New Laptop - Charge Battery first? (URGENT)

[Mad Genius1]

Well I am off to college tomorrow morning and my new laptop arrived yesterday. I haven't had time to set it up til now and I remember someone telling me that before using it I should charge up the battery for a few hours. Anyone know if this is true/false? If not, can I just fire it up right away? I need to get a few things transferred from this computer to that one before tomorrow morning.

Thanks.

[IHateKeithSmart]

Not really sure where this advice comes from.

But, I have had probably 15 laptops in the last 10 years and have never done this before (charge before using). I wouldn't worry about it.

[ QUOTE ]
Well I am off to college tomorrow morning and my new laptop arrived yesterday. I haven't had time to set it up til now and I remember someone telling me that before using it I should charge up the battery for a few hours. Anyone know if this is true/false? If not, can I just fire it up right away? I need to get a few things transferred from this computer to that one before tomorrow morning.

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was common (and good) advice in the days of Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) & Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries.

However, todays Lithium Ion (LiON) are less prone to memory issues, although not immune, which is where this advice spems from. While it is a rare occasion that these batteries will develop memory out of the box, it does happen from time to time.

That said, go ahead and use the unit out of the box, but, check the battery level when you start, if it is not fully charged when starting, leave the AC Power installed over-night (or as long as possible).

[pokergrader]

The above poster is entirely correct. It isn't as big a deal now as it used to be, but still it is recommended to fully charge your battery before the first use.

[benfranklin]

RTFM


(Read The Freakin' Manual /images/graemlins/blush.gif )