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Motherboard USB Ports

Many modern-day motherboards provide a number of USB pin headers that allow connection to USB ports mounted on the front of the system case. A header will generally contain 10 pins arranged in two rows of five. On some motherboards one or two pins may be marked as NC, for no contact. These pins a redundant. On other motherboards one pin may be missing in either one or both rows.

USB

This is not a problem, since the connection between motherboard and a pair of front-mounted USB ports will generally involve the use of only eight connectors.

 

You’ll need to consult your motherboard to ascertain the precise pin-out positions.

Generally, these will be labelled along the following lines:

  • Power pins: A power pin on each row, labelled as Power, Vcc, or +5V.
  • Ground pins: A ground pin on each row, labelled Ground, or GND.
  • Data pins: Two plus data pins and two minus data pins, both one on each row. These are typically marked as USBD2+/USBD3+ and USBD2-/USBD3-, or USBP2+/USBP3+ and USBP2-/USBP3-, respectively.

The Intel Front Panel Connectivity Guide recommends the following design for a pair of front panel USB connectors. If your motherboard is a recent design, it’s likely it will be identical, or at least similar. The Wiring column indicates how the system case wiring illustrated above would be connected:

P2-IFPCG
Pin Signal name Description Wiring
1 VREG_FP_USBPWR0 Front Panel USB Power (Ports 0,1) +5V connector 1
2 VREG_FP_USBPWR0 Front Panel USB Power (Ports 0,1) +5V connector 2
3 USB_FP_P0- Front Panel USB Port 0 Negative Signal -D connector1
4 USB_FP_P1- Front Panel USB Port 1 Negative Signal -D connector 2
5 USB_FP_P0+ Front Panel USB Port 0 Positive Signal +D connector1
6 USB_FP_P1+ Front Panel USB Port 1 Positive Signal +D connector2
7 Ground GROUND connector 1
8 Ground GROUND connector 2
9 Key n/a
10 USB_FP_OC0 Front Panel USB Overcurrent signal (Ports 0,1) n/a

Filed Under: How to Upgrade Your Motherboard

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