Why is my laptop screen black?

I have a 1yr old gateway windows vista laptop. A few weeks ago i was using and all of a sudden the screen starts flickering for awhile and then turns black. The power was still on but everything-button lights, fan, screen wasnt working. So i looked online for some solutions, i tried taking the battery out and plug-worked for awhile after but then it seems everytime i leave me computer on standby it freezes again or blacks out. People say it could also be a virus but i have norton installed and when i got my computer to work again for a bit it didnt say anything about having viruses. Another thing, i had a problem with my computer last year involving the motherboard and after i got it fixed my computer started making weird clicking noises randomly. So i dont know if that was a warning sign of the blackout. Please help, i need my computer to work for my online classes!