How do you figure out where you plug all the wires in a pc?

i opened my pc and theres so many wires all over the place and some of the plugs arent even plugged inHow do you figure out where you plug all the wires in a pc?
I'm confoosed! Did you mean you just bought a new PC, opened the cardboard box, and everything is not plugged in? If so, the answer is: there is a manual or direction sheet to tell you all that, complete with pictures. It came with the computer system.





If you mean you opened your metal PC case, and there are wires all over the place, and some aren't plugged in - THAT'S OKAY! Don't try to plug the wires in!!! They are just extra wires coming from the power supply. Whatever you do, don't try to plug them into anything! :O They are not needed! :) (You will need them if you get another hard drive or video card.) The ';wires all over the place'; is normal -- all the stuff needs power, and all the stuff needs wires to connect to the system. All is well! :D





~Cindy! :)


..How do you figure out where you plug all the wires in a pc?
Most of the plugs (the little square black ones) are labeled. There's a book that comes with the motherboard with a picture of the pin cluster that the plugs plug into, with labels. You match the label on the plug to the label in the book and plug the plug into those pins.





There will be a few power connectors not connected - either black or white rectangular ones - those are for additional disk drives.





There shouldn't be any other unused connectors, other than one in the middle of any flat cable - that would be a data connector for an additional drive.





(It's like knowing what all those leather and metal pieces on 'horse stuff' are - you learn by doing, or by having someone who knows show you how.)
i hope you don't mess with any of them....





but assuming thats why your asking the question, i'll give my best explaination:





here are the computer components and what they look like:


Motherboard: the biggest flat board with at least 1 fan on it.... the biggest power cable connects to that (20 - 24 holes)


the CPU is the thing under the fan, and next to it is a plug with 4 holes in a square, there should be a matching plug somewhere... that needs to be plugged in


the Hard drive is connected by a long silver cable (2 inches wide) to the motherboard, it is usually located at the lower right, its about 5 inches long in a container, that needs the 4 holed plug that are in a line


however some hard drives are Sata, and need cables that say Sata on them. I hope not because those are harder to locate





the CD drive is the same as the Hard drive





the CPU fan (fan on top of motherboard) has a very small wire comming out of it that has an end with 3 small holes, it attaches nearby on the motherboard to a plug with 3 pins (not 2, thats a secondary fan)





if you can't figure it out, look for the nearest highschool teen nerd walking around (although thats unlikely as they'll be on thier computers) and they'll figure it out in 5 minutes)
Here's what one seriously non-techie type did (me): I made little labels out of sticky file labels and marked both the in/out sides of things; if it was a cord, it got a label. If it was fixed to the cpu, it got a corresponding label.





Color-coded labels would be nice, if you have them: Use one for innie, corresponding one for the outie. (And I'd even label those plugs that aren't plugged in:';Not Plugged In';).





Next, I drew a *crude map* with arrows coming out of all the pertinent ';holes'; %26amp; a brief note explaining what plug goes in it (printer, moniter, phone, %26amp;tc.)--along with the sizes of the holes, whether they were round, square, rectangular, their colors, %26amp;tc. Can't dumb it down too much for me (brunette w/blonde roots).
I don't know how many cords you have, but I'll try to make this as simple as I can The cords are color coded, so just match them up on the back of your tower. If they don't have a color they will go into any usb port. I hope this helps
Oh you mean a windows Personal Computer.





My iMac has ONE cord. The power cord.





Sorry, I cannot help you.