screen shutoff problems with Inspiron 1520

I've had this computer since August of last year. Been working fine. I have the highest res screen 1680x1050. A few days ago the screen randomly turned off. I have a second monitor plugged in, and the second screen was still working fine, so it wasn't going into standby or anything. I shut the lid and opened it back up and the screen worked again. But only for about 5 minutes. Then it randomly shut off again. I can't get it to stop. I switched my 2nd monitor to be my primary for the time being, but my laptop screen will only work for about 1 minute now before turning off. If I close the lid and open it, it will work again for another 1 minute but never stays on longer than that.

Has anyone else ever had this problem ??? Do I have to send my computer into Dell ?

 

Does it happen while you are using it or while it is just sitting there idle? What operating system?

Might be a bad cable

 

it happens if it's idle or in use. i downgraded to windows XP.

I doubt if it's a cable issue as it's not intermittent, it will only stay on for 1 minute then shut off no matter what. If the computer goes into standby, or i shut the lid and open it, the screen will come back on (as if only when the screen is physically turned off and back on it will work , but only for 1 more minute before shutting down again).

should I try reinstalling Vista? (mind you, i've been running XP for about 7 months now with no issues.) Could this be a software issue?

 

anyone? I really need to get this issue resolved.

 

What are your laptops temperatures.

 

I'm not sure, how do I check them? I don't think it's a temperature issue as the screen shuts off at 1 minute whether the computer has been running for hours or first start up of the day.

To see if it was just windows doing it I went into the bios to see if it still did it, and it did , which tells me it's a hardware issue... looks like im going to have to send my computer away to dell Unless I can find a screen for sale somewhere....