i reached a new level of stupid

[Forleb]

Today I finally got the rest of the parts I needed for my new PC. I decided to go with a 5600X, so the first thing I did was hook up my PSU and motherboard (MSI MAG B550 Gaming Plus) to use Flash Bios. That all went smooth, but it's more of a critical detail for later.

 

CPU, Cooler, RAM, SSD: Done fairly quickly. I decided to go with the P300A + some SK140 fans, which I would soon regret dearly for this instance. I get everything hooked up, press the power button, aaand nothing happens. I mean nothing in the most literal sense - no fans, no mobo lights, nothing. This concerned be quite a bit, so I opened up the back to check if my cables were all fine, and I discovered that my 18+10 pin had come loose. I press those back in, put the panel back on after seeing what I thought would be my silliest mistake tonight, aaand still absolutely nothing from the power button. I then started to think that the case connectors may be the issue, so I tried the screwdriver trick on the pins, and still nothing.

 

Then I started getting hasty. While I was putting it together the first time, I left the top panel on and spent way too much time getting my 4+4 crammed in next to the top 140mm fan. After despair set in, I finally took off the top panel (which was ridiculously stressful, half of the screws tried to strip) and fully removed the physical system from the case, and hooked it all up bench test style. After toying around a bit, I finally concluded that there was one last way to verify I didn't kill something: Replicate the bios update. So I stick the drive in and low and behold, it works just fine. This baffled me a bit, but not nearly as much as when I realized I was using the incorrect pinouts for my front panel connections. I had been using the blank space over by HD audio instead of JFP1, and after 30 seconds of swapping the cables over to that one, it all worked just fine. Words can't describe how livid yet relieved I was.

 

TLDR: look at your motherboard closely, or you could spend 2 hours troubleshooting your own elementary mistake.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

When reading your title...

 

My mind:

 

[Skiiwee29]

Front Panel connectors are legit the only thing I pull the mobo manual out and RTFM. Other than that, its only for post code errors on the QLED if needed. 

[Mister Woof]

19 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Front Panel connectors are legit the only thing I pull the mobo manual out and RTFM. Other than that, its only for post code errors on the QLED if needed. 

One if the best innovations over the past few years are those front panel pin housings that motherboards are starting to come out with.

 

Otherwise this is a task for ants!

[Skiiwee29]

4 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

One if the best innovations over the past few years are those front panel pin housings that motherboards are starting to come out with.

 

Otherwise this is a task for ants!

I do like the Q-connectors you're talking about but generally don't use them due to the bulkiness they add. Makes tightening up the management harder since it sticks out a fair bit. 

[Kevm1959]

I too, have  made the  exact  same mistake!

Live and learn