Windows 7 not starting on Acer laptop

Hello,
I have recently bought an Acer Aspire 8530 running Windows Vista Home Premium with the upgrade offer for Windows 7, which I - of course - used. I received a 2 disc upgrade kit and ran it on the notebook all by the book, first the Acer upgrade disk, then the windows 7 disk - so far all fine, and finally as asked to again the Acer upgrade disc. But when doing the latter and it installed 3 more Acer applications and did the restart by its own, Windows wasn't starting anymore properly. I get the windows symbol with that flag, but no mouse, no taskbar or any icons, no possibility to go anywhere, not even to shut down the computer but brutally via on-off button. I tried to use the recovery DVDs I had burnt with the advised program during the upgrade, but the computer would not recognize them as valid recovery files (??????). So after several failed attempts to start Windows normally, I inserted the Windows 7 Installation disc again via safe mode and re-installed Windows 7. Real pain in the butt, all data gone, but at the same point, when inserting the Acer upgrade disk for the final Acer applications, it again didnt' start properly. I'm totally unnerved now, because I have to run AGAIN the installation disk, but will this time leave the acer upgrade disk out of the game completely. Or has anyone another Idea, how I can fix this without a full re-install, and how I can get back the acer features that came with the notebook like Empowering technology that starts with that e-key on the keyboard, or Acer Arcade? Any help appreciated after 3 days of struggling.