Black screen, with mouse, on startup.

Wall o' text.

I received an XPS for Christmas (M1530) and it seemed to be working properly. I didn't have to use discs for gaming, because I usually use Steam. The first problem I noticed was when I first tried to install a mod, it gave me the error; [Cacophony of letters and numbers] The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable. I dismissed this as a minor irritance and let it go. Tried another. Same. Gave up. Two weeks later, I tried re-installing some games I had on my old computer. One wouldn't even show up, and the other would give me the Installer menu, I would press Install, and it would vanish, never to return. Until I went Start > My Computer > (Disc drive, D:, I think?), at which point it would not open the disc's files, just give me the install menu. Install. Gone. Right click > Open. Click on setup.exe. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable. Same results with a few other games. So I got a new game (on disc) the other day, and wanted to try it. Same results, including the ghost installer and error. Now, I think I had actually turned the computer off and on again maybe twice since I got it ( thanks to Vista's handy little hibernate thing), so I used the oldest trick in the computer book: Turning it off and on again. Turn off. Turn on. Dell loading screen. Windows loading screen. Grey screen? Windows failed to start (or something to that effect). So the windows repair thing comes up, and I select disc repair, thinking that's the issue (the new game is still in the DVD drive). Windows may or may not have fixed the issue, please restart. Restart. Windows cannot start. Please disconnect all headphones, speakers, ect. and restart. I didn't have any speakers or whatnot in, but I did have my wireless mouse and the computer's charger, if that had something to do with it. Turn it back on, Dell loading screen, Windows loading screen, black. Black with mouse. I can move my mouse, but nothing happens. Nothing. Keyboard still responds, but nothing happens.

It's still like this. I've left it that way for hours, at least twice. So now I have to turn it off by holding the power button, which gives me the Safe Mode options upon startup, and the ritual differs slightly depending on what method I choose. None of them start, though. I would include these little quirks, but I fear this is quite long enough as is. Regardless. Is there something I can do, or should I, like, send it to Dell?