My iPhone keeps turning itself on and off?

I have an iPhone 4s, and I got it about a year ago for my birthday. Just today as I was on it, it shut itself off. I thought I accidently pressed something, so I let it be. I waited for it to turn back on and when it did, I was able to be on it only for a couple seconds before it shut off again. After it shut off it would come back on, but it would do the same thing over and over again. I even noticed when it went to shut off there would be a whole bunch of lines as well. It's been a couple hours later and now it doesn't even let me be on it for a couple seconds anymore. It just stays on a black screen with the apple sign until the lines come and it shuts off and repeats. The reason I'm resorting here for help is because I've tried to contact apple support but for my problem I need to enter a serial number which is in my phone and I'm not able to get on my phone. I even plugged it into my laptop in hopes of resetting it but I guess from it keeping on turning on and off it won't recognize it at all. I'm being told by people that it might have burned out, or I need a new battery but I'm not sure whatsoever. Could anyone help or give me an idea on what to do?

Boot loop failure is what it sounds like.
Put it in DFU mode. Best luck.