Battery caught fire - Dell Vostro 3550

Any lithium ion/polymer battery can explode in flames -as we've seen with the genuine Samsung batteries in the Note 7 issue.

It's more likely to happen with third-party batteries, which often lack the protection circuit genuine cells have.

If the system was being used on a soft bed surface, the cooling vents were likely blocked - that alone could have raised the temperature high enough to cause the incident.

You'll need to contact your seller to find out whether the battery is original Dell - though even if it appears to be, it may be that someone replaced the cells inside -- i.e., "refurbished" the battery.

It's likely not worth repairing this system - you can easily buy a used but much  newer, more capable system than this one, which is now on the order of five years old -- for less than what the repair parts will cost.

Thanks for the reply ejn63. Yeah, you're probably correct. He listed it as genuine and the casing probably was. But yeah,  he no doubt just replaced the cells. So if I buy a battery direct from Dell, protection would kick in and it would be unlikely or far less likely that it would get to this point of burning? The ebay one cost about £35. On Dell's site, about £135. But after this incident, I would rather buy from Dell and spend a bit more for peace of mind.

I also bought a genuine charger 2 weeks ago direct from Dell for £66.

About whether to rebuild this or buy something else, hmm, I'm really not sure now. Buying used means not knowing anything about the authenticity or longevity of the battery.  But buying the vostro spares for mine and a new battery from Dell will be less than £200.

I want to make an Acronis True Image backup of my harddrive. Can I restore it to a new laptop of a different Dell model or even brand?

What laptop would you recommend? I require backlit keyboard.

Here's the pictures by the way.

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It looks like just about everything needs to be replaced - and while you can back up using True Image, you can't restore it to other than the same model system.  There's no way anyone could sell a brand-new Dell battery for that price, though.

These systems seem to sell for $100-250 depending on condition used on EBay.  

What if I bought another second hand and working vostro 3550. They're going on ebay around £135. But the 3550s come with varying configs. Like mine has intel and amd graphics chips while others have just the intel graphics. The cpu might be an i3 where mine is i5. Would things like that stop an Acronis  restore booting up or is it fine because the motherboard will be the same ?

Another of the same model, even with different video, should be able to boot an image made from your system.

The Vostro 3550 is functionally the same as an Inspiron N5110, with only cosmetic differences;  the Inspirons sold in much larger numbers, so they'll be easier to find on the used market.

Thanks ejn. I've checked out the Inspiron N5110. Looks nice, and yes much the same, but no backlit keyboard that I can see. But it would boot an image made from my vostro?

You mentioned earlier about getting a newer more capable used laptop. Which do you recommend? I do require a backlit keyboard though.  

By the way, I'm currently using my laptop, it's working fine. I've just got to remember not to unplug the charger before shutting down as there's no battery!

The N5110 should boot a Vostro 3550 image.  Nothing outside of those two models will, though.

You can easily find brand-new low-end systems (this one was decidedly low-end in its day) for as little as $300-500 -- I wouldn't spend a lot on repair or on a used system.