T100 FAQ - Setup, Batteries, Free space, Windows 7/XP, Windows 10...

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You have bought a new Asus T100 & are wondering what to do next.

What is the best way to setup? How do I look after my battery? You don't like Windows 8.1 & want Windows 7 or XP? This thread seeks to answer these frequently asked questions.

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How to Setup your T100

I'm no Windows expert, so here is another member's safe & recommended process as quoted by me in one of the many threads that asks this question...

Make sure you charge it for 8 hours before use & then do ALL the setup with the a/c connected. Here is the recommended process...

Well, what I did was delete Asus Reading Mode, because it's uselees and annoying. disabling adaptive brightness and tweaking screen settings in Intel Control Panel.

• First install all updates from ASUS Live Update (dk about Broadcomm adapter, some people like to skip it)
• Then install all updates from Windows Update (there's a lot of them and some show only after the previous updates are installed).
• Then select your C:\ drive, click "manage", then "cleanup", choose "clean system files" and delete what's left from previous Windows Updates (I seriously don't know why it's even there, but it takes couple of gigabytes).
• Install Office 2013 (optional) and you're good.

Then, before you do anything else, having read the virus/malware thread in this section & decided which product you will install - install that next & let it do its thing.

Then disconnect the a/c, power off and then power on & enjoy your T100.

Rick covers some other helpful FAQs on the setup, below...

(1) - I heard that Windows Update must be set to manual update not auto update - do I really need to do so?

Your choice but initially I'd set it to auto and you'll likely have several waves of updates. I have mine set to manual only because I like to see what MS is updating. I do have to deal with manual updates almost every day for the MS dictionary but it's easy.

(2) - Will Asus Live Update update my BIOS?

If needed yes but most folks have reported Asus Live Update may not take you all the way to the latest BIOS as Asus tend to delay including the very newest in Live Update immediately.

(3) - Can I use a microSD as a hard drive? Will I be able to play games from it? Will it be fast as a normal Hard Disk?

Yes sort of... but if you want the best performance, read through the microSD card thread in this section for guidance.

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Battery LED, Care & Maintenance

As far as charge levels are concerned, the LED next to the power button is off when not connected to the charger, orange when charging & white when charged.

One important thing to say is that it is not recommended that you leave your T100 permanently connected to a/c. Doing so is almost guaranteed to shorten the life of your battery. You can read the sections below for further guidance on battery care & maintenance. You will find many discussions in our T100 battery section if you wish to ask subsequent questions or debate the advice shown here.

Charging problems with your tablet.

We often get posts asking for help with devices that are refusing to charge. Sometimes, the solution to the problem can be as simple as using the correct charger for your device. Not all a/c chargers are the same. Just because they have a USB connection does not mean they will charge whatever tablet you own.

So the first thing to check is that you are using the manufacturer supplied charger, or at least a charger that has the same output as the charger supplied by the manufacturer. This output can be read on the manufacturers' charger and the two important pieces of information will be the voltage and the amperage. A powered on PC USB port, for example, outputs at 5v/500ma.

The second thing to check is that you are using the charging cable that came with your device. Third party cables (especially those without a lot of owner reviews) sometimes just don't work! Also check to see that your cable and connectors are not damaged.

If you are happy that your charger and cable are fine, (or even if you are not & you want to try it anyway) then the next thing to try is the trickle charge trick.

Trickle Charging
Lithium based batteries don't like being completely flattened. Sometimes in that condition they will not accept a charge from the regular charger until they have got a little charge in them. In order for that to happen, connecting to a 5v/500ma connection - such as a powered on (& not sleeping) PC USB port, or a low power phone charger (5v/500ma) - for 8 hours or so, then enables the device to get a charge from the regular a/c charger.

So, the process would be...

• Device refuses to charge (or power on) when connected to the a/c charger.
• Using the charging cable, connect to a powered on (& not sleeping) PC USB port, or a low power phone charger (5v/500ma)
• Leave the device connected for a minimum of 8 hours. Longer won't be any problem.
• Reconnect the device to the a/c charger and try again
• If that process fails, try replacing either the charger and/or charging cable

Frequent, smaller charges are better for your battery.

