black screen no safe m ode

Back here sooner than i wanted.
last night I hit the sleep mode and now my Gateway laptop will not give me anything but a black screen. I try hitting F8 and get no safe mode. It powers up and down w the power button.
I did have some luck at the suggestion of removing the battery and putting it back in. I was able to get the safe mode screen for just an instant but it would not start normally after.
Yes, it is Vista.
clues?
Thank you very much.

 

I've had a breakthrough. Following all manner of threads on the web a fellow suggested pulling my battery out and putting it back. Doing this I was able then to hit the F8 key for safe mode and do a system recovery.
Right now I want to create a complete back up before I do anything else. And I'll have to get a device to store that properly. Later.


Additionally, I just spent a week on this forum trying to correct my screen resolution. It had changed itself to 1280x720 and elongated all my images. I changed my resolution to 1280 x 800 and this was fixed, last night. Now after rescuing whatever was going on here I saw that the resolution had changed again. Is there a relationship that perhaps updating a driver can remedy? Gateway wanted me to re install the disk. Or does anyone have a clue that these issues may be related?
Thanks for any and all help.