Try and turn off your Splash screen in the bios, if Dell allows this. This will allow you to see the post and then you should be able to see where its freezing at. As for the CD problem, try and burn another copy of the ME CD on another computer and see if the freshly burned one works. Sometimes older CD-roms wont read scratched CDs as well as newer ones, so this could solve the problem with the CD not being read. Also if you have another CDRom you could try, that would be another way you can do it.
If none of this works you can try and download a Linux Live CD and see if you can do anyhting with it. That is if you are willing to try Linux. This CD doesnt install anything on your HDD, but still boots into a usable OS, initially a prompt but can go into a gui interface. The CD comes with troubleshooting software for many different OS's donno if ME is included tho. Best thing about it is that its free
just a simple 700mb dowload from
www.knoppix.org
Hope you get it to work