I hate Dell. Please help.

I have a Dell Inspiron 580 desktop with the Intel core i3 processor running Windows 7 64-bit os.

Recently, I have been experiencing some occasional problems. It does not happen all the time but sometimes when I go to open my programs (including but not limited to Outlook, Word, Excel, Firefox, etc.) they will not open. I double click and nothing happens. In addition, whenever this happens I will try to push control, alt, and delete and nothing happens when I do this either. Finally, I cannot shut down, restart, log off, sleep, switch users, or lock my computer using these start menu functions. However, when I turn off my computer manually using the power button on the tower and then restart windows normally, everything works fine again.

I tried calling Dell as my computer is less than one month old and they told me that it is a known virus issue with this computer. I'm not sure I fully understand/believe this because if it was a known issue, wouldn't Norton Antivirus detect it? I protect my computer with with antivirus and adware removal tools. I am very good about updating these programs and running scans every week or so. I don't understand how this could be a virus.

Anyway, Dell would not tell me the name of the virus and said that I would have to pay a couple hundred dollars to have their technicians remove it from my computer. I refuse to pay Dell this kind of money.

Could anyone tell me what virus I have (if Dell is right) and how I can remove it. I would greatly appreciate any help in this matter.

Thank you,
Justin O