Does this sound normal?

[Quiksilver]

First Question:
I just built a new PC for a relative and I've encountered a small hiccup. Basically if I turn the PSU on to give the motherboard power and then I turn the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord. The motherboard maintains getting power (eg. the power LED stays on) for about 15 seconds or so after I unplugged the PSU and turned it off. Now if I press the power button before the 15 seconds or so are up; the machine will actually turn on momentarily and cause the hard drive to I'm going to assume unpark the heads so that if I plug back in the PSU and turn it on and turn the machine on normally the system won't detect the hard drive and I will have to restart the computer and then it will see the hard drive. Of Course if I just wait that 15 seconds I won't have to go through all that non-sense. I just want to know if that is normal cause I can't remember if my other 2 computer had this issue or not.

Edit forgot system specs:
Antec Basiq 350B
Asus M3A78-EM (or something very close; its matx)
Western Digital 320 AAKS

If you need the rest I'll post.

Unrelated Question:
Said relative likes to play online games using 'Smiley Central' though it claims to not be spyware I don't trust it. Does anyone know if the games they offer are exclusive to them; or perhaps they are rebadged games?

Another Unrelated Question:
How do I remove adhesive off paint? I placed an AMD case badge on crooked so I peeled it back off but now there is some adhesive residue on the case. What would be the best way to remove that adhesive without damaging the paint?

 

[amdskip]

Sounds like a junk power supply or you have the motherboard misseated and it is shorting out someway.

Anything with smiles is spyware, remove it.

WD-40 or any other product that removes sticker residue.

 

[Onund]

1. there are a lot of capacitors on your board and power supply for various reasons. When you turn on your PSU all those caps get charged up. When you remove power the caps will maintain a charge, that's what caps do. Eventually the charge will dissipate thru leakage paths and parasitic paths. I suppose it's possible that there is enough residual charge in the system to get the HD to move when you hit the power button.

2. --- dunno

3. I use baby oil to weaken the stickiness of band-aids I've used on my 2yr old. Might work here? Probably there are better solutions for your job though.

 

[Quiksilver]

I knew that the cap's could hold a charge, but I'm just surprised they were able to hold it for so long. It just seemed awkward.

I don't have any baby oil, so I can't use that suggestion; I might have some wd-40 though. I'll wait for more suggestions though.

 

[Billb2]

All motherboards do that, just not so long, two or three seconds usually.

I suspect a poor PSU design. It may use large capacity caps to meet peek power demands instead of actually being able to supply enough power for those demands.

...I'm not an Electrical engineer, but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn!

 

[zagood]

re: adhesive - heat it up with a hair dryer and roll it off with your finger.

 

[oynaz]

Adhesive residue can often be removed with an eraser.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: zagood
re: adhesive - heat it up with a hair dryer and roll it off with your finger.

I used a hair dryer to get the badge off in the first place lol.

The eraser bit sounds like it might work...

Addition to my first problem:
Turns out my solution to the problem didn't work. It doesn't matter how the capacitors discharge. So letting it set or turn it on real quick both ways cause the hard drive to fail to be detected on first power on. Still have to reboot twice to see the hard drive if you cut the power.

I also flashed the motherboard to the latest BIOS, didn't change a thing.

 

[Onund]

15 seconds is a long time. My power led only stays on for a few seconds...

I'm confused why this is an issue. Do you usually pull the power cord and have a need to push the power button on the PC or are just concerned that this might be a sign of a problem?

 

[bruceb]

I agree .. most users never pull the power plug out of the ac outlet ... If you want to be sure, swap in another power supply and see if the results are the same. If not, cheap power supply.