First battery charge

Siberion

Yesterday, I purchased a new laptop, more specifically a Dell Inspiron 15 E114. Due to my excitement, after I unpacked it, I inmediately plugged in the cord to check out the software, and I explored its features for about 20 minutes, then I turned it off and unplugged it.

After that, I realized there was a tiny sheet of paper next to the manual which said that, in order to get the max. efficiency, I should not plug in the notebook with the battery on before doing an initial charge of at least 12 hours.

As of right now I'm kind of worried, because I'm pretty obsessive with these kind of things, and I fear that my battery efficiency will not be optimal because of the first 20 minutes I connected the battery when I opened the package. But in which ammount would the efficiency decrease? I've talked to some people and they said that the initial 12 hours charge doesn't really matter with modern computers, because the battery already has a tiny initial charge for the obvious reason that most people feel like exploring their new adquisition inmediately after unpacking it, but I'm not really sure.

It is a Lithium Ion Battery (6-Cell). It'd be really appreciated if someone who knows about this topic could help me.

Thanks in advance!

NobodySpecial

Unlike NiCad Li-ion don't need an initial priming charge.
Don't worry about it

http://batteryuniversity.com/partone-19.htm

Siberion

Thanks for the info and the link. That was really helpful. But then I wonder, why would Dell still include that message?. Is it simply a 'just to make sure' step to follow?

In which way would it be beneficial as an initial start?


Sorry if this seems to obvious, I don't know much about the subject, thanks again for your help!

NobodySpecial

They might include the message because they used to have it with nicads and nobody got round to changing it, or because people would otherwise charge the battery for 20mins then complain if the machine didn't run for the advertised 3hour battery life or the windows battery power meter needs to start with a full charge to calibrate the time remaining

mugaliens

But if you'd prefer to be worried, you can't change what's done, but you can follow the instructions from here on out.

At one time I was told leaving my laptop's Lithium-ion batter plugged in all the time would ruin the battery, but after three straight years in that state, it still lasts 7 hours on its battery, the same as it did when I first bought it, and an overnight recharge gives it another 7 hours of life.

I use it as a desktop more than 95% of the time.