CONNECTING HEADPHONE & MICROPHONE PORTS to audio header with 1 ground pin INTEL FRONT PANEL AUDIO (IFPA) On some motherboards, a 9 pins audio header is provided, supposedly to comply with the Intel Front Panel Audio (IFPA) design guidelines. The obvious "problem" of the IFPA header is that only 1 GND (ground) pin is provided; which is meant to be shared by both headphone and microphone ports. If you want to connect just 1 headphone port or just 1 microphone port, it's a straightforward job. Simply plug the internal port onto the header and make sure that the wires are connected to the correct pins. To connect both headphone and microphone ports to the IFPA header, you can get around the "1 GND pin" problem by using the following 2 cables: - CPX090-B2 Headphone Port Internal B2 - CPX093-2 Microphone Port Internal WIRE ASSIGNMENTS IFPA HEADER CONNECTION GUIDE Diagram 1: Connect (join) the Microphone's GND wire to the GND (reserved) wire of Headphone port. Diagram 2: Use a 2x5 connector to connect the remaining wires to the audio header. Make sure that the wire assignments and pin assignments are matched. The 2 GND wires of the headphone port is shorted (connected) internally, hence the microphone's GND wire is indirectly connected to the motherboard's audio ground, by joining with the headphone's reserved GND. The 2x5 header connector can be purchased at our webstore. HOW TO JOIN THE 2 GROUND WIRES First, use a header's pin to connect the female terminals of the 2 gound wires, then seal the terminals and exposed wires with a tape. It's that simple!! You can get a header's pin by cutting it from your unused motherboard or hardware card. Alternatively, you can join the 2 wires by soldering.