[Q] Stuck in recovery mode; no buttons working

I have a Google Galaxy Nexus and was using it last night (8/11)--it was a bit slow, as it has been for a few weeks, so I shut it down and hope restarting may help. When I started it back up, it was stuck on the "Google" word for about an hour and then I suppose lost power. I was not near a computer to plug it in.

When I got home, I plugged it into my pc to charge, then read online to hold down Power + Up + Down, which I did. I got to the Recover console with the "start" and little Android guy and the white arrows. However, no matter what I press (power, up, down) nothing happens. I cannot get past this screen. Also, my pc was trying to find drivers for it and couldn't. What should I do? And is there a way to preserve anything on the phone? I have not modified the phone in any way (rooted or whatnot).

Thank you for replying. If that is the case, how do I fix that?

And after it ran out of power, I charged it again and tried starting it normally and it started. So I have no idea what is going on. However Im now afraid to restart it in fear it will be stuck on the logo again. It still runs a bit slow.

So I guess I have 2 questions:

1) If I have to load it into recovery again and no buttons work, how do I fix that?
2) Since it did start again, but runs slow, what could be going on? Any tests I can run?

Thanks!