Dell Inspiron boots to empty low-rez blue screen.

Every time my computer starts up it goes through the Dell loading screen before going blank for a little while. Then after a bit it will show the "windows is loading files" bar across the bottom and once it completes I get a split second look at the start of the microsoft logo/animation screen before it loads the default blue wave background with a low-rez cursor that I can move but not interact with. I can load the setup and boot options with F2 and F12 but they do not help and when I press F8 I get no result except an obnoxious beeping.