Dealing with HP/Dell/ect chassis cases mobo replacements?

[d3v]

Hi guys, I dread the Dell, HP desktop towers that need a motherboard replacing due to the unique FP connectors and other I/O ports that seem to always been made to only fit the original motherboard.

Well today I have a HP P6-2302ea that uses a Foxconn made h-joshua-h61-uatx motherboard. I've found two places in the UK that sell the board for a decent price however I'm hesitant to use the board again as it has known UEFI problems.

My question then is do you guys know any way to tell if a different motherboard will fit the FP connectors or if there are adapter cables that can be used?

 

[mr m]

I assume you mean the Front Panel connector?

For some odd reason the mobo manufacturers agree on many standards except this one. I don't think it matters though.You might need a magnifying glass to see it but all mobo's clearly identify the pins. The connectors also are marked with their purpose. So all you need to do is match the Power on/off connector from the switch to the labeled pins on the mobo. Do it for the Reset, Speaker, HDD activity light and Power light and you should be set.

 

[d3v]

Yes but most big name boxes come with a single block of pins that cannot be individually dealt with.

 

[seedubya]

I've never seen any such boards or adapters. If you'e definitely replacing the board I'd say replace the case also. A replacement case will ( or should at least ) cost less than your time in sourcing such adapters or boards. Unless you're working for free, of course.

 

[atlanticjim]

Ive run into this before and if necessary I have adapted the FP connectors, although a PIA and timewaster, most of the schematics are available online.
Like this one http://www.findlaptopdriver.com/front-h-joshua-h61-uatx-panel/

 

[d3v]

wow that's a great find! Would you by any chance know how to find detailed instructions for this motherboard regarding the jumper pins for BIOS/UEFI recovery?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Note if you replace the board and the chassis you cannot legally use the copy of Windows that came with the machine. New motherboard means a new copy of windows if it is OEM.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Find resources that sell components for them, we have a couple of resources we use for motherboards and power supplies for business class HPs and Dells. Keeps things easy so you don't have to deal with "motherboard of the month club" weird parts that often require immense amounts of time researching compatibility issues.

 

[NJW]

Yes but most big name boxes come with a single block of pins that cannot be individually dealt with.

It only takes a few minutes to move the contacts around in the block, including multimeter time to identify the switches and LEDs if they're not already marked.

 

[mikeroq]

According to that link above it has a standard front panel connector. Usually we replace with the same board but I have in a couple cases replaced boards with a standard motherboard. Most go OK but the fun part was always the front panel connector (Some Dells & HP with like a 10-20 pin connector, replaced the connectors with my own to plug into the new board). To me it seems like these days the OEMs are using the standard front panel connector.

Here is an example of an older Dell with their own FP connector:

Lenovo FP

However they decided that they don't want to use the 24 pin ATX connector.

Seen some Dells & HP over the past few years using a "mini connector" like this:

Or Lenovo using a 14 pin connector and powering the drives thru 4 pin connectors on the motherboard:

A HP Z800 power connector:

Oh man another HP with a 6 pin connector!

Better shot of the 2 from the power supply (white) and the black going to power drives

They really want to force you to use their parts. Otherwise you have to make or buy an adapter cable to adapt a regular power supply.

I guess it's better than Dell using the same 20/24pin connector as a ATX power supply but using a different pinout.

Examples of Dell:

ATX Pinout:

 

[Digital Micro]

Personally if the system is more than three years old, or the board has a known problem I just replace the whole computer.

I few times I have bought a board for an old desktop, but I had no choice. The business was using an 8 year old Dell for all their buisness data and software. It got hit by lightning. They had no backups. I knew if i replaced the board I had a good chance of get backups for some of the software. Of course when I installed it they wanted to just stop their and keep using the system.

Funny thing is they was so glad to get checks written. I never saw mine

 

[d3v]

@mikeroq many thanks for the detailed and helpful post, it's got to be one of the more duller areas of PC repair I must say!
In the end I found a motherboard from a similar HP desktop PC that fit just fine except that it has not got USB3 pins for the front panel so had to use a USB3-USB2 adapter cable.