m18 R2, not warm battery charger

Also, I'm trying to do a 24 first charge, so I can't turn on the computer yet to see if the battery icon shows that it's charging. 

Long before four hours, the charge will complete and stop.  At that point, the charger will cool down.  You asked exactly the same question prior to this one about charge time -- did you not read the answer?

Thank you. Actually, before I asked about whether you needed to charge for 24 hours for first charge - although the info is contradictory I decided to go ahead and do it. This time my question was concerning the fact that the charger is not warm, so I wondered if something was wrong. I'm sorry if it's annoying - I've never spent this much on a computer so I'm a bit anxious. Thank you for your help. 

Charging the battery and powering on the laptop are two different things.  To resolve your query and ease your concern, you can keep the charger plugged in while turning on and running setup on your new machine.  Tapping on F2 will give you access to BIOS settings.  You can verify your system components and check the battery status at the same time.

Otherwise, you will know by checking the battery indicator light.  Not sure if Dell still keep the same design with your system, but when the LED on the Alienhead turned off, the battery is fully charged.