My Poor, Poor PC

Alright you guys, this might be it. I've been dreading this day for the last...oh, year and a half? But I'm honestly afraid that it might actually be here. I think my computer is dying.

I've had my laptop for almost 5 years now, and as my brother kindly pointed out this afternoon, "That's like 20 years in computer time." It's held help really well over the years, made it all the way to Italy and back with me, but over the last year or so a lot of funny little (and not so little) things have been happening that have had me worried. Lately it's been doing this cute little trick where the screen goes black. Not totally black, but almost completely black... like someone lowered the contrast to the lowest it can go before the screen is totally black. I can make out some things on the screen, anything that's white I can kind of see, but not enough to be able to operate the computer.

Now normally all I have to do is turn the computer off and back on again, and it's fine. Everything is normal and I don't have any other problems. Until today, that is. This morning I was using my computer before work and it was great. When I got home from work, however, I turned it on and the screen began flickering back and forth between the almost-black screen and normal and then just stayed at almost-black. At it's stayed there ever since. I've restarted the computer several times, left it off for a while and tried turning it back on, tried adjusting the contrast settings... I don't know what to do!

Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else before? Any advice on how to fix it? I'm taking it to a computer store tomorrow and hopefully they'll be able to sort it out. I really cannot afford to buy a new laptop right now, and I cannot afford to live without a computer. Until then, I'll be mooching off my roommates and using their computers. Keep your fingers crossed for me and my little PC!

EDIT: So I brought my computer to the IT guys on campus and they ran a bunch of tests on it and were able to diagnose the problem. Luckily, the hard drive/computer itself is actually fine. No viruses, no problems, no nothing. The problem is that the screen itself is broken. So I either 1) get the screen replaced, 2) buy a monitor to attach to my laptop and work from that, or 3) buy a new laptop. After 5 years it's definitely time to get a new computer, but I really don't have the money right now. This weekend I'm going to do some research and figure out what to do!