Power (also called Message) – This is the connection f or the power LED on the f ront panel – this willbe green when your computer is on.

PW (this is the power switch on the case) – This is the connection f or the actual power button on thef ront of your case

SPEAK (this is the speaker on the case) – This is the connection f or the speaker on the inside of thecase

HD - This is the connection f or the hard drive activity light. This will be lit when your hard drive is running

RESET - This is the connection f or the reset button on the f ront of your case

JUMPER

A jumper is a removable wire or small plastic or metal plug whose absence or placement on a piece of hardwaredetermines how the hardware is to be conf igured.For example, if a jumper on a hard drive is in “Posit ion A” (Imade this up), it may mean that the hard drive is to be the master hard drive on the system. If the jumper is in“Position B” it may mean that the hard drive is to be the slave hard drive in the computer.Jumpers have all butreplaced an older hardware conf iguration mechanism called a DIP switch. Even jumpers are rare on most newerhardware today.

Jumper settings and functions

VGA interrupt select ion and VGA sett ing

The INT_SEL jumper allows you to set the VGA interrupt method. The def ault disables the chipset’s internalinterrupt routing. Some TV-Tuner or MPEG cards may require that the interrupt be assigned by the onboardchipset, in which case enable INT_SEL.The VGA_SEL jumper allows you to enable or disable onboard video. Disable onboard video if you are using avideo card in an expansion slot.INT_SEL and VGA_SEL jumper settings

Figure 1: INT_SEL and VGA_SEL jumper sett ings

1 – INT_SEL: 1-2 = Enable, 2-3 = Disable2 – VGA_SEL: 2-3 = Enable, 1-2 = DisableReal Time Clock (RTC) RAM (RTCLR)The CMOS RAM is powered by the onboard button cell battery. To clear the RTC data:

1. Turn of f the computer and remove AC power.

2. Move this jumper to “Clear Data.”

3. Move the jumper back to “Operation.”

4. Turn on the computer.

5. Press the F1 key while the PC is starting, and re-enter the user password in the BIOS setup screens.

6. Battery test jumper (RTCLR)

You can test the battery current by removing this jumper and attaching a current meter to the “Operation” pins.CAUTION: The CMOS RAM containing BIOS setup inf ormation may be cleared by this action. To ensure themotherboard has no power, unplug the power cord f rom the PC. You should Load BIOS Setup Def aults and re-enter any settings af ter removing and reapplying this jumper.

RTC RAM RTCLR

Normal 1-2(def ault)

Clear data 2-3(momentarily)

Figure 2: RTCLR Jumper

CPU external (BUS) frequency select ion (FS0, FS1, FS2, FS3)

These jumpers tell the clock generator what f requency to send to the CPU. These allow the selection of theCPU’s external f requency (or BUS Clock). The BUS Clock times the BUS Ratio equals the CPU’s internalf requency (the advertised CPU speed).CPU to BUS f requency ratio (BF0, BF1, BF2)These jumpers set the f requency ratio between the internal f requency of the CPU and the external f requency(called the BUS Clock) within the CPU. These must be set together with the above jumpers CPU External (BUS)Frequency Selection.

Processor Speed CPU To Bus Freq Ratio CPU Ext. (BUS) Freq Selection

AMD K6-2 300 MHz(Vcore =2.2V)

BF0 = 2-3BF1 = 2-3BF2= 2-3

FS0 = 2-3FS1 = 1-2f S2 = 2-3

FS3 = 1-2

AMD K6-2 333 MHz(Vcore =2.2V)

BF0 = 1-2BF1 = 2-3BF2= 2-3

FS0 = 2-3FS1 = 1-2f S2 = 2-3

FS3 = 1-2

AMD K6-2 366 MHz(Vcore =2.2V)

BF0 = 1-2BF1 = 1-2BF2= 2-3

FS0 = 2-3FS1 = 1-2f S2 = 2-3

FS3 = 1-2Voltage regulator output selection(VID0, 1, 2, 3)

These jumpers set the voltage supplied to the CPU:

Manufacturer CPU type Single phase Dual plane VID3 VID2 VID1 VID0

Intel P54C/P54CS 3.5 V (VRE) – 2-3 2-3 2-3 2-3

AMD K5 3.5 V (VRE) – 2-3 2-3 2-3 2-3

IBM/Cyrix 6 x 86 3.5 V (VRE) – 2-3 2-3 2-3 2-3

Intel P54C/P54CS 3.4 V (STD) – 2-3 2-3 2-3 1-2

AMD K5 3.4V (STD) – 2-3 2-3 2-3 1-2

AMD (.35 micron) K6-PR233 – 3.2 V (Dual) 2-3 2-3 1-2 1-2

AMD (.35 micron) K6-166, 200 – 2.9 V (Dual) 2-3 1-2 1-2 2-3

IBM/Cyrix 6 x 86 MX – 2.9 V (Dual) 2-3 1-2 1-2 2-3

Intel P55C-MMX – 2.8 V (Dual) 2-3 1-2 1-2 1-2

AMD (.25 micron) K6-233, 266, 300 – 2.1 V (Dual) 1-2 1-2 2-3 1-2

And a trick f or you in end of this lesson , f ollow below instructions and Clear Your CMOS via CMOS pin outs onmotherboard , Fisrt you have to f ind CMOS pin out on your motherboard

External Ports

PS/2 Ports: Standard keyboards and mice of ten connect to the computer via the PS/2 ports.

Serial & Parallel Ports: The serial port and parallel port allow connections to printers and otherexternal devices.

USB Ports: Devices like digital cameras, scanners and printers of ten connect to the motherboard viathe USB ports.

LAN Port: The LAN port is used to connect the PC to a local network or to high speed Internet services.

VGA & Audio Ports: On this particular motherboard, the VGA port provides access to integrated videowhile the line-out, microphone and line- in ports provide access to integrated audio meaning there is noneed f or video cards or sound cards.