Pins and Needles
Hokay all you tech-savvy readers, I'm having a couple of issues with a friend's computer that I could use some input on.
First off, I am trying to get the front-mounted USB ports to work. The case has a little circuit board in front (connected to the ports) with cables leading off of it. The cables split in two; USB1 and USB2. These sub-cables have one pin labelled "G," which I presume is a ground, and three pins labelled simply USB1 or USB2. The motherboard has an array of 14 pins to connect additional USB ports to. I can't recall the exact configuration from memory, but basically, each of the pin connectors is either "Ground," "VCC" "USB2+," "USB2-," "USB3+," "USB3-." I assume the +/- indicate the polarity of the pin connections. I have no idea what VCC means. Anyway, I can't seem to get a pin configuration that actually works. I've been plugging the ground pins into the "Ground" connectors and the three prong pins into VCC/USB+/USB-. So far the closest I've come is getting the computer to recognize that *something* has been plugged into the port, but it fails to recognize specifically what it is. The layout of the mobo pins is roughly:
Ground / Ground / VCC / USB2+ / USB2-
Ground / Ground / VCC / USB3+ / USB3-
Ground / VCC / USB2+ / USB2- / Blank
Any pointers about which pins go where, or how to recognize which pin is the + and which is the - on the USB cable end?
Second, my friend is using a 30" LCD. It displays the VGA signal, Television from the cable box and DVD video from the standalone DVD player just fine, but when playing video from the computer, either from a DVD or from a local .mpeg or other video file, the picture is jerky and looks like it's either hitching or dropping frames. The video card is an nVidia GeForceFX 5200. I've tried futzing around with the refresh rate overrides and v-sync options, but nothing seems to have any effect whatsoever. The effect is present in playback using WinDVD as well as Windows Media Player. I believe the problem lies in the way the video card is communicating movies to the monitor (since other display modes have no problems), but I can't seem to isolate the setting that is responsible. Any ideas?
First off, I am trying to get the front-mounted USB ports to work. The case has a little circuit board in front (connected to the ports) with cables leading off of it. The cables split in two; USB1 and USB2. These sub-cables have one pin labelled "G," which I presume is a ground, and three pins labelled simply USB1 or USB2. The motherboard has an array of 14 pins to connect additional USB ports to. I can't recall the exact configuration from memory, but basically, each of the pin connectors is either "Ground," "VCC" "USB2+," "USB2-," "USB3+," "USB3-." I assume the +/- indicate the polarity of the pin connections. I have no idea what VCC means. Anyway, I can't seem to get a pin configuration that actually works. I've been plugging the ground pins into the "Ground" connectors and the three prong pins into VCC/USB+/USB-. So far the closest I've come is getting the computer to recognize that *something* has been plugged into the port, but it fails to recognize specifically what it is. The layout of the mobo pins is roughly:
Ground / Ground / VCC / USB2+ / USB2-
Ground / Ground / VCC / USB3+ / USB3-
Ground / VCC / USB2+ / USB2- / Blank
Any pointers about which pins go where, or how to recognize which pin is the + and which is the - on the USB cable end?
Second, my friend is using a 30" LCD. It displays the VGA signal, Television from the cable box and DVD video from the standalone DVD player just fine, but when playing video from the computer, either from a DVD or from a local .mpeg or other video file, the picture is jerky and looks like it's either hitching or dropping frames. The video card is an nVidia GeForceFX 5200. I've tried futzing around with the refresh rate overrides and v-sync options, but nothing seems to have any effect whatsoever. The effect is present in playback using WinDVD as well as Windows Media Player. I believe the problem lies in the way the video card is communicating movies to the monitor (since other display modes have no problems), but I can't seem to isolate the setting that is responsible. Any ideas?