Not Loading - Email - Browser Not Working

I went to check my email, and found that IE became unresponsive. Thinking that it was just IE 8 being itself, I proceeded to End Task, and tried to re-open the browser. For some reason, it didn't work. I then decided to re-start the computer to see if that would make a difference. When I did, I found that after logging in, the desktop background would show, but nothing else. I let it sit for more than an hour to see if it would respond, but to no avail.

Then, I decided to start the computer in safe mode. This seemed to work fine, and so I assumed that it was some sort of Trojan that was causing my computer to behave abnormally. So, I went online and installed AVG, as Symantec Antivirus did not work in safe mode. But, since Symantec needed to be uninstalled, the computer shut itself down, and restarted. Only this time, the computer simply did not load past the logo screen. Once that screen closed, I got a black screen, with a flashing cursor on the top left hand corner. It's been sitting there for about an hour, and there has been no change.