Black Screen, Genius:not NVIDIA issue, need Logicboard. How do I get docs?

Question

The screen was covered with a bunch of tiny colors once, then went black. The computer will turn on (sound, fan, constant sleep light), but nothing happens on the screen.
I have a *"late 2007" 15" MacBook Pro* I bought new from an Apple Store. (I assume it is late 2007 because that is when I bought it and the serial # brings up mid 2007 and late 2007 as the only possibilities). It has the *NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT*, but the Genius at the Apple Store plugged something into it that checks for that specific problem and apparently it wasn't the problem. Genius said that issue is with later MacBook Pros, and I need a new logicboard. cost: $700 for part, $110 for labor at the Apple Store (the 700 may include the 110)or flat rate of $310 at the AASP. Since I'm broke, my question is:
How can I access my documents (and hopefully Quicken)? I have a *DVI to VGA* adapter and an *ethernet cable*. I didn't see a place to connect either of these to my tv or to a pal's Dell desktop monitor. I may be able to borrow a laptop for this purpose. I am not hardware-savvy, so please use simple words

Answer 1

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Did the genius check to see if you have video on an external display? That should be done as a check to confirm that the problem is with the graphics chip and not with the built in display or possibly its connections.
Here are a couple of links to instructions for removing the hard drive:
http://www.ifixit.com/
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/
If you don't feel comfortable doing this yourself, you might be able to arrange for the AASP to replace the hard drive and give you the old one back in an enclosure when you have the logic board replaced.
When you turn on the Mac, do you hear the drive spin up? If so, possibly you could access the contents with another Mac using FireWire Target Disk Mode:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
If this works, your hard drive will appear on the desktop of the other Mac and look like an external hard drive.
If this works, you can mount another external hard drive on the host Mac's desktop and clone your hard drive using Super Duper:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
You can download Super Duper and use it for free. If you can clone your hard drive onto an external hard drive, this will preserve all the contents of your hard drive.
Not knowing exactly what the logic board problem is, this procedure may or may not be possible. But if the problem is that there's no video from the graphics chip, then the rest of the logic board may be working well enough for you to do this.
Apple also has a flat rate repair program. I don't know if you qualify for this, but it's worth asking about. However, you do want to preserve the contents of your hard drive before sending it off--either by replacing the drive yourself or by cloning the drive using FWTDM.
If you're broke and aren't able to fix your Mac immediately, try FWTDM to access your files on another Mac. If you don't need the full contents of the drive, you can copy just what you need onto an external drive or maybe even onto flash drives.
Good luck!