asus p4s8x and front front audio connector

[houseisland]

Off the top of head... Tired. Hope it's not too confusing.

When you get a new motherboard with integrated sound that has Intel standard compliant front panel audio headers, you will typically find a set of the pins jumpered. The jumper enables the audio output jacks at the back of the motherboard. If you pull the jumper off, the audio output jacks at the back stop working.

To attach an Intel-type front panel audio cable to the motherboard headers, you need to remove the jumper. A pair of wires in the cable go the female mini-stereo jack in the front panel and attach to a pair of contacts in the jack that are closed when there is no male mini-stereo plug inserted in the female jack. The pair of wires and the contacts carry no audio signal to the male mini-stereo plug; they merely take the place of the jumper, enabling and disabling the audio output jacks at the back of the motherboard. So with no headphones plugged in, the contacts are closed and the rear audio outputs are enabled. With headphones plugged in, the contacts are open and the rear audio outputs are disabled.

The header on the motherboard usually has pins for right +, right -, left + and left - audio signal. The wires leading from the two negative pins to the front panel are wired together in the female mini-stereo jack at a single contact (the sleeve contact). The two positive pins go to two separate contacts, left + to the tip contact and right + to the ring contact. This is why the male mini-stereo plug has only three contacts, tip, ring, and sleeve. The sleeve is the common contact point for both negative leads.

Hope this helps.