iMac Black screen

I read all of the posts about this issue but nothing has worked. I have a core 2 duo iMac 20" bought it in 2007. I connected my Ipod to it earlier today and got a strange error saying the ipod was using more power than the USB port could provide or something like that. After a few seconds the Ipod synced and was charging perfectly well. Once I got a good charge I ejected it and put the PC into sleep mode and went to the pool. When i returned the computer would not display. I can boot it up hear the sounds see the light at the bottom right and all that but the monitor is completely black.

In the past I have had some minor issues with it I have a wireless keyboard and mouse and they loose connection fairly often. Mostly the mouse but after about 10 seconds it finds it again and I am fine.

I have tried just about everything I have read on the forums about this. The store wants me to bring the mac in but I cant afford to pay 200.00 to get it fixed right now. I am sure it wont be cheap.They reccomended that I buy a mini DVI - VGA jack and see if I could get it to work using a regular PC monitor. It didnt work so take that into consideration I had thought initally that it was a issue with the lcd display but since the PC monitor wont work either I have to assume that that's not the case. I am assuming you just plug the PC monitor into the back of the Imac with the adapter and it should recognize it and work right?

I am really dissapointed I havent had huge issues with this mac but it has had issues since I bought it and I expected to get more use out of a macintosh before it began doing stuff like this. I have PC's that have lasted twice as long.

It's possible the trouble is with the GPU but it could also be something else. If when you attached an external monitor and could not get a picture, that seems to indicate a graphics processor problem. You probably should take it on in and have Apple look at it. If it's not under Apple care, it could turn out to be an expensive repair.

Regards.

I am not going to get it fixed if I cant fix it myself I will just go back to PC I have had a dissapointing run with apple products They arent living up to the hype and they definately arent worth the extra price. My Ipod has plenty of issues as well. Nothing I have had from apple has run as it was advertised. I just cant believe I paid so much for this mac and it lasted half as long as my crappy, cheap 500 dollar laptop which I am still using to this day.

Crazy question. I am wanting to at least try to get my info off the hard drive. Is there a way I can pull the macs hard drive out and hook it p to a PC to pull info from it?