Did my Ipad completely die?? Black screen & apple logo only

I have an ipad 2. It was fine this morning. I came home and it was off, would not turn on, tried charging it, it won't charge. Tried resetting, restoring, etc. all it does is show the apple screen & go on & off. I can hear the connect & disconnect in iTunes. I got a message that says "the contents of my ipad cannot be read& to go to preferences and select restore"..... I can't go anywhere to do anything. I also got an error message when my computer booted up on my desktop that said app data/Local/Conduit/APISUPPORT could not be found.

CAN ANYONE HELP ME???? My Life is on this stinking ipad!!!! Why can't in get it to do Something?!? I should mention that it blanked out this way the other night but when I plugged in to iTunes it straightened out. ANd... My iTunes is up to date.

I tired to update ex ipad software that night but it stopped for some reason in the middle of it and I did not have time to reconnect. Has worked fine for the last few days since- until now.