Hardware Problem with my 2007 Laptop?

I'm sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum for this thread. I've been having intermittent problems with my laptop.

Here are my system specs:

Gateway
Model: MT6451
AMD Turion 64x2 Mobile Technology TL-50 1.60 GHz
Memory (RAM): 2.00 GB
System Type: 32-bit Operating System
Operating System: Windows Vista, Service Pack 2

Here's my problem:

It first happened 1 - 2 weeks ago while I was viewing a page on CNN.com. The screen went completely black and a loud whirring/buzzing sound came from my PC. As soon as that happened, I immediately did a "hard kill" and held down the power button to shut it off.

Tonight it did it two more times in a time period of about 2 hours, though this time it did not have any sound accompanying it. Also, the screen stayed completely black for about 20 - 30 seconds and then turned white with a few colored pixels. I tried CNTRL, ALT, DEL, but nothing happened. Again, the only thing I could do was a "hard kill."

I checked the EVENT LOG (but I really don't know anything about it) and saw a few things that I thought might be of interest, but I dunno. Here they are (if they're useful):

EVENT ID 26 SSIDRV (2 TIMES PAST 24 HOURS) (Amount of times of its occurrence is by memory from when I saw it. Might not be accurate for this one and I'm too tired to go back into the log and confirm it unless I know you need it.)
EVENT ID 8194 VSS (2 TIMES PAST 24 HOURS)
EVENT ID 10010 DISTRIBUTED COM (3 TIMES PAST 24 HOURS)
EVENT ID 4001 WLAN AUTOCONFIG (1 TIME PAST 24 HOURS)

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas? I'm afraid my poor little laptop is on its last leg, but I have NO money for a new one and it's my only PC. Please help!! Thank you in advance!

 

Have you thoroughly cleaned the laptop using canned/compressed air?

The whirring noise could simply be the fan trying to cool the components off, but if it is clogged with dust, it will overheat, causing the issues you describe.

 

I have done that with the keyboard, but never opening up the back and doing it. Is that what you meant? I hope you're right. The whirring noise only happened that first time. The other two times it was silent (and also switched from a black screen to the white screen). But the fan was running normally the most recent times it did that. I don't recall off the top of my head if the fan was working normally the first time. I really don't want to lose my only computer. I will try that and post after. Thank you!