Dropped computer, now turns off after a few minutes

Check your temps, i prefer HW monitor, but if you cant keep it in windows long enough to install it then you might be able to check your bios temps. If it knocked the heatsink loose or cracked a heatpipe it could cause over heating.

Sounds like overheating to me, heatsink or something could have came loose. If you need data off your hard drive you could always pull it out and attach it to another computer if you've got another.

Check fan. It's mostly that it's broken, and cannot take the heat, and system is hutting down.

Concur, need to check the HSF, mounting in laptops are normally a little flimsy. To do that you can gook "Dissasemble (insert laptop model)" there are a couple of sites that discribe/w/picts. Dont forget you will need NEW thermo past (artic silver 5 is good.

I would also look into replacing the HDD. Although 2.5 in HDDs are more rugged than 3.5 in desktop drives, they do not like a large jar (also depends on the axis of the jolt). Recommend replacing the HDD. Can put old one in an enclosure to pull your data/files off. If the Old drive seems OK, you could clone it to a need HDD.

Once you have look at / repaired the HSF, disconnect/remove HDD and boot and go into Bios, hopefully you have a page that shows system health - Just leave on and monitor CPU temp for an hour. You can also boot to a bootable CD/DVD and leave on for an extended time.

I took a Dell apart last week, not for the faint of heart. Wait and get it to a repair shop. you can check the temp by hand(put your hand under the right rear corner and then by the fan, you should have some heat by the fan.)

The fact that Quote also after a minute or less the fan kicks in really loud. endquote. pretty much says - the Fan is OK, but the CPU is overheating.

Sorry, the point I'm trying to make: Is the fan removing the heat?
or is the heat moving the fan? If laptop is super hot to touch and fan not on = problem. If fan is on and no heat = problem.
Trying to determine if heat sink is loose. The Dell I worked on had four screws holding the whole thing down and not likely to get loose.

The model number given does not seem correct. But if it is a studio they talk about 7 spring screws that hold down the heat sink and these could become loose.

Hi, I'm running into a similar problem now. I dropped my Dell this morning and it will only stay on for around 10-15 minutes before crashing again.

Did you end up figuring out the cause? If so, what was it?

I am having the same problem with my HP DV5 I dropped it and I hooked an external screen to it cause its was damaged beyond use. Now it turns on for 20mins or so then shuts off then won't turn on for more than a minute unless I leave it be for an hour or so. No signs of heat. No other troubles have been noticed besides the random shut off.

Update and this may help others. I completely dissembled the laptop including the heat sink didn't see any noticeable problems then reassembled. Now the Laptop stays on and works fine as far as I can tell.

Hey guys, yeah I ended up just sending it to Dell, if I remember right they replaced the heat sink/fan etc. (and my motherboard??? suspicious about that one). So maybe it's worth it to try and take it apart oneself, this ended up costing me around 400 bucks!!!

Still using the same laptop (Dell Studio15z) though and only now thinking of replacing it because I want to do some more gaming and this one just doesn't have the Gs! Other than that and the crappy plastic construction, it's a great laptop.