3GS white screen please help!!

I've dropped it a few times and changed battery a few times, so maybe things got loose inside?

First it went white one day I turned it on, but it was still recognizing being charged as it made the beep sound when I plugged it to USB.
iTunes recognizes it, too, but it says I can't sync because the iPhone is pass code locked.
I opened the phone and checked all the connectors, especially #1, but they seem to be attached. I tried taking out the battery, too.
After running out of battery and the iPhone restarted, the screen was black while on, so I pressed the area where the #1 cable sits, and then it went white again.

By the way the power button doesn't work and I haven't changed the flex cable - does it have anything to do with the white screen?
Home button was working before the screen went white, but now I can't use it to wake iphone from sleep (into the white screen). Weird...

What methods can I try to hopefully fix this? Have to change LCD?
Even if I can't fix it, if I can just get my notepad data out of the iPhone, it'd still be great... Is there a way? I wish I hadn't put in a pass code...

Thank you for your advice!!!

Also wondering if turning off the iPhone and then turning back on is the same as resetting by pressing home and power buttons?
I read in different sources the first step would be to do the reset, but as I mentioned, my power button doesn't work, so I just let the battery run out till turning itself off and turned on by plugging USB cable... Is that still considered 'reset'?
Thanks!