Black screen with beep ... How to retrieve file?

[bbmiLo]

Bought it at very end of 2008 so I assume its the 1st gen?
It's been a acting up lately, screen would flick with distorted color and it would freeze, usually just hold the power button to shut it off and it would restart again.

Last night it would no longer restart, when power button is pressed the screen stays black and it emits a beeping sound, just one beep every 3+ seconds.

Upon doing some search online, it seems to be a ram problem.
If I'm not mistaken, the ram can not be replaced on this model, therefore there is no easy fix.
It's a 4 yrs old machine and served me well, I don't necessarily have to resurrect it and get more life out of it, but I do have some important file (not backed up) I need to retrieve.

So what's my best option in this case?
How much would it cost to get it fixed at apple store?
What other ways to retrieve file from HD without fixing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[calvol]

I would open it up and remove one stick of RAM and see if it boots, then the other stick, and see what happens. I assume this is probably DDR2 RAM, and if you have some from another source that's compatible, I would try that. If you get it to boot, then run a HW test, and go from there. Hopefully it's just bad memory.

 

[bbmiLo]

I would open it up and remove one stick of RAM and see if it boots, then the other stick, and see what happens. I assume this is probably DDR2 RAM, and if you have some from another source that's compatible, I would try that. If you get it to boot, then run a HW test, and go from there. Hopefully it's just bad memory.

I thought for this model the ram is part of the main board therefore it can't be pulled?