Quick mobo question..

[ZeroAce]

On these little LED/powerbutton/speaker connectors, how can I tell which side is the positive and negative?

One hole on the connector has an arrow pointing to it, but I can't tell if that means it's positive or negative.

[mr smith]

which motherbourd is it

[tony_j15]

plug it in one way. if it dont work, turn it around!

no worries, it wont kill your mobo.

[JohnE.]

The one with the arrow is positive (usually).

[ZeroAce]

I thought about that, but here's the thing:

First I plugged in everything as though the arrow was positive.

Ok, the power switch works, but the pwr LED and hd LED don't work.
So I flip those two around, and now they work.

This confuses me...

[FatalException]

The power switch has no positive or negative terminal. It is just a connector... when you close the circuit by pressing the power button, electricity simply flows through the wires in the appropriate direction... Flipping positive and negative on the switch won't matter.

As for LED's... they DO matter - since it's a diode, it only works when the positive and negative are plugged in the right ways. Diodes, by design, only allow electricity to flow one way through them. If you reverse the polarity (positive and negative), they won't turn on and will act as an open circuit.