The "battery issue" is due to the battery being lithium based and people forcing them to go under voltage, therefore the battery refuses to accept charge, the same thing happens with any lithium based battery. Therefore the "battery issue" is present in pretty much all new electronics which run off of lithium based batteries.

The issue has affected an extremely low percentage of users. The greater majority have no problems with the battery in the W3.

My W3 came with an additional warning sticker or leaflet which explained that the battery must be fully charged before first use and must never be used after the W3 has automatically turned itself off.

This has been mentioned and explained on these forums previously however I can only assume no notice was taken.

The bios, drivers etc. have nothing to do with the charging circuits in the W3.

Also note that lithium based batteries are sensitive to low temperatures. As temperature drops so does the voltage, if this drops below a specific voltage (I believe it's around 2.6v) the cell will refuse to accept charge. It's good practice not to let the cells drop below 3.2v. The software on the W3 (i.e. Windows) should always turn the W3 off before it gets near to 2.6v however it can still be turned on and therefore the battery can be forced through user error to under voltage or in some cases can go under voltage due to not being used for a period of time and low temperatures.

Even if you are unlucky enough to suffer from a dead battery when unpacking the W3, they are covered under warranty and Acer will exchange the tablet without a problem.

Thanks for tips and comments. Any additional tips would be welcome. I remember Anthony mentioning he utilized a mini to standard USB cable. Maybe I will not need it, I think it said built in Bluetooth for EZB3? I read that touch screen can be challenging, maybe the keyboard option would be a plus? I have read that it runs ARC ok. Sounds like some users have experience with this little unit. Steve S

Yes it has bluetooth and it works great for the V3 The touch screen is a little less than desirable compared to some other touch screens, I use a stylus which helps improve accuracy, especially for small buttons and the virtual keyboard however it is not required, it is usable without. A bluetooth mouse and keyboard would always be a good option to have. It comes with a USB adapter so you can use standard USB devices on it's mini USB port without issue, I have used my VAGCOM cable for my car through the adapter and if that works I would bet anything will. It runs ARC very well, I've had no issues at all. It runs smooth and fast even when running 20+ scripts at the same time. Voice recognition and speech synthesis both work great too.

The only minor problem is ARC doesn't like the front camera on the tablet.

Ok , well it was cheap in comparison to last year and I'll cross my fingers their are no issues. If I needed to I could cracked the bad boy. Open and replace the battery.

Just to add to Rich's battery advice, never leave it off rhe charger for a long time even if you think it is turned off. The battery can go flat over time and any lithium battery that goes completely flat will never charge again. Lost a batch of spare laptop batteries learning that lesson.

Alan

I've lost a couple of LiPo batteries from them discharging while not even being connected to anything and I've lost a lot of lithium based batteries for power tools due to temperature and discharge.

A lot of people are unaware of the problems and the care required for lithium based batteries and while it usually does mention it in the manuals for the products it's such a small note it's often missed.

Bottom line is, if it says Lithium (or Li) make sure it always has a decent charge, if possible a full charge. Lithium batteries have no memory effect so it doesn't hurt to always have them on charge when not in use.

I think if voltage drops below 3V per cell you can almost certainly kiss you Li-Ion or Li-po goodbye...