I just bought a new Kindle Fire HD, and am giving my old Kindle Fire to dd for her birthday.  But there is no instruction book in my box like there was in the old one.  So I have a couple of questions for the experts (you).

1. There is a USB cord but no wall plug-in.  Can the new Fire charge on a computer?  I thought that I read that the old one could not, and needed to be plugged into the wall

2.  Is this USB cord and the wall plug-in on my old fire interchangeable? 

3.  How do I know when it's charged - there is no light?

4.  I should be able to go and pull any of my previous Amazon purchases and download them to the new Fire once its charged, right?

5.  Do they sell new covers for the new Fire?  I just realized that the beautiful purple leather cover from my old Fire won't fit the new one.  :(

Thanks so much for any help you can give me - I'm so excited to charge this baby up!  :)

I don't have a fire but I'm guessing there is a "book" or a file ON the unit that tells you how it works. Like an owners manual.

Mine wouldnt But some couputers are more powerful than mine!  I use the wall plug that came with my K3 wifi keyboard.   Yes interchangable!    I not figured out #3  But mine is charged withing 2 hours from Dead to Full.   Turn WiFi on & everything on Amazon will download to Cloud then You pick what you want on the Fire.   Yep you need a New cover I still trying to decde on one for mine!   I just want a Rubber cover....  But dang the shipping a killer! 

1. & 2. Yes you can use the charger that came with the original Fire with the Fire HD. It will charge via USB but will take much longer.

3. Correct, no light. That would irritate me! You'll just have to "wake" it up and check it.

4. As long as they are registered to the same account.

5. Yes you have to buy a new cover. Amazon makes one, and it is not cheap. You can buy cases from other manufactures that are just as good, for much less.

example

Thanks for all the answers.  I did charge it on my work computer, and it charged pretty quickly.  My home computer is not as "strong", so it's good to know that I can interchange the cords.  And now that it is charged, I do see the instruction manual on the Kindle (kind of hard to get to it if you can't figure out how to charge it, lol).  Thanks for the example of the new cover, too - I'll have to go check it out.

The wall charger for my cell phone works for my Kindle Fire HD too and it charges faster than the USB charger.