Problem Installing Motherboard: Alignment Issue

[J-Dude]

Building what is "essentially" a new computer, have most of the parts, just waiting on the RAM, so as anxious as I am to get cracking, I thought I'd at least put together what I could for the moment. I however have never dealt with a motherboard install before.

This has nothing to do with the cords and wires, I'll figure that one out. This is a much more basic problem.

So I figured out where all the screws and **** were meant to go on the motherboard, found all the corresponding holes in the case and put risers in those. Simple, straightforward.

But here's where computer hardware always ****s with me. Firstly, the cover that protects all the sockets that contain USB ports and audio plugs and crap has these useless extraneous metal tabs that try pushing the motherboard back further into the case like springs. I have to fight them to even TRY aligning the motherboard properly. But that only amplifies my main problem: The Goddamn screw-ports on the board can never 100% align with the risers. I've tried about 20 times now.

You'd think that managing to fasten one screw in one corner and another screw in another corner would ensure the thing was flush, but computer hardware is designed to be SLIGHTLY off so you have to worry about snapping something in half because you're worried you're going to have to bend a board or screw something so tight it that something breaks.

Either way, for whatever reason, the top set of screws don't even take. They're at a higher elevation and have to be pressed down to meet the risers for some reason, and the screws won't fasten, they just spin like they've been stripped. I don't even get it, it doesn't seem physically possible for this to be an issue. Every PC building tutorial I've ever seen shows some jackass installing a whole motherboard in less than a minute, casually, like it were nothing. But I have to keep suffering with this nonsensical garbage.

Point is, I'm exhausted from trying this over and over, I'm terrified I'm eventually going to nick one of the board's capacitors on a side of the case and make it inoperable and I just plain can't see how I can do it.

Any advice? At all?

 

[Optional]

So you're installing the mobo into the case? What's your case and mobo?

Are you sure that you put the stand offs in the case properly? Are you sure that the i/o on the mobo is aligned to the opening in the case perfectly?

As for those metal tabs, assuming they are on the i/o part of the case or mobo, you can break them off if you have to.

I'm having trouble visualizing exactly what's wrong. Can you take a picture and post it?

 

[J-Dude]

Problem solved actually. Let me explain.

I've taken a look at my risers and found a couple issues.

Firstly, nearly every riser I had a problem fastening screws into was somehow stripped, to the point that in testing their grip, I found my screws would almost fall into them, almost no grip at all. I've found other good ones and replaced all but 2. I have two other ones that grip well, but that brings me to the second concern.

Secondly, two of the good risers seem to have the interesting feature of having an extrusion from the top which adds about a tenth more to the overall height. At first I thought it was a product of a lathe that made a mistake, but in checking how it lies against the motherboard, I've found they appear to sink flush inside any given screw-hole on the motherboard with room for the screw itself. This looked to me like it can be used on opposite corners in order to more easily mount the board and prevent it from shifting once in place.

This would answer my two missing screw problem. I tried again armed with this info and see what it accomplishes. I have to say, I find the manual of both the case and the board to be most uninstructive if I'm supposed to understand this, or the notion that the risers would be in any way different, without any direction other than what I can look up on the Internet. God pity the poor soul who doesn't realize you're not supposed to screw the motherboard onto the case without risers.

Anyway, they all set into proper place, I/O panel and all after working the corners onto those special risers. Screwed in, fastened. Done.

Since my PSU is currently in the machine I'm tryping on right now, and the RAM is a few weeks away, this is merely a preemptive installation of existing compatible hardware, and it won't/can't run until I've made the necessary steps to reincarnate this machine in the new one.

Managed to install the CPU, little problem. I just wish they didn't design things so you couldn't tell if pulling a switch goes one way or another. Not installing the fan/heatsink yet. I would, but I don't own any thermal paste. I figure it'll be safe where it is until the big day.

So right now I'm doing some basic front-panel wiring. I say "basic" except I can't tell and nothing in the manual or online tells me what constitutes "+" and "_" for the non-obvious wires with only two prongs. Worst of all is this damn thing that's two plugs unconnected, labelled "+" and "_". Sounds like a sick joke, I ask for an easy way to tell and I got one, except now I don't know what they're for and where they go, what they represent.