Most will be familiar with the fact that a mechanical device wears out faster with heavy use. This analogy applies well when considering the life expectancy of a battery. Given that batteries in tablet devices are not easily replaced, it is worth considering the depth of discharge (DoD) to which tablet devices are allowed to discharge as this determines the cycle count (the number of times the battery can be recharged). The shorter the discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge with lithium based batteries is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life.

A partial discharge reduces stress and prolongs battery life. Elevated temperature and high currents (produced when charging from a deep DoD) also affect cycle life.

In the list below you can see that charging at around 50% DoD will mean that your battery lasts around twice as long as charging at a low DoD

• 100% DoD - 300 to 500 charge cycles
• 50% DoD - 1,200 to 1,500 charge cycles
• 25% DoD - 2,000 to 2,500 charge cycles
• 10% DoD - 3,750 to 4,700 charge cycles

Accurate battery charge reporting (calibration).

That said, however, occasional full recharges, perhaps once every 8-12 weeks - from around 10% to full - are a good idea as this enables the software reporting of the level of charge in the battery to stay accurate.

Calibration occurs naturally by occasionally running the tablet down until the battery is fully depleted and “Low Battery” appears. The full discharge sets the discharge flag, and the subsequent recharge sets the charge flag. By establishing these two markers, the battery can calculate the state-of-charge by knowing the distance between the flags

If you have a tablet that is not reporting full charge levels, or inaccurate charge levels, a couple of full "low battery - recharge to full" cycles will invariably resolve that issue.

It will work best if you connect the tablet to the a/c charger and then power off the tablet. This enables the battery to charge without any need for it to maintain a powered on device. So the process would be...

• Tablet reports "low battery"
• Promptly finish whatever you were doing
• Connect to the a/c charger
• Switch on the a/c power
• Power off the tablet until the device is fully charged

Acknowledgements to Battery University for some of the information contained in this section.

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I want to install Windows 7 or XP

What you are asking is at this point impossible for a host of reasons. It just won't work. However there are ways to make Windows 8 look and feel much like Windows 7 using some add-ons and making certain you are fully up to date on your Microsoft updates.

This program will provide a "classic" start menu Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements and you can get Windows 8 to start at the desktop.

There you have it - the simple answer to the question, can I install Windows 7 or XP on my T100 is, sorry, no you can't. But you can make Windows 8.1 look & feel like earlier versions of the OS if you follow leeshor's advice above - and he is a Windows expert.

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Windows 10

At some point, devices will ship with W10, but if that isn't your situation, follow the information in these threads to upgrade painlessly...

Upgrading to Windows 10 for Dummies

[GUIDE] Windows 10 - Simple Upgrade Definitive Guide for all Windows 8.1 Asus models!

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Please - no debate / discussion in this thread. It is for factual answers to the FAQs we read here all the time. If you want to debate the advice, please do so in one of the many threads that already exist on these subjects. Posts that do not follow this rule will either be moved or deleted (probably the latter).

Thank you.

That said, here is a request...

If you think there is a FAQ that is not answered above, & you want it included, please post it in this thread & one of the team here will review it for consideration to add it to the post.

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Thanks to forum member Rednroll who has posted the following answer to this FAQ...

I post this in regards to typical free storage space on the 32GB vs. 64GB models...


64GB Model
MMC Total Capacity=59.6GB
EFI System partition=100MB
Recover Partition=900MB
Recovery Image Partition=8GB
C: Drive Capacity= 49.1GB
Approximate Windows 8.1 with updates used Capacity Size= 18GB
Free Space= 31GB


32GB Model
MMC Total Capacity=29.8GB
EFI System partition=100MB
Recover Partition=700MB
Recovery Image Partition=0GB
C: Drive Capacity= 28.2 GB
Approximate Windows 8.1 with updates used Capacity Size= 18GB
Free Space= 10.2GB
*32GB model has an additional 8GB ROM that contains Recovery Image