Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Black Screen Problem

[r1ck5ta]

hi all! i have a figitsu siemens amilo laptop, got to be the best part of 3 years old now, running on windows vista.
i first start up the computer and the big figitsu siemens logo flashes up, with the ESC, F2 and what not else options on the bottom of the screen, then from there on after that it just stays on a black, blank screen!? the light on the background is illuminated, but it just stays black?
i was wondering if anybody has an ideas as to what the problem could be for this to happen? any help would be much appreciated!
the only other option i can think, is to re-install windows vista again, but if i can avoid that, that would be better as i have tons of information, pictures and what not on the hard drive that i don't want to loss as these are really valuable to me.
please help! many thanks in advance!

[newtech]

Can you try to close and reopen the lid, does it affect the screen? (Backlight is switched off and on.) Probably it doesn't work, I think it's a problem with the graphics card - going into sleep mode ensures that graphics is shut down (powerless) and restarted when resuming. Try to press F8 and see if it boots to safe mode.