Alright, so I have this old hand-me-down laptop that I restored - How I did it, I'm not sure, but it was working - my OS is "Windows Me" I believe? I had all my settings, pictures, vids, music, etc. Everything was working great for about a year. Well all of a sudden my screen started going black (EVERY once in a while). I was told by a friend (who generally knows much more about computers than myself) that if I simply took the battery out and shut it down, then restarted, the screen would work again. It worked... for a while. I would take the battery out, restart, and it worked like new until I was done with it. Since then it's gotten worse, to where I start it up and after about 5 minutes the screen goes black and it doesn't go back, no matter what I do to my dinosaur laptop. Sometimes it's black right from start up. I'm just wondering what's wrong with it, because I have no clue. I'm not too tech savey.
My other problem is with ANOTHER computer, its a Sony Vaio with Windows Vista - We haven't had any problems with Vista, I'm not sure what all the talk is about. Anyway, it's actually my dad's laptop and it's fairly new. He's been having problems with a certain file type, .THM? He DOWNLOADED some vids from his digital camera a while back and they played just fine on Windows Media Player. Just recently Windows no LONGER recognizes the file and won't play any of these vids... (He's getting pretty grumpy about it). Usually I can play with his computer a little bit and figure out the problem for him, but I'm not sure what's going on. Once again, I'm not tech savey in the least bit. Any info would be great. Ok first of since you have problems with two different laptops you need to have a different post for each. This will keep down any confusion as to which one people are talking about.

We can use this thread for your laptop and just start a new one for you dad's laptop.

Have you tried hooking an external monitor to your laptop to see if it is the comp that is having problems or just the screen?I agree with him. Try that if something pops out in the monitor then it means there is a problem with your laptop.