Hi There sorry to hear you are having problems. This seems to me like a hardware problem, it could be your graphics chip or you power addapter. As its a laptop and four years old it would probably be to expensive to repair.
What I would do is get the laptop going and backup enverything that is important to you once this is done if the laptop lets you I would do a memory test with the free memory test software listed here.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/gr/memtest86.h­tm
I would then do a hard disk check by going to My Computer right clicking on your hard drive and left click properties once opened click on the tools tab click on check now check the boxes that say "Automatically fix file system errors" and check the box that says "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" then click start (as this is the only hard drive you have in your laptop it will tell you it can't do it now and it will ask you if you want it to do it at the next start up) click yes and then restart your laptop.

All the above is assuming your laptop wil play ball and let you do this without freezing or going to a black screen.
If all else fails I would try and do a complete re-install and then get my prayer mat out and start praying.

Let me know how you get on.

Best of Luck Kindest Regards Tony B.
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