win 98SE return from standby

[progbass8]

i have an old laptop with windows 98SE installed and my computer automatically goes into standby when battery power gets too low. this happened today. now when i power back up it shows the taskmanager that was showing when it went into standby and seems to be locked up and will not respond to keyboard or moue input. I try powering it back off but it seems that it simply goes back into standby and the same thing happens when i power back up again. what can i do? i desperately need some data from this computer very soon! please help!!