Necessary to connect my HD-5 to the mains?

[Paidinfull]

Obviously it's necessary to connect my HD-5 to the mains to recharge, although with it's world beating battery life it's not something I find I need to do all that often. However, it says in the manual that when I've got it hooked up via usb to my pc in order to transfer files and playlists and so on using Sonicstage, I should also connect it to the mains. I've not bothered with this on a few occasions, because I've forgotten, and no harm done. Is there a reason why you're told to do this? Isit strictly necessary? The only reason I could think of is that something might go awry if the battery were to run down completely and switch itself off mid-transfer. But I thought that you were charging the battery via the usb when it's connected to your pc anyway. Can anyone advise?

[KJ_Palmer]

I've almost never connected my HD5 to the mains adapter whilst downloading to it from my laptop, even when I transferrred nearly 15GB in one go. I keep the battery pretty fully charged up all the time though. I suppose if the battery level is low after transfer there might be trouble during the updating phase when the USB cable is removed, but other than that I think it would be quite safe not to have the mains plugged in during transfers. Or perhaps when the battery is nearing the end of its life it might be unpredictable and fail without warning..

Edited January 1, 2006 by KJ_Palmer

[ajitp]

HD5 charges off the USB. even during transfers, so to me it seems a bit redundant to have it charging of USB and off the mains.