PowerBook Increasingly Refusing to Start Up

My PowerBook G4 has, in recent months, started going 'black' when I'm in the middle of things, and I can't find any relationship between what I'm doing and when this happens. About 20 percent of the time, it comes back with my doing nothing.
Once about a month ago, it wouldn't wake up when I opened it. I tried the sequence of Force-Quit, then Restart, then Command+Power and eventually it came back.
It was fine for three weeks, and yesterday it went 'dead' again (i.e., wouldn't wake up after I opened it) and I called Apple Care and they talked me through taking out the battery, etc. That got things awake again.
But it happened AGAIN this morning. Fortunately, I knew the 'trick' to get it started (removing the battery, etc.). But I'm wondering if anyone has a clue why this might be happening and what I can do to avoid problems like this continually creeping up?
Many thanks!
Anne

HELP!
Approximately two weeks ago I had symptoms appear on my Powerbook 17". Slow operation, sound that I thought may be a fan, etc. The hard drive eventually crashed and was unrecoverable. Today, my wife's 12" Powerbook is showing the same signs. I've been reading forums today and noticed quite a few postings on hard drive crashes in the last week even. Is this coincidence? Has anybody heard of another cause as I feel that two Powerbooks failing in two weeks is just too hard to believe after 3&4 years respectively of "no problem" service.

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