First battery charge??

Hi all..

Just bought a new MSI WIND U100, and I have it plugged since 8+ hours.

the battery led is off, so I think it's fully charged.

Do I have to keep it turned off and charging for a certain amount of time, or I can start using it immediately?

THanks

 

Use it immediately. To be on the better side in the long run, the first 3 or 4 times on battery power, let it run down completely and then fully charge. This will prolong your battery life

 

You should actually never allow a lithium ion battery run down completely that will hurt the batteries internal circuity.

 

As far as I know this only applies to NiMH batteries. They have what some call a memory effect.
For lithium-ion batteries the only caveat that I know of is that its best not to run the battery to completely empty. Most batteries have a safe-guard against this and won't let you. They will keep a reserve charge. However if you drain the battery and let it sit for six months without charging that could drain the reserve and possibly damage the battery. This is why a battery that you buy off the shelf always has at least a little charge.

 

Actualy you can't drain it compleatly, unless you're 2 years for old. Even then you could cross plus and minus and not remember but still drain the battery compleatly. First three times though the above doesn't apply though. I t is just a good measure for the battery to prime low at back to high. So never drain the batteries compleatly even though you won't be able to.

 

Lithium ion batteries like power in a regular bidirectional mode.
It is not good to run them way low on a regular basis.
The fact that a low battery needs a long charge generates much more internal heat within the cells is not good for the chemicals.
If you find that you used the battery for 1/2 hour, next time you are near power, plug it in and charge it, them short charges generate little to no heat.
That is the bidirectional power that they work best with.
Once every couple months, go ahead shut off power management and run the battery down until you computer goes into sleep.
Then give it a complete charge again.
What this helps do is clear any possible corrupt data within battery's internal ic chip.
Once done, the battery will give its correct state of charge to the computer.

Over time the data within that ic does go corrupt.

This is also the recommended procedure that Apple provides.

 

You are right about memory effect, but that occurs primarily for nickel-cadmium batteries (NiCd). While NiMH batteries can suffer from memory effect to a degree, it is a reversible process through charge cycling, unlike NiCd's.