Computer woes

I sat down at my laptop this afternoon while both boys were sleeping. (Yes, both at the same time...beautiful!) I had my camera and USB cord ready, I downloaded the pictures off my memory card that were from the last few weeks (and was even brave - or stupid - enough to click "erase photos after downloading") and was ready to go to town on picture organizing, birth announcements, finishing my photo-a-day posts (which will get done...somehow...I hope), and sharing some sweet pictures of the boys with all of you.

To my dismay, the computer was working a little slow. Why? I couldn't figure it out. Then, the screen went black, only to come on again about a minute later. There was a message on the bottom right hand corner of the screen saying something about the display driver shutting down, then recovering. I went upstairs and grabbed my hubby, hoping he'd have a simple answer. He didn't. In fact, after a few minutes of trying to download a new driver, the screen went black. Bryce decided to shut it down and leave it alone for an hour or so.

Well, now the screen will not come back on. I don't really know what to do and neither does he. My computer is 3 years old and I guess has reached it's standard life expectancy. The "wonderful" thing about it is that Bryce just ordered a new computer for himself last week because his apparently hit it's "life expectancy," too, in a gamer's eyes anyway...

So, long story short, the real bummer of the deal is I have no idea how to get my pictures or documents off my computer. Fortunately, I backed up all my pictures onto discs right before Tyson was born and I even stored some of Tyson's baby pics on costco.com. But now I'm without all of the pictures I had of the last few weeks. I'm also without my last few weeks of photo-a-day pics because I didn't want to burn just the partial file to a disc. I also don't have access to several important and very helpful documents. Stink.

So, do any of you know how to fix this or know a computer savvy someone who can?