[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The battery doesn't need priming, but on many devices (and I don't know whether or not the Kindle is among them) it can take a couple of charge/discharge cycles to accurately calibrate the battery meter.

Exactly Harry...no Li-based battery ever needs "conditioning" rather, as you say, depending on the "smartness" of either the battery or the power management software on whatever the device might be a series of drains from the beginning will improve the accuracy of the visible meter. However it is not absolutely necessary as the meter, generally, has nothing to do with how long the battery will run. In fact if left uncalibrated, and just run down normally, the software should self-calibrated over time. The deep drops will simply serve to hasten the process. Good tip Sir Harry!!

Originally Posted by andavane

Indeed.
With a new Li-ion battery it's a good idea to deep-cycle by allowing 3 successive discharge--charges. Truer readings will follow.

I have always lived by the "it's never wise to fully drain your Li-Whatever batteries because every time one does this it affects the lifespan (as in longevity not run time) of the battery. But after talking with HP on my laptop batteries, one delivers 4-6hrs and the other 12-16hrs on a full charge when new and now after 5yrs they are sill in the 2hrs and 4-5hr range...but HP said to simply run them down a couple times so the battery gauge can calibrate for those specific batteries. Their point was a couple full discharges are not going to have a significant effect on lifespan but to do everything possible to avoid ever running them below 80% in the future...and their help seems to have served me well...so it's basically what I do and suggest to anyone. But in general deep-cycling will only lead to replacing a battery far sooner than normal. I have known friends who still clung to the always run them to as close to zero as possible then complain the batteries only hasted 4-6months. And when talking about a 12hr batter that costs $400 that is just, well stoopid!! But people still do it...I guess when their warranty will replace it as a defective battery they don't care. Of course people like that are why a lot of mfgs no longer warranty Li-whatever batteries more than 6-months.

Oh, for those out there who have run across it, there is no such animal as a "reconditioned" Li-whatever battery...lithium batteries cannot be reconditioned, the cells can be replaced and the battery rebuilt but that's as far was it goes. So be wary...

Originally Posted by TomF

If you truly understand the technology behind e-ink you'll realize that "shut down mode" doesn't save any more power than sleep mode. A tear down of the K2 indicated that when power was completely removed the screen continued to display the last image. That's the way it's designed to work. With Wi-Fi off and no indexing being done, the only time a Kindle uses power while reading is when it does a page turn. It doesn't operate like other electronic devices and there really is no "off".

Actually in "sleep" mode the wireless should stay active. This is how system updates and backups happen if you have backups enabled. If you do this i would just plug in the power every night. I won't hurt the battery because charge cycles for Li-whatever batteries refers, confusingly, to full discharge-recharge cycles so if you recharge a 20% empty battery that supposedly equals 1/5th of a full charge cycle not one of your allotted 1000 or whatever charge cycles.

Originally Posted by Skydog

I have a really weird battery problem with one of my new K3s - it's overheating. First noticed when charging and it became just short of HOT around the lower right hand corner. Unplugged, I noticed that with use of the right-hand next page button the surrounding area began to heat up again.

It's being replaced (before it ignites).

Now, on to sort out the freezing problem on the other K3.

Yeah, whenever your battery heats up, that means it's likelywearing out or when new very likely there is a defect in the battery and/or charging circuitry. When it happens during use it's likely a bad battery cell when it happens during recharge then the defect is in the charging circuitry and the battery is either over-charging or the current supplied to the battery is too high...no matter that real cause, a hot, even warm battery is a sign of potential danger as the battery can explode...of course if it also catches on fire, then hey, there is your backlight!! Plus it makes for a nifty heat source for Jiffy-Pop!!