Dell Notebook The screen goes black and when it comes back up, it is still on what I was working on, but it goes black like it has a short in it.

It sound like your power settings are turning the screen off. Try the following:
Right click on a the desktop and select Properties and then Screensaver and then click on Power. You will see power settings that tell the computer whether or not to turn off different things at different times. You'll see "Turn off monitor" and a selection next to it. It probably says "after 20 minutes". Change the setting to whatever you want between 1 minute and 5 hours, or Never. Let me know how you did, please grade this